] When they plotted the links and topics shared by various
] sites, they discovered that topics would often appear on
] a few relatively unknown blogs days before they appeared
] on more popular sites.
]
] "What we're finding is that the important people on the
] Web are not necessarily the people with the most explicit
] links (back to their sites), but the people who cause
] epidemics in blog networks," said researcher Eytan Adar.
]
] These infectious people can be hard to find because they
] do not always receive attribution for being the first to
] point to an interesting idea or news item.

Different people are good at different things. Not everyone who has good ideas wants direct attention. This is one of the many elements of group think that systems like MemeStreams can be used to tap into.

There are ways present to drastically increase intellectual production capability by using Information Technology to route and filter information between individuals.

Its not nearly as simple as some people being particularly good filters or explorers. Without context, its all crap.

HP tracking the spread of memes through the blogosphere

Decius wrote:
] ] And thus was born the Google Bomb.
]
] Explanation for recent funny google searches like "miserable
] failure." The "angry mob" threat model continues to find new
] applications.

MemeStreams is a mini Google bomb for the people. Take your MemeStream title for instance.. Because if the way our pages interlink, if you are one of the people on this system who has used it actively for a long time and is highly recommended (yes, it matters, alot), you can pretty much pick your Google key words.. Just don't shoot for the moon. There is only so much one site can do, hence why the Bush "miserable failure" thing required a bunch of bloggers posting in concert to pull off.

[ Glances over at http://www.memestreams.net/people/ ]

Assume the stuff in ""'s is a Google Search.. And keep in mind, the results may have changed.. In general, everything I put in ""'s was a first result returned, or otherwise noted. Here we go:

Elonka has her "Subcultures R Us", lets hope the nation of 'R Us' dosen't mind.. :)

Google is so in tune with Jeremy I can ask it "What questions are you asking about Raymond?", and its going to pick up on the fact he has been preoccupied with some humorous who loves raymond meme.. Yes, I know in order for that to make sense it should be "What questions are they asking you about Raymond?".. But the first hit for that is ESR telling me the right way to ask a question. Ironic. All this confusion about questions being asked and who is asking them. It seems like such a small Internet sometimes.

flynn23 could ask Google some questions he already knows the answer to like "If I had a weblog, what would I call it?"

With the right set of words, you do not need to be around long to get some action out of Google. "Gremlin Garbage", "Leprechauns and Star Tattoos" can be found in Google land..

Jessica the "Paranoid Defense Worker" isn't showing up yet, because she just changed her MemeStream title. The reason why is ironically connected. The previous one was showing up for "General Dynamics web site access policy".

"Get back to work" is shooting for the moon in this economy.. Almost 100k results to rank. However if you use Laughing Boy's complete title and ask "get back to work slacker", it shoots to the top..

How is this for weird? crankymessiah was either "resurrected on the wrong side of the bed" or Google has a built in sense of humor, because for some reason that query is bringing up the RSS feed..

"Nanochick" dosen't need shit. She dosen't need a title. She is "Nanockick". Look at her, kicking that memestreams.net email address. Aww yea.

Who "Deletes spam"? Who "Sips the tea substitute" and "watches the grey light become more like day"?? Cayce the Coolhunter in William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition? No! More irony. As far as Google is concerned.. Its Decius.

And me? I'm the one researching all this.. Whenever I'm at Google, and I want to search for something I know I've meme'd before, I don't use "site:...", I just go "sudo bash" and use MemeStreams. Heh.. Solaris/Linux people will find that amusing. OSX people will think I'm talking shit on Google. Everyone else can just know there is a joke they are not in on. :)

RE: Google Time Bomb - Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine? - Microcontent News, a Corante.com Microblog

] Journalism traditionally assumes that democracy is what we
] have, information is what we seek. Whereas in the weblog
] world, information is what we have - it's all
] around us - and democracy is what we seek.

PressThink: What's Radical About the Weblog Form in Journalism?

] BlogPulse Key Phrases, Key People, BlogBites, and Top
] Links are mined daily from new entries in over 80,000
] weblogs using machine learning algorithms and natural
] language processing techniques. BlogPulse mines for
] bursty phrases and person names instead of for the most
] popular ones. The most popular phrases and names change
] very slowly over time. The burstiest phrases and names
] are those whose frequency of occurrence has increased
] significantly over the past two weeks, often
] dramatically.

] BlogPulse is powered by technology from the Intelliseek
] Applied Research Center.

BlogPulse [BETA]: Automated Trend Discovery for Weblogs

] The blog is reopen for business. It has been seven
] months since this site went silent. Time for everyone to
] get back to work. To all of you who have made this place
] so interesting with your informed and intelligent
] discussions, I thank you. For all who have been so kind
] as to inquire about my welfare - I also thank you and
] apologize for not being able to respond. When CNN
] politely (I mean this sincerely) asked me to stop
] blogging I felt it was my obligation to do so immediately
] and completely. CNN was signing my checks at the time
] and sent me to Iraq. Although I felt the blog was a
] separate and independent journalistic enterprise, they
] did not. Period. We move on.

He is in Iraq with MSNBC now. His weblog is not affiliated with them, and he is giving them right of first refusal on what he writes while he is there. It seems like a very reasonable arrangement that should work out well for both Sites and MSNBC. Its too bad CNN didn't allow him to do something like this the first time around.

Kevin Sites Blog is back

List of English bloggers in Iran

E:M | Almost the most complete list

] Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me
] to suggest that I track down "Salam Pax." I had no idea
] who or what they were talking about. I could have handed
] over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my
] interpreter—he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never
] failed to provide what I needed, whether it was
] interviews or pizza—but I let it pass. I thought I had
] better things to do.

... and it turns out that Iraqi interpreter was Salam Pax.

Salam Pax Is Real - How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. By Peter Maass

] The story of the Internet and the mullahs is a
] fascinating study in how technology can subvert even the
] most repressive of regimes. In the past couple of years,
] Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on the
] country's reformist press, closing newspapers and
] arresting journalists. But it will be harder for the
] mullahs to close down the Web. Sina Montallebi has become
] a powerful symbol of the liberal and technology-savvy
] generation that the mullahs have failed to suppress.

] Can you have social, cultural and economic liberalization
] without political freedom? Iran will be one of the test
] cases. And even though the regime is cracking down on the
] Net, the young Webloggers believe they can't crack down
] forever. "For sure it won't last too long," IranianGirl
] wrote recently. "Their time is over."

The Globe and Mail | The story of the Internet and the frustrated mullahs

Having demonstrated the formation of micro-communities over time, we then turn to the ongoing activity within active communities. We extend recent work of Kleinberg to discover dense periods of "bursty" intra-community link creation.

This paper by Prabhakar Raghavan of Verity was presented this week at the International WWW conference.

Free ACM registration required for download.

On the Bursty Evolution of Blogspace

] Google is to create a search tool specifically for
] weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the
] self-publishing tools its own tab.

] "They didn't foresee a tightly-bound body of wirers,"
] reckons Stock. "They presumed that technicians at USC
] would link to the best papers from MIT, to the best
] local sites from a land trust or a river study - rather
] than a clique, a small group of people writing about
] each other constantly. They obviously bump the rankings
] system in a way for which it wasn't prepared."

] "Suppose turtle-rescue.org has authoritative
] information about turtles. And it changes every month.
] Then BoingBoing puts up a page about turtles and that
] becomes a big deal.

] "Each of us gets vote," jokes Stock. "And someone votes
] every day and I vote once every four years."

] "The blogs push up very quickly up to the top of the
] search results."

The Register | Google to fix blog noise problem