tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22475853.post116482357627765249..comments2014-08-23T17:06:51.901-07:00Comments on just another blog: Why I am knot participatingDorothy Nevillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108759281089768738noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22475853.post-1165012772841297152006-12-01T14:39:00.000-08:002006-12-01T14:39:00.000-08:00I think the aspect of memes that he was studying w...I think the aspect of memes that he was studying wasn't why they spread, but the spreading itself. <BR/><BR/>Like those researchers who dropped bucketsful of red dust all over the city, to study where the air currents would deposit the dust, thereby gaining some sort of information about how an airborne disease would be spread, in case of biological attack. In other words, totally artificial, but with interesting results nevertheless.<BR/><BR/>My hope would be that some clever person could map out all the Technorati pings, and create a networked map of the meme's spread. Or failing that, that the project proved high-profile enough that some clever person would think to inject a fake meme into the blogosphere in order to follow its spread.<BR/><BR/>Or I may have just totally misread/misunderstood his original post. I have to confess, I too had not heard of his earlier meme-ish experiences. And the whole thing struck me as sort of fishy, in a "Hey, I know how I can get famous!" sort of way. But it struck me at a weak moment, so I posted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22475853.post-1164832426627400602006-11-29T12:33:00.000-08:002006-11-29T12:33:00.000-08:00Melinda, actually I found it on your blog; was sur...Melinda, actually I found it on your blog; was surprised to see you list Norma as the source. So I went to her blog skimmed her post over and over to try to see where she mentioned it. Because of my disdain for following links with generic information-free tags, I would not have followed hers myself.<BR/><BR/>Yup, he is measuring the spread of these blog-prompt sorts of things, spread consciously. But this is more like meta-blog-prompt so will not spread the same way. <BR/><BR/>My guess is the folks at technorati have lots of better data from which they draw lots more interesting conclusions. I am not sure if Richard Dawkins is stamping his foot or laughing with glee about how his neologism has evolved (the evolution of the memes themselves being an important characteristic of them). <BR/><BR/>post-modern, or an important part of the study? after all, data on dead-ends is just as important as data on the spread of infections. However, for this to be a real dead-end, he can't find it. But, as you say, since I did talk about it, is this really a dead end?Dorothy Nevillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17108759281089768738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22475853.post-1164827728099450462006-11-29T11:15:00.000-08:002006-11-29T11:15:00.000-08:00I am participating, partly out of kindred spirit f...I am participating, partly out of kindred spirit for an English grad student. I ran across the project the same place you did, and saw the irony. And, yes, this isn't going to model what happens with "real" memes because of the begging aspect.<BR/><BR/>But...it seems to me that it will track how interest in a project spreads across the blogosphere. People choose the projects they participate in based on personal interest, where they read about it, and - who knows - maybe their lack of anything else to say. So what he's really going to be mesauring here is how fast bloggers will post to participate in his project. It's not fundamentally different from the decisions people make about whether to post "100 things about me" or "hit shuffle on your iPod" or any of those things.<BR/><BR/>And, I would say that you're meta-participating :) How postmodern of you.Melindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05253277151188116050noreply@blogger.com