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del.icio.us/toph

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Here is a commentary on how some blogs get all the traffic according to power law distribution. Reed's Law is dredged up from history, and is now directly applicable to blogs. It says in group-forming netwrks (GFNs), the value of the network increases by previously defined aN (number of nodes receiving broadcast content such as news or on-line newspaper classifieds), + bN² (number of nodes capable of interconnecting peer to peer such as email) + c2^N (join, create groups such as eBay, chat rooms). Instead of the all-important A-list getting all the attention, and forget the rest, the generally unlinked, uncommented blogs add tremendously to network value based on any readership beyond the author, who alone counts as +1 (and who usually can get someone to read at least one post, which counts as more), and keeps the curve in positive territory for the life of the blog or cache. The point this article makes is that any blog is important to the total value of the network. It may be true that big blogs get big traffic, but from the point of view of any two bloggers, what's of surpassing value is the tendency of the curve to look like 2^M+N = 2^M * 2^N.

Example. Experience of Toph, a user in vast photoSIG community is at first, not many points, even negative points, and not many people looking at posted pictures, good or bad. Recently, a hundred points for just one picture, good or not so good, due to large network of other photographers visiting Toph's portfolio as a result of Toph visiting all of their sites and awarding points and writing comments. This experience is often much surpassed by others in the informal group visible to Toph. Something beyond hit count is at work here.

posted by TT 3:51 PM