Slashdot Mirror
Mapping the Blogosphere
dominique_cimafranca writes "Discover Magazine has an interesting article on mapping the blogosphere, reporting on the work of Matthew Hurst. Hurst put together a 3D map of the blogosphere, with bright spots represent sites with the highest number of links and isolated islands represent closed communities like LiveJournal. The study also identifies other islands like sociopolitical commentary, gadget hounds, sports fans, and, um, porn blogs."
Interesting... I thought I went insane for a second when I clicked that link! Didn't look like the Earth to me. Guess I need to get my head in the computer more often.
Can we all agree that "blogosphere" is one of the worst buzzwords ever invented? Well ok, maybe 2nd worst. The top spot should definitely go to "Web 2.0"
Anonymous Coward: "This is slashdot. Accuracy is second class citizen here, unlike King Bias."
And where is Slashdot on the map, hmmmm?
Now that we have tactical info, we can nuke it from orbit...only way to be sure.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I'm going to try to pre-empt a whole bunch of comments here by saying that new technology and ways of thinking sometimes require new words. When that constitutes a buzzword, as opposed to a legitimate attempt to define something new, is sort of unclear. However, I'm staking out the position that the inter-relation and rapid spread of topics seen in blogs requires legitimate new terminology. Although I'm well aware that some people here still regard blog as buzzword, even though it's been almost entirely mainstreamed.
This looks like the fastest-obsoleted map in history. I give them twelve hours until every blog on earth green-links a certain article at Discover.
I can understand not providing the sphere as maybe a little java applet that would allow readers to zoom in and/or rotate the sphere to get a better perspective. That would require more than a little effort.
But cartographers have been managing to project a two dimensional representation of a sphereical object for hundreds of years. Too bad they couldn't use some of that "map" technology to make the image more useful.
Sometimes things are not what they seem, they negate and transcend reality to become something greater.
you mean that look like Acne and Boils on the face of the Internet ?
(Formerly known as Planet Dumbname)
http://www.cheswick.com/ches/map/gallery/index.htm l/
Overlay (embed?) the Blogosphere map on an updated Internet map!
Maybe a "You are here" icon?
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
There are other things that are worse. Straight from Dr Dobbs Journal I bring you this headline:
"C++ STL Hash Containers and Performance" and if that is not good enough, the subtitle is: "Hash containers are powerful tools to add to your performance toolbox"
Even though I think blogosphere is a suck-ass buzzword which should be named after its past incarnation, "speaker's corner" I have to admit that there are worse word usage in the tech world.
Perhaps we might exchange blogosphere for "Internet whispers" in recognition of what the game "Chinese whispers" gave the world.
Fast on the heels of blogosphere is OpEd. Why don't we just call them Opinionated Editor's rants? Because people would simply shorten that to a soundbite of opedra?
People need catchy soundbites because it makes them feel informed when they use them, and not using them takes too many words.... Now we have a map woot! That helps. NOT
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
oopsies
I also noticed that the title was "welcome to the blogosphere", which reminded me of the Guns n Roses song "welcome to the jungle"
"Welcome to the blogosphere we've got your disease..."
I think we should have a contest to see what other G'n'R songs can be remade to be about the intertubes.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
> Now we have a map woot! That helps. NOT
Yes, we're going to call it the bloherap.
I wonder where these numbers are coming from? I spend a lot of time on Livejournal, including some journals getting several hundred + hits a day as a matter of course. It's no 500,000 hits per day, but it's not as insignificant as that map shows. They're also linking out to unrelated blogs all the time, just like non-LJ blogs.
There need to be more blogs by 20 something upper-middle class female professionals struggling to manage their love life and shoe collection while making their mark on the world in the big city!
"A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order." -- Wikipedia
It is not a description of the content (think "wiki", "forum", "guestbook", etc...), so they can be used for a number of purposes. I myself have two web logs- one for communicating with my family and friends (since I live across an ocean from them), and another for a university class. I bet you could give two shits and a fuck about both of them, but they serve their purposes very well.
I share your disgust with the amount of uniformed nonsense being spouted and passed as jounalism, and it's horrible to think that they can influence on the weak minded, but there are some real gems out there with brilliant writing and observations (Matt Good is one of my favorites- probably not yours), insane technical knowledge about your OS/programming language/car of choice, or just some nice pictures. In short, you have to take in the good (RSS is nice for this) and not visit the bad- just like you would do with newspapers, magazines, television shows, types of cheese, people, countries, etc...
Bomb The Blogosphere! http://www.questionablecontent.net/
This sig is false.
Amen brother. The word blogosphere is a stain on the underpants of humanity.
Following the links reveals that the software is based on a paper by King and Lu (2007), How to Classify Deaths without Physicians, which shows how to get "estimates considerably better than the existing approaches which included expensive and unreliable physician reviews, where three physicians spend 20 minutes with the answers to the symptom questions from each deceased to decide on the cause of death."
Question: This interview will only take a few minutes. Then you can go to your eternal rest. When did you start feeling stiff?
Deceased:
Question: What was your last meal?
Deceased:
Question: Sir, you're not being very cooperative. We do care. This information will help us make your experience more enjoyable. When did you first notice that you were unable to move?
If the 3-d model doesn't have a chain, a bowl and an s-bend then it's obviously wrong.
Like you, Slashdot.
getting lost in the brightest light in blob number four, Michelle Malkin. I had never heard of her before. It was a good laugh for a while, but mostly sickening. Does this mean tons of people are reading crap from the likes of her? If so that's really depressing.
Only idiots interested in this article would read it, and those idiots deserve to die for using such terms as 'blogosphere'
That would be because blogosphere is a part of the socialsphere. While no one goes to an E-commerce site to be social. Guess which two are more important to a social species?
is there really such a thing as blogosphere? is it even a valid idea? why not call it the "webosphere"? heck, why not the "web" ? DUH!?? i have other words.. buzzword industry that feeds "crappy journalism".
Now here's one iPoddy site! iPod Range