Mathemagenic

Stephanie with reflections on our work on weblog communities:

Before I saw blog network structures like a an orange…an inner tightly structured core with a thick outer peel that could be easily penetrated. There was a hard core in the middle and a periphery network with fuzzy boundaries. I now look at blogs more like a rose with several layers of cores, each with a fuzzy boundary that is easily penetrated through topic. If you open up the flower, you notice the little microcosm of life moving fluidly between the petals. These little microcosms (we have called mini-clusters) often represent a common meme or hot topic spreading around the blogoshpere. It is here that new members can enter into a core layer. Each core is made up of a group of bloggers that share a strong (usually thematically related) tie. These mini-clusters often share common interests, but not to the extent of core membership. It is only when the same topic is discussed that they share communication with the core group. If a mini-cluster member stays on-topic long enough, he or she can obtain core membership.

here is a view of our network which is not in the paper (which will be blogged about soon)

Funny: the most beautiful image is not in the paper :)

May be I should give up and stop trying to polish the paper "just a bit more" and release it as it is now, otherwise both of us will keep teasing our readers talking about "the paper" :))

And, once I'm talking about beautiful things - BicycleMark's poetic account of his weblog neighbourhood...

As a result of conversations with other blog researchers (both online and offline), reflecting on feedback from anonymous paper reviewers and some Sunday morning thinking, I'm trying to write down an overview of weblog research challenges.

It's going to be a part of an academic paper, but I'd like to publish it in pieces to get feedback and keep myself motivated by nice feeling of hitting the "post" button once a piece is finished.

Preliminary structure (will add links here once posts are published):

• Moving target
• Uneven structure of the blogosphere
• "Teasing" data
• Culture-specific artefacts
• Degree of participation
• Ethics

This post also appears on channel weblog research

Andy Boyd:

Isn't it great how explaining yourself outloud to others, allows you to self reflect better then mulling it over in your own mind.

Me:

I always need a conversation for growing my ideas. This is the main reason I blog. Even if no one comments, blogging makes it a conversation: I come to the idea next day and I can discuss it with "yesterday's Lilia" :) Of course, articulation helps growing ideas as well.