Beyond serving as online diaries, weblogs have evolved into a complex, interconnected social structure through which ideas flow. Such a structure is ideal for the study of memes and the propagation of information. In this paper we describe general meme categories and create a tool to infer and visualize the paths that specific memetic infections take through the network. This inference is based in part on a novel utilization of data describing historical, repeating patterns of infection. We conclude with a description of a new ranking algorithm, iRank, for blogs. In contrast to traditional ranking strategies, iRank can act on the implicit link structure and dynamic information to find those blogs that lead in the production of new memes. >from *Implicit Structure and the Dynamics of Blogspace by Eytan Adar, Li Zhang, Lada A. Adamic, and Rajan M. Lukose from HP Information Dynamics Lab. 2004. See too Tracking Information Epidemics in Blogspace by Eytan Adar, and Lada A. Adamic.

Blog Epidemic Analyzer is a demonstration website for this research on information dynamics in blogspace. What they are trying to do is let users track how information propagates through networks. Specifically they are looking at how web based memes (for lack of a better term) get passed on from one user to another in blog networks. For their purpose memes are basically URLs. They are using crawls from Blogpulse, Automated Trend Discovery for Weblogs, powered by technology from the Intelliseek Applied Research Center.

There has been a lot of discussion over the fairness of blogs, powerlaws, and A-list bloggers. The reality is that some blogs get all the attention. This means that with ranking algorithms like Technorati's and Google's Page Rank highly linked blogs end up at the top of search pages. Sometimes (maybe frequently) this is what you want. However, it is also possible that you don't want the most connected blog. Rather you would like to find the blog that discovers new information first. By inferring the flow of information they build an alternative graph that adds previously invisible edges and re-ranks websites. They call this algorithm iRank.

related context
> workshop on the weblogging ecosystem: aggregation, analysis and dynamics. a forum for presentation and discussion of research into the dynamics, sociology, and mining of the blogsphere. 13th world wide web conference, may 17-22, 2004.
> enhancing PageRank algorithm: topic-sensitive page rankings feasible. may 21, 2003
> word burstiness: scanning online trends. march 7, 2003
> semantic web, the second-generation web?. june 19, 2002
> weblog, a new flow of information. may 15, 2002

imago
> language is a virus: program empty body

In Spain, thousands gathered in the streets demanding answers from their government about deadly terrorist attacks in Madrid. Bloggers in Spain tell BoingBoing the gatherings were decentralized "flash mobs", organized primarily by short text messages sent via Internet-capable mobile devices, and online in chatrooms and weblog forums. From "Flashmobs with a purpose: Protests in Madrid organized by SMS, chatrooms" by Xeni Jardin. March 13, 2004
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/03/13/flashmobs_with_a_pur.html

Una convocatoria insólita, realizada a través de SMS (probablemente, la primera manifestación de la historia convocada en tan pocas horas y exclusivamente mediante mensajería móvil), llamaba a concentrarse, en silencio y sin partidos, hoy a las seis frente a la sede del PP en Madrid. Y así ha sido, excepto en lo tocante al silencio: miles de personas han prendido allí la chispa que podría incendiar la pradera de que hablábamos hoy mismo. Su gesto se replica ahora por todas las ciudades de España, exigiendo "verdad y democracia", recordando que "nosotros dijimos no a la guerra" y retomando íntegro el espíritu del 15 de febrero que muchos daban por muerto: hemos vuelto a cantar entre miles de personas "que no nos representan" y "lo llaman democracia y no lo es". From "Miles de ciudadanos se manifiestan contra las mentiras del Gobierno" by Colectivo Editorial de Indymedia Madrid. March 13, 2004 http://acp.sindominio.net/

In Barcelona, mobilisation emerged from 'assemblea d'urgència de persones i entitats dels moviments socials'. See "els morts són nostres; les guerres, seues" http://barcelona.indymedia.org/feature/display/171/index.php#quepassa

another world is happening: network-based movements
http://www.straddle3.net/context/03/en/2003_03_03.html

uuuuh... back to the memes... would you acknowledge certain similarity to the fact that language is a large but finite set of concepts poorly translated into sentences? Being so, the capability of speech and argument is (more than perceived)limited and (extremely) redundant...

...and what tilted me in todays log, is the fact of passing/transmitting not just data, but a way of presenting data, a communication pack, the tools to decipher information exchange... nice.

Cartografía de las acciones en la red/en la calle del 13/14M en Madrid. Cartografiando la "lucha social en la red" / smart mobs de la jornada que dio la vuelta a las elecciones...
http://madiaq.indymedia.org/uploads/0313map_mad_web02.jpg

The Philippines is where opponents of Arroyo's predecessor, former movie star Joseph Estrada , famously used the short message service (SMS) of mobile phones to help organize a "People Power" revolt that drove him from the president's office... Arroyo, who rose from vice president in the January 2001 uprising, now faces voters for the first time as leader... Send a message to campaign members who have been instructed to forward it to friends and supporters. Within hours, thousands of mobile phones are bleeping. In Internet parlance, it is "viral marketing." Mobile users often get messages from numbers they don't recognize, suggesting they are spread by people or computers sending them at random.
From "Text Messages Shape Politics in Philippines." March 22, 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20040322/tc_nm/philippines_election_sms_dc