From Wired
It's the idea that just won't die: A scientific experiment to track the viral spread of a "meme" -- a contagious quanta of thought -- has become so popular that it's creator has had trouble tracking it.
The experiment being conducted by comparative literature graduate student Scott Eric Kaufman was intended to measure how quickly a simple idea would jump between blogs covering different academic disciplines.
The post languished on his site for a few hours and then got picked up by a colleague's blog. After that, the meme took flight in a way that surprised the literature student: Almost 50 blogs, including a number of science forums, linked back to the post in less than three days. "I didn't realize this many people would be interested," said Kaufman, "which is itself of interest."
(photo credit: zachstern at flickr )
technorati tags:blogs, memes, blogosphere, connectionism
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