Inequality in the Weblog World

Clay Shirky joined the Berkman Center for a discussion on powerlaws and weblogs. As the size of the blogosphere increases, theorizes Shirky, so will the disparity between the most linked-to and least linked-to weblog. Weblogs make up a large, unrestrained system with preferential connectivity; we are accustomed to thinking of media in terms of its restraints. Unconstrained communities, he says, suffer more than restrained ones - no constraints does not equal no negatives, just different negatives. Having worked with numbers regarding incoming links and site traffic, Shirky plans to take it to the next level in several different ways - measuring the traffic of the referring sites, for example, or perhaps more qualitative data.