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June 26, 2003

Meta-Tracking

Inspired by a recent Lisa Rein post, I'm trying to figure out how easy it is for a so-called C-List blogger to have a story picked up by a million people. This could have interesting ramifications. Suppose the FCC ruling doesn't go away, and two or three big networks end up owning all the airwaves in the US. We should be prepared to open up the interweb to maximize vocalization. This includes giving us wee little blogs the ability to have a story read by a massive number of people, without pressure or necessarily direct communication with a larger blog. Does this work in actuality inside the current structure/social layout of the blog world? Would it work at all, or would it open up the system to crackpots and bad data?

An experiment: Create a meta-news item whose sole purpose is to be tracked and carried from C-List bloggers to C-List bloggers. See if passive communication between C-listers can get the meta-news item read by 1 million people within a short amount of time (say, 48 hours). Even better, can the meta-news item be picked up by an A-lister with massive readership using only passive communication (that is, someone reading the item, then linking or quoting it in their blog only, not actively sending the information to anyone)?

Sound dumb? How long does it take an A-list blog to pick up a news item, especially when just one lone person is trying to communicate it? There may come a time when news needs to be disseminated more rapidly than they allow...

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