Friendster (and by Implication, Orkut) is a Gateway Drug to Blogging, Which According to Wired May Lead to Massive Borrowing Without Attribution

Blogging Off, Your blog's great -- nice dirt on Graydon Carter -- but can it buy me a beer? by Whitney Pastorek in the Village Voice (link from JD), a non-blogger, surrounded by addicted bloggers.

Now, once you've taken the drug, Amit Asaravala in Wired proclaims Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious, talking about how memes spread across blogs and:

The most-read webloggers aren't necessarily the ones with the most original ideas, say researchers at Hewlett-Packard Labs. Using newly developed techniques for graphing the flow of information between blogs, the researchers have discovered that authors of popular blog sites regularly borrow topics from lesser-known bloggers -- and they often do so without attribution.

I would say that good blogging etiquette is to link to the blog who pointed you to the link, however, sometimes, with many windows open, this reference gets disconnected from that referred, so credit is not given. However, passing on exact text without attribution? While that's the definition of digital media, it's also disingenuous, and tacky.

BTW, Parker Thompson mentioned the wired article today in person this morning.

In addition, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has published a case study (pdf) entitled "Big Media" Meets the "Bloggers" Coverage of Trent Lott's Remarks at Strom Thurmand's Birthday Party (link via Rob at Smartmobs).

Posted by Mary Hodder at March 5, 2004 11:32 AM | TrackBack