Our blogs are islands in a gigantic ocean called the blogosphere. Although the blogosphere, a very active component of the World Wide Web, enables linkages and communication between most of its constituent parts, true person to person communication is more limited. In this series of articles, I’m going to use the logic game Bridges (Hashiwokakero or Hashi) as a means to describe some of the challenges and opportunities that exist in communication between bloggers.
The game of Bridges assumes a simple grid in which a series of islands must be linked together. Each puzzle is designed in such a way that every island can be connected in one unbroken chain, but any single island can be directly connected to no more than four other islands. The key is to find the path that connects them all together.
The Web was designed so that any website can link to any other website, thus providing the ability to “jump” from one site to the next. Of course, you can type in any URL and your Web browser will display the web page in question. This only works, though, when you know what the URL is. Search engines provide a way to find the site that you want, but if there are 250,000 other sites about the same topic, there can be a lot of competition that can crowd your site out of the public view.
Clearly, there can be a great advantage to creating links, both physical and virtual, to other “islands” which can help you be discovered. At the same time, these links are helpful in helping you to find the places that you want to visit.
I think this image, of islands connected by bridges, is a helpful way to look at:
- your blog: is it lost in the ocean or is it a “must visit” destination
- how to get to the blog (or blogger) that you want to get to
This week, Broadcasting Brain will be applying the “Bridges” concept to examine these two topics.
EDIT: Sept. 4/08 - you might also find the discussion about hyperconnectivity and six degrees of separation to be helpful.
Table of contents for Your Blog Is Like An Island
- Your blog is like an island
- Getting People To Visit Your (Island) Blog
- Can I Speak To The Proprietor Of the (Island) Blog?
Interesting. The famous six degrees of seperation in the blogosphere. A. Barabasi couple of years ago found that in the web we are dealing with an average of 19 degrees of seperation. Not bad, I say.
The thing is some islands are as big as Australia and others as small as Bishop Rock.
Interesting. The six degrees of seperation theory in blogs. A.Barabasi found that in the web we are actually dealing with 19 degrees of seperation. Not bad, I say.
Anyway, some islands are as big as Australia, while others as small as bishop rock…
@robojiannis – Yes, that’s a good point to remind us of “six degrees”, it has a lot of relevance to what I am writing.
I have a headache now.
@Mimzie – me too, but probably not for the same reason.
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