As we all know, there is a right side to the blogosphere. There is a left side of the blogosphere. Yesterday I was wondering: ‘Is there a top of the blogosphere? And if not, should there be?
This led me to think in three dimensions. A sphere, after all, is three-dimensional. Someone, somewhere, decided that one of those dimensions, let’s call it the x-axis, is political, maybe cultural. What about the y-axis? I am going to propose, in the hope that someone might argue otherwise, that it be roughly defined as Jungian Thought vs. Feeling. However, from a blog topic point of view, it could be more of a spectrum from pure science to fine art.
What is the z axis, then? I will propose that it is sophistication. In other words, blogs range from those characterized by sophomore, populist rantings to those that are a compendium of very carefully crafted, scholarly, and multifaceted articles. In other words, the blogosphere has a top and a bottom.
This would suggest the possibility of an analytical blogology. A blog could be placed in a three-dimensional conceptual space. The flow of thoughts and ideas could be traced, as well as links and nodes, etc. After having organized a large random sample of blogs, a blog analysis could begin. In other words, I doubt that the blogosphere is really spherical, and furthermore, I don’t think blogodensity is uniform. Well, all of that is, for the most part, a different topic.
This entry is about the top or most sophisticated part of the blogosphere. It exists, although I suspect the density of blogs is low. Certainly Half Sigma, GeneExpression, etc. they are very sophisticated. However, and this is my point, the left and right sides of the blogosphere are very organized. If it’s on the right, you can go to Townhall.com. If it’s on the left, you can go to DailyKos.com or Huffingtonpost.com. There you will find the main bloggers who agree with your socio-political vision of the world. If you turn on Fox News, you will see right-wing bloggers proclaiming and proselytizing with wide mention on their blogs. If you turn on MSNBC, you’ll get the same thing, but from the left side. Rush Limbaugh, Ed Schultz, Sean Hannity and others use bloggers to create audio content that directs the listener to print content. Additionally, Limbaugh, Schultz, Hannity and others have gotten into the blogging business with their 24/7 websites and content.
However, if you want to be a top dweller in the blogosphere, there are no such places. Well, there is scienceblogs.com, but it’s actually for the y-axis, not the z-axis, let’s face it, have you heard of it? Perhaps if they got more involved in cooperative advertising they would be more significant. Or, as I’m sure will be the case, when there is a sciencetv.com delivering original programming to all science enthusiasts around the world, the necessary recursive synergies will begin to unfold.
Just as there are nodes for the left and right side of the blogosphere, there will also be nodes for the top side of the blogosphere. In other words, we are not trying here to isolate the liberal or the conservative, the theist or the atheist, the scientist or the artist. It will isolate those who are refined and learned from anywhere on the x or y axis. In other words, it will be your polished and learned global community, not a cause or interest group. Of course, our long-term goal will be to provide audio and video content, moving towards cellular and broadband radio and television. Then our experts, bloggers and conversation starters can present their thoughts in multimedia form, just like the left and right side of the blogosphere.
One of the purposes of this topic, beyond putting more meat on Polymathica’s bones, is to start a discussion about loci at the top of the blogosphere. So if you know of any blogs at the top of the blogosphere, go to the Polymathica Facebook group and post them. It may not be much at the moment, but at least we will be taking a step towards creating a node for the learned and refined individual.