The Milgram obedience experiments and the Stanford prison experiment remain among the most controversial experiments in social psychology. Much of this controversy is due to the brutal results of the Stanford experiment and the equally unnerving results of the Milgram experiments; and to the unethical behavior of the psychologists in charge. In the larger context of Western society, the results of both studies share surprising similarities. Their unethical nature merely serves to reinforce the insights they offer into the social norms of Western culture. From shocking a man with a heart condition to locking up a prisoner for hours as punishment, these studies show the perils of duality when misdirected to conform to Western cultural norms. [kuro5hin.org]
I haven't read it but the k5 community usually votes intelligently on articles such as this.
Phillip provides a link to an interesting article about the self-organization of the Web (pdf) by Gary William Flake and others. [...] It would be interesting to use the mathematical process in Flakes' article in combination with the network topologies described by Valdis Krebs in his document on the social life of routers (pdf).
Matt Pope also describes feeling and thoughts about blogging alone.
Yep. Not a problem for those who have already amassed a loyal following (e.g. Jon Udell, Dave Winer). But for the rest of us the challenge is to write something that some audience (no matter how big or small) enjoys, while at the same time remaining true to ideas and a style that are wholly personal and unique. Some folks crave a large audience, others don't care. I think I'm in the latter camp; at the very least I can say conclusively that I never write, or don't write, something based upon who may or may not read it. Further, I've found it a waste of time to speculate about what sort of response(s) (if any) a post may get... there's simply no predicting what people will pick up on; I like that aspect of blogging.
For my part I'm following Rob Malda's philosophy and creating a unique blend I can't seem to find anywhere else. I'm more interested in attracting a small number of intensely interested visitors that I can converse with.
Human endeavor is caught in an eternal tension between the effectiveness of small groups acting independently and the need to mesh with the wider community. A small group can innovate rapidly and efficiently, but this produces a subculture whose concepts are not understood by others. Coordinating actions across a large group, however, is painfully slow and takes an enormous amount of communication. The world works across the spectrum between these extremes, with a tendency to start small—from the personal idea—and move toward a wider understanding over time. ["The Semantic Web", Scientific American]
