A brief thought I had this morning about Memestreams representation of the Meme, which was sparked while reading the current discussion postings regarding the year summary of memestream data and its future: In Memestreams, each link is considered a seperate Meme, despite the fact that two links may be involved in the same concept or idea. For example, the recent tsunami disaster has generated a wealth of links for donations sites, news updates, weather data, etc. It would seem that many of these links are part of a larger Meme, a greater idea. Despite this, the memes, that is, the individual links, as represented by Memestreams, remain separated, independent of one another. It may be interesting to consider the potential for abstracting the representation of the meme such that the greater Memes have a chance to propogate. For example, and here, really, is what I was originally thinking, if Memestreams allowed multiple links per post, that is, more closely related to a traditional blog post, which may have several reference links either within or aside from the text or content, then perhaps all links there could be treated in the same bigger Meme as well as a smaller meme. That is, the links could be recommended invididually, as in the current system, but their relationship is recorded and the Meme as a whole could also be tracked, propogated, and recommended. This approach would have several advantages and drawbacks, which are probably not immediately apparent, though I think further thought and analysis would be warrented, if for naught but mere curiosity. As for one advantage, it would give flexibility to more flexibly create and inject these meme encapsulations, a representation within Memestreams, into the pool. Currently, Memestreams encapsulation method lends itself to news articles and other timely information very well, but as for creating one's own, for lack of a better term, 'thought capsules', that is, more closely related to an 'idea' rather than an 'event'. I think I'd like to elaborate, but that requires a bit of time -- something I currently lack. |
