It seems that we haven't follower the trend (I often think I should
read Bruce more carefully) and we've recently thrown in at WCSS (2010)
a paper with the forbidden name into it:
Diffusion of culture and the “PageRank effect”
Stefano Picascia, Mario Paolucci
LABSS-ISTC-CNR
Abstract. We present the Meme-to-Web model - an abstract agent- based
model of cultural production and access, aimed at reproducing the
dynamics of peer-based content production and retrieval. Agents gener-
ate and link cultural artifacts drawing on knowledge both existing and
acquired during previous explorations, loosely mimicking the behavior
of web surfers. We test three content access strategies: random walk-
ing, content searching with information overload, and a mix of the
two. Results show a clear leveling effect of PageRank searches on the
distri- bution of visits to artifacts, an effect also documented in
related studies. At the same time the mediation performed by the
PageRank in the ac- cess phase also affects content production and
generates very different network shapes that share certain properties
with real world web and blog networks.
I quote from where we introduce the meme reference:
"n the MtW model a substantial share of the population produces
cultural goods ("artifacts") which are made available to the whole
population at no charge. An artifact can be thought of as a song, a
blog post, a piece of video, a photograph: any reproducible aggregated
item of knowledge, such as those produced or transmitted via a
computer on the Internet. In our abstract implementation each artifact
is no more than a set of memes, that are - in a neglected, but still
useful metaphor [5] - basic items of knowledge existing in the form of
atomic signs contained in agent’s minds and embedded in cultural arti-
facts1. :"
--
Mario Paolucci
LABSS-ISTC-CNR - http://bit.ly/mariopaolucci
http://ssrn.com/author=1337151
Via Palestro, 32
00185 Roma
----------------
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
