The tipping point

This post is inspired by two things: (1) the incredibly diverse comments I received on this post a few days ago, and (2) a book I am reading right now called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. This link goes to the Wikipedia description of the book and the author's main premises, so you can make a decision about whether you want to read it. It's pretty interesting, if you like to think about these things.

In the post about "Followers and Comments," I noticed one very important trend in the comments, and that is we really don't know what any of us expected when we started blogging, and we don't really know what the "rules" are. That's because there really aren't any, and some people who "tag" others or present another blog with an award, with instructions, are also not sure what's expected. I know the first award I received asked me to tell 7 things about myself that are not well known and tag 7 other blogs with the award.

Well, this was way tough and time-consuming, but I did it because I thought maybe I would be thrown out of the blogosphere if I didn't. A little easier to handle type of tagging you might receive is to find a picture in a particular folder either in Picasa (if you're a blogspot blogger) or in your photo albums and post it, telling a little about the picture. I think all these memes and tags come from other bloggers casting about for interesting topics, or wanting to know more about their followers. I'm actually not quite sure.

The book is fascinating, when you think of our blogosphere and contemplate its power. The book introduces a concept of how things are passed along from person to person, like viruses, fads, and fashions. People are categorized as being Connectors, Mavens, or Salesmen.

From Chap. 2,  The Tipping Point (Gladwell, 2000) (click to enlarge)

If you were to study the comments following that post, you would find a representative or two from each of these categories. What fascinates me is how we are exploding our ideas so quickly and efficiently through the blogosphere, which never ceases to amaze me with its power. The whole idea of a "tipping point" (this link takes you to the Wikipedia page that explains what that means in physics, sociology, and climatology) is perfectly illustrated in our blogging world.

I don't want to belabor the point I'm making here, because one thing I've discovered is that the posts I enjoy the most give me something to chew on and then present some ways to explore the concept further. My point: WE are at the tipping point in the blogging world, and where we are going is beginning to coalesce, but I don't recognize what it is, or what it means, quite yet. But I'm sure having the time of my life!
:-)