danah boyd just made a striking point at Blogher.
The link algorithms that drive “Top 100” lists at Technorati and other services are based on a broad and shallow pattern of linking. This is characteristic of male patterns of networking. By contrast, characteristically female patterns of networking are smaller and denser.
The “Top 100” pattern recaps the hit-based attention and financial economics of the mass media. It just doesn’t measure the sub-communities that should be visible out of the “Long Tail.”
Mary Hodder says that she is assembling an algorithm that will highlight the subnetworks and the long tails, using critera like comments and interlinks.
This is needed. Today’s algorithms are missing communities of interest. And frankly, it’s missing opportunities for power and money.