when it was hard to find things (before the web), an idea had to be either very popular (the more people who believe X, the more likely you’ll run into someone who believes X) or it had to be popular with a few powerful people (the kind who program radio, TV, newspapers, etc.) for it to spread quickly.<\/p>\n
today, so many things have been indexed on the web that you can find and\/or stumble upon all sorts of “obscure” ideas very easily. searching has also become a kind of past-time. (we now say and do “google it” far more often than we ever did “go to the library and look it up.”) likewise navigating social networks to meet and\/or interact with more people.<\/p>\n
so we have a population that is constantly searching a bottomless treasure chest of ideas and knowledge (other people). never mind the “long tail,” what’s happening inside that collective mind? what connections are being made? <\/p>\n