I'm back after a trip to the University of Colorado, Computer Science Department, hosted by the amazingly gracious Skip Ellis. Between giving a talk, meeting with various faculty, and carousing in exciting Boulder (Dushanbe Tea House, very nice) I decided not to make any time for weblogging whatsoever.
That being said, I managed to read most of Duncan Watt's "Small Worlds". I'm now more convinced than ever that weblog power laws (see Shirky and Kottke) really don't mean squat, and that the underlying network structure is the big deal.
Curiously, I haven't run into anybody mentioning Ron Burt, of the University of Chicago. He'd surely tell you that the power isn't in the center, it's in the holes.
Besides, if you take a look at the data that originated this meme, there's a lot to be desired.