Preface In April 2005, the first edition of The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century >>> "... an international bestselling book by Thomas Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century [was published]. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover illustration indicates, the title also alludes to the perceptual shift required for countries, companies and individuals to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant." While some may concur with Friedman, the World and the Universe Is Not Flat, As They Say In France >>> Au Contraire >>>. The World And The Universe At Any And All Levels and Dimensions Exhibit Dynamic Variation / Diversity / Etc. ; It /They Are Not Monolithic Or A Single Dynamic Phenomenon >>> The Well-Known Bell (And Others) Curves Graphically Represent The Wide Variation in Nature >>> Part I "In probability theory and statistics, the normal distribution, or Gaussian distribution, is an absolutely continuous probability distribution whose cumulants of all orders above two are zero. The graph of the associated probability density function is “bell”-shaped, with peak at the mean, and is known as the Gaussian function or bell curve." [Image] The Red Line Is The Standard Normal Distribution As In Life, As There Is (More Or Less On Ther Internet/Web), There Are Some Individuals That Are More Active/Engaged Then Others >>> Part II Jakob Nielsen, The Smartest Person On The Web, In An October 2006 Alertbox Posting Documents What Many Have Probably Observed >>> Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action. All large-scale, multi-user communities and online social networks that rely on users to contribute content or build services share one property: most users don't participate very much. Often, they simply lurk in the background. When you plot the amount of activity for each user, the result is a Zipf curve, which shows as a straight line in a log-log diagram. In contrast, a tiny minority of users usually accounts for a disproportionately large amount of the content and other system activity. User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule: • 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute). • 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time. • 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs. Soooooo ......... In A NutShell > A Few List Members Contribute Most Of The Postings To Any Given e-List AND I Am Among Those Few >>> Indeed > Overall My Blogs Are Ranked In The Top Five (5) Perecent And A Few In The Top One (1) Percent And Higher (Based On Technorati Rankings) AND BTW: Traffic On My Blogs Is Much/Much Greater Than SiteMeter Indicates >>> The New Blogger In Draft Stats Document Significant Visitation >>> For Example >>> Since June 1 2010, There Have Been More 140,000 Collective PageViews Of Postings On My _Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, And Technologies_ Blog As Of Today (08-19-10) Soooooo ......... Please Don't Diss Me For Being Actively Engaged >>> Or Because I Have Broad Interests Believe It Or Not > I Do Only Post Items That I Believe Are Relevant Or Could / Might /Should Be Of Interest To My Colleagues It's Not About Me : Many Of My Posts Highlight The Work Of Others >>> BTW: While The Percentage Of Our Colleagues Who Read E-Lists Is Declining, In Favor Of Social Media > WebJunction Survey > Library Staff Report Their Use of Online Tools > 2009 vs. 2010 > Academic vs. Public [snip] A Significant Portion Continue To Do >>> Soooooo ......... If One Does Not Wish To Receive My Posting, There Are Several Options As I Note In A Previous Post DeDup > Removal Of Duplicate E-Mail Postings > An Idea Who Time Has Come? [ http://ref-notes.blogspot.com/2010/08/dedup-removal-of-duplicate-e-mail.html] While I Do Believe In Leprechauns [:-)] (And Actally Did See Their Houses On Inishmore, The Largest Of The Aran Islands, One Of The Island Groups Off The Coast Of County Galway, Ireland, In 2009), I Don't Believe In Silos. Let The Conversations Continue >>> [ http://bit.ly/9BkgWt ] JOY ! /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs "It's Not About Publication; It's About Ideas" [ http://bit.ly/bb6uW7 ]