Traumwind - Stigmergy and the World-Wide Web:

Why do memes spread so easily on the web? Why is Google's PageRank algorithm so successful? Why do Neighborhoods form? Why does communicating through a weblog work at all? What is stigmergy?

Stigmergy, a term coined by French biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse is interaction through the environment.

And now finally we get the point. The whole point of this is the connection between the web and stigmergy. The World-Wide Web is the first stimeric communication medium for humans.

The telephone and email don't count as stigmeric communication since they are only readable by the people on either end of the phone call, or the e-mail. In order for an environment to support stigmeric communciation the messages must be readable by everyone. Radio and TV don't count since they are a read-only medium as far as most people are concerned. In order for an environment to support sitgmery everyone has to be able to not only read it but to be able to write into it also.
[via Keith Devens .com]

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