The Top Side of the Blogosphere

As we all know, there is a right side of the blogosphere. There is a left side of the blogosphere. Yesterday I asked myself, 'Is there a top side to the blogosphere? And, if not, should there be?'

This led me to think in three dimensions. A sphere, after all, is three dimensional. Someone, somewhere, decided that one of those dimensions, let's call it the x axis, is political, perhaps cultural. What about the y axis? I am going to propose, with the intent that someone might want to argue to the contrary, that it be defined roughly as Jung's Thinking vs. Feeling. However, from a blog topic viewpoint it might be more a matter of a spectrum from hard science to fine arts.

What is the z axis, then? I will propose that it is sophistication. In other words, blogs run from those characterized by sophomoric and populist rants to ones that are a compendium of very carefully crafted, erudite and multi-faceted articles. In other words, the blogosphere has a top and a bottom.

This would suggest the possibility of analytic blogology. A blog could be placed in three dimensional concept space. One could chart the flow of thoughts and ideas as well as links and nodes, etc. After one had charted a large, random sampling of blogs, one could begin a blogographic analysis. In other words, I doubt that the blogosphere is actually spherical and, additionally, I don't think the blogodensity is uniform. Well, all that is, for the most part, a different subject.

This entry is about the top, or most sophisticated portion, of the blogosphere. It exists, though I suspect the blogodensity is low. Certainly Half Sigma, Gene Expression, etc. are very sophisticated. However, and this is my point, the right side and the left side of the blogosphere are very organized. If you are on the right, you can go to Townhall.com. If you are on the left, you can go to DailyKos.com or Huffingtonpost.com. There you will find the top bloggers who agree with your sociopolitical world view. If you turn on Fox News, you will see rightwing bloggers prontificating and proselytizing with ample mention made to their blogs. If you turn on MSNBC, you will get the same, but from the left side. Rush Limbaugh, Ed Schultz, Sean Hannity, et al, all utilize bloggers to create audio content that directs the listener to the print content. Also, Limbaugh, Schultz, Hannity et al have actually gotten into the blogging business themselves with their websites and 24/7 content.

However, if you want to be a denizen of the top side of the blogosphere, there are no such places. Well, there is scienceblogs.com, but that is really for the y-axis not the z-axis and, let's face it, have you heard of it? Perhaps if they became more involved in coop advertising they would be more significant. Or, as I am sure will be the case, when there is a sciencetv.com delivering original programming to all the science enthusiasts across the globe, the necessary recursive synergies will begin to develop.

So, this is one way to look at Polymathica. We are making the first node for the top side of the blogosphere. In other words, here we do not attempt to isolate the liberal or the conservative, the theist or the atheist, the scientific or the artistic. We only isolate those that are refined and erudite. In other words, Polymathica is a refined and erudite global community, not a cause or interest group. Of course, our long term goal will be to provide audio and video content, moving toward cellular and broadband radio and television. Then our pundits, bloggers and conversation instigators can present their thoughts in a multimedia way - just like the left and right side of the blogosphere.

One of the purposes of this topic, beyond putting more flesh on the Polymathica bones, is to start a discussion about loci of the top part of the blogosphere. So, if you know of any blogs at the top of the blogosphere, post them here. It may not be much right now, but at least we will be making a step toward creating a node for the refined, erudite individual.