Your Uncle Dave has tried to spread his word, Interwebitubes — where the web gets flushed down former Sen. Steven’s tubes, for some time now with little effect. Guess I’m just not infectious like Paris or Britney or Sarah. So to speak.

The way that certain images, videos or concepts can suddenly spread like wildfire across the web, using email and social websites to propagate, is one of online culture’s most unique phenomena.

Now Spanish researchers claim to have found a way to accurately predict how quickly and widely new “memes”, as they are called, will spread. The ability to forecast this “viral” behaviour would be of great interest to sociologists and marketeers, among others.

The secret, they say, is to recognise the fact that people vary in how “infectious” they are when it comes to sharing content online. While some people pass on things they receive right away, others do so after some delay, or not at all.

The rest of the article explains how this works.




  1. can we go now? says:

    I just linked this uncle Dave’s post to every one i know

  2. bobbo, keeping his priorities straight says:

    Is the link worth reading????????

    So far all I’ve got is: the web spreads stuff depending on how fast people share it.

    Kinda like saying a room gets brighter the more lights you turn on.

  3. SB says:

    Take a tip from John C. and his latest Article, er uh blog post, quite a lot of buzz going on with that.

    Unfortunately some people seem to have out their torches and pitchforks.

    Run John, it’s mutiny!

  4. AdmFubar says:

    uh, “You’re” ???? it appears the blog got updated after the rss was generated..
    seems one needs to take a little more time in editiing..
    hey how do i submit an article to the blog?? got something for all to see

    [That’s what happens when you’re (correct usage) in a hotel room, in another city, and can’t sleep so you get up and post something. Argh! — UD]

  5. Reganvelter says:

    You there,step right this way!
    Get Your Talking Points here and sow,sow,sow those wild oats and make money too!

  6. Improbus says:

    Most people are lemmings, film at 11.

  7. tomattto says:

    Don’t sell yourself short John! You made it into the Urban Dictionary.

  8. Mr. Fusion says:

    Although it doesn’t happen as much as it did just a few years ago, I just hate viral emails

    “Watch for xyz virus. It will crash you system and cause your hard drive to melt.”

    “Ladies be careful, there are rapists out there that hide in the back seat of your car, …”

    “Don’t flash your headlights at someone, that is now a gang sign and they will kill you.”

    ” Don’t let your children play in McDonalds Play Centers. A used syringe poked a toddler who died.”

    “Call your Congressman. The Obama Health Plan has a ‘kill grannie’ clause.”

  9. Weary Reaper says:

    #8 – Mr. Fusion

    “Call your Congressman. The Obama Health Plan has a ‘kill grannie’ clause.”

    Oh damn, did you have to mention that again?

    I’d estimate over half these idjits actually believe it’s true and you’re just feeding The Big Lie and making it bigger.

  10. Mr. Fusion says:

    #9, WR,

    Good point. I apologize.

  11. Weary Reaper says:

    #10 – Mr. Fusion

    Thanks for helping to effectively shine a light on this particular Big Lie.

    …only a few hundred more to go…

  12. Uncle Dave says:

    #7: Sweeeet! And it wasn’t John who came up with and used that word, it was me.

  13. Random Thought says:

    Except for one small problem…
    I forst heard “interwebitubes” from Patrick
    Norton (Techzilla)…
    probably before John or Uncle Dave ever used it.

    (‘Course, I do leave open the possibility Pat got it from Dave, who got it from John, who got it from… )


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