Andy Jaeger big thinking for a small world

If a tree falls in a forest, does Kevin Bacon hear it scream?

I like the Zen question about trees falling in forests and whether they make any noise if nobody's there to hear. It makes my brain hurt, in a stretched and puzzled way, which I figure can only be a good thing.

It also makes me think about this blog. I've been heartened recently by reading Clay Shirky's excellent book and discovering, to my surprise, the relative unconnectedness of much of Web 2.0. In the case of blogs, just like this, readership and connection is limited to a handful of people. What makes the pattern of connections interesting is those people's connections with others. I wonder whether I could get to Kevin Bacon's blog in six steps? In any case, I'm somewhere deep in the long tail of connectivity, far off the right hand end of the graph. It's not true that nobody hears the Zen tree fall over. The tumbleweed does.

In the end, does it matter what I contribute to the growing body of opinion on the web? I think it matters more that I contribute at all, make a few connections and play my part as a link. I've already beaten the norm by keeping my blog going for more than a few posts. Now all I need is some readers...