Mapping the blogosphere

To me, the most interesting conversations to come out of BlogHer concern linking patterns and the biases of ranking systems. danah boyd's analysis is well worth reading. Mary Hodder discusses what metrics ought to matter in a new ranking system. Be sure to read the comments there too, as one commenter provides some insight about what people are trying to measure. Adina Levin proposes a cloud structure, which certainly could help the discovery process.

There are many implications for the corporate blogosphere. How do you measure the worth of contributions? How do you help people find "blogmates" who have affinity for and knowledge of similar topics? Do you encourage a particular pattern of linking? What norms do you establish?