Seven days that shook the blogosphere
–
Mobilizing protest in weblog
communications
Benedikt Köhler
http://blog.metaroll.de
5. Oktober 2007

Introduction
Question: How did the mobilization of protest in the
„Free Burma!“-blog action
(http://free-burma.org) proceed?
Data: Links in blog comments related to the topic
„Burma“ between September 25 and October 2
2007
Method: Snowball sampling until sample was
saturated (no more new links). German Blog „Basic
Thinking“ as seed. Social network analysis (SNA)
and visualization with Pajek and UCINET
Numbers: 462 Blogs (networked nodes), 638
directed links between blogs (arcs)

Before the storm (September 25, 2007)
The size of nodes is equivalent to their influence over
the whole period. Gray circle in the middle: Basic
Thinking (our seed blog).

The first links (September 25, 2007)
Isolated links among the German language blogs on the
right. Purple node on the left: central actor SDRENG
(IT). Dark gray: Lupe (CH).

Centers of gravity (September 27, 2007)
Centers of mobilization emerge in the German
language blogosphere. Isolated dyads and triads, e.g.
at the top the Le Monde blogs (FR).

The leap (September 28, 2007)
Emanating from the central blogs, a number of
sub-centers emerge. They are able to mobilize further
blogs. A bridge forms between German and Italian
blogs (Dario Salvelli).

Consolidation (September 29, 2007)
Further links increase the network’s integration. Some
new nodes at the periphery are now connected to the
network.

. . . (September 30, 2007)
Again: new interconnections and integration of further
nodes.

. . . (Oktober 1, 2007)
More links emerge.

Complete picture (Oktober 2, 2007)
German and Italian blogosphere connected only
through few nodes. Obvious clustering. Density of
interconnections varies between Italy and DE/AT/CH.

And then . . .
On October 4, thousands of weblogs worldwide show an
entry like this.

Important nodes (prestige)
Indegrees (incoming links):
Basic Thinking (DE): 104
Lupe (CH): 45
Comicomix (IT): 45
Danzando a piedi nudi (IT): 33
Gianl (IT): 26
Outdegrees (outgoing links):
Forensikblog (DE): 18
Simon Columbus (DE): 10
Basic Thinking (DE): 8
Goggiblog (CH): 8
Lupe (CH): 7
→ Different communication patterns in Italian and
German blogosphere. Critics of the initiative
overrepresented in outdegrees.

Important nodes (closeness / betweenness)
Nodes with greatest closeness (can most easily
reach all other nodes):
Basic Thinking (DE): 19.65
Dario Salvelli (IT): 19.17
Blogwiese (DE): 16.88
Startupblogger (DE): 16.86
Blogging Tom (CH): 16.81
Nodes with greatest betweenness (can act as
bridge or broker):
Basic Thinking (DE): 7.78
Lupe (CH): 6.02
Dario Salvelli (IT): 4.60
Goggiblog (CH): 4.30
Simon Columbus (DE): 2.76

Distribution of comment activity
Indegree: Entry in X’s weblog
Outdegree: X comments an entry in another blog
Rank correlation: ρ = 0.42

Comment activity over time
The „leap“ is clearly visible: on September 28, 190
new links suddenly emerge between weblogs
(roughly 30% of all links)
Marked decline afterwards

Conclusions (tentative)
Secret of rapid mobilization could be the sparse
interlinkage of the network (average 1.5 links/node)
At the same time network is manifestly centralized
→ rapid dissemination of information in star shape
German language blogosphere integrates three
countries, but only weak ties to French and Italian
weblogs. Different patterns of weblog
communication (highly integrated Splinder
community in Italy)
Will those new links endure? Could they be
reactivated when required?

Thank you
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
license. To view a copy of this license, visit: http:
//creativecommons.org/license/by-nc-sa/3.0/.