there's been alot of discussion lately on weblogs and social networks and microcontent news does a fine job of illustrating the point nicely with The Tipping Blog :

"Simply put, Connectors know people. Lots of people. Connectors may not always know about the hot new restaurant... but they always know at least five people who do. And once a Connector finds about the restaurant, you can forget about ever getting a reservation: they'll spread the word to their hundreds of friends, it will be reviewed in the Times, and you'll end waiting at the bar for an hour, drinking cocktails on an empty stomach."

sounds all fancy-schmancy, but maybe blogging is just a hopped-up version of strategic gossiping [i'm not touching the gender generalizations with a 10 foot pole]:

"Recent empirical and theoretical work suggests that reputation was an important mediator of access to resources in ancestral human environments. Reputations were built and maintained by the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about the actions and capabilities of group members-that is, by gossiping. Strategic gossiping would have been an excellent strategy for manipulating reputations and thereby competing effectively for resources and for cooperative relationships with group members who could best provide such resources. Coalitions (cliques) may have increased members' abilities to manipulate reputations by gossiping. Because, over evolutionary time, women may have experienced more within-group competition than men, and because female reputations may have been more vulnerable than male reputations to gossip, gossiping may have been a more important strategy for women than men. Consequently, women may have evolved specializations for gossiping alone and in coalitions. We develop and partially test this theory."

i don't know about you, but "strategic gossiping" sounds alot like manufactured serendipity :

"Jon Udell labels this phenomenon, manufactured serendipity. Serendipity is all about making fortunate discoveries by accident. You can't automate accidental discoveries, but you can manufacture the conditions in which such events are more likely to occur."

"So why do I blog? Because it works. It finds worthwhile things for me to read. It helps me refine and focus my thoughts and be more productive too. And most of all, creates the opportunity to interact with more interesting people. That's what's in it for me."