Greg Tyrelle has posted his analysis of Nova Spivak's first meme propagation test: GoMeme 1.0. More interesting than the graphical depiction of the meme spread was his discussion of the problem of isolation and identification of instances.

After reading this paper, I am even more convinced that a large, naturally occurring meme would be a better candidate for study than one of Spivak's GoMemes. A natural meme's content, its ability to propagate, and the nature of its mutations will reveal much more information about a community than a restricted, artificial meme.

Today's huge Fired for Blogging meme is an excellent study. The propagation of Park's post about being fired from Friendster was assisted by Zawodny's mutation: Fired for Blogging. The wide propagation of the original and the development and propagation of its mutations were all powered how each appealed to individual posters. The content of a meme, as difficult as it is to analyze, is crucial to understanding how it mutates and spreads.

Requesting that artificial memes be formatted or left untouched in propagation destroys the wealth of information that "mutation through commentary" provides. Any meme propagation analysis in the blogosphere should take into consideration its content and the nature of its mutations, which are fundamentally intertwined.

By way of Jeremy Zawodny. Countless other instances can be found in Technorati.