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As mentioned earlier, Barry Welford has posted a concept of "Originality Factor" or the "OR Scale". His idea is nobel, to have those who write content at blogs, label the content on a scale from 1 to 10. An OR=10 would represent that the content is 100% unique and original, and that would be very rare. So this entry would probably get a OR=2 for summarizing the content within a post at Cre8asite Forums. Of course everyone would be on the honor system, and I am sure the scales would differ greatly in terms of the subjectivity persuasion.
There are comments in the thread on using search technology to determine the originality of a blog entry. However, you and I know that linkage data can be very skewed when it comes to "originality". Let's take a typical scenario, and to confirm this, ask other bloggers like Andy or whomever. We find interesting news, occurrences, or ideas through internal resources, day dreaming, forums, conversation and other avenues. Then we collect our thoughts in a blog entry for those to read. Often, other bloggers in the circle pick up on the content and comment on it. If the idea is good enough to hit the mainstream, it might get slashdotted. Slashdot often links to the original source, however, if it is really mainstream news, it will get picked up by C|Net or similar content sites. They rarely ever give credit to the main source, for whatever reasons. More people read the information, as if it was originally posted for the first time at C|Net, more bloggers link to the C|Net article. Then when you look at the linkage data, the majority of it points to the C|Net version, so thus, the C|Net version is the original.
Did I just get side tracked? Anyway, I like the OR factor more on the honor system, then on a linkage system. :)
