Today I noticed some web traffic coming from a mysteriously named WordPress site I had never heard of. Since I’m curious by nature, I clicked on the link and came across the course description of a class on social information infrastructure at the department of computer science and information of the University of Hawaii.
And what do I spot on the reading list for the first session, sandwiched between what seem to be articles from scholarly tomes on internet studies? A link to my post about the bacon cat law of internet popularity.
This is the first time – to my knowledge at least – that a piece of mine has ever ended up on a list of assigned reading for a college course. Though I once came across a citation of my Edgar Wallace article in a scholarly paper – and promptly lost the link.
Of course, it would be nice to end up on a list of assigned class reading on a subject I actually specialize in, since I’m not a social media expert but a literary scholar and occasional linguist. But that’s the bacon cat law in action for you.
sending...
Ha ha! Wonderful news, Cora. Congratulations. Your honorary doctorate can’t be far behind. 😉
I’ll settle for earning my regular doctorate, though I wouldn’t say no to a honorary. If anything, it would annoy my double doctorate cousin.
I’m the guy who’s teaching the class–I thought your bacon cat post was an eloquent way to describe the type of stuff that draws so much Web traffic, and the subsequent bemusement of the original posters. Many thanks!
Many thanks to you for the link. I’m glad you liked the post and I hope your students will enjoy it, too.
Nice one, well be happy that your site is getting extra traffic, thats a good sign.
Extra traffic is always welcome.