The word "beme" was mentioned recently in an ABC News story (see the 4th page). Tom Hayes says he coined the word beme to describe a meme propagated by blogs and bloggers. Now Tom Hayes has a lengthier explanation of beme (via Doc Searls) on his Tom Bomb blog.
A beme is a turbo-charged meme made possible entirely by the existence of the network affect. A beme can be impactful because it is lurid--a photo of a panty-less Britney Spears, or humorous--a whimisical video of the band OKGO on treadmills, or gut-wrenching--the sad tirade by comedian Michael Richards. A beme can cement an idea with the public in a way that cannot be legislated or regulated. No legal effort by Cisco to enforce a trademark, for example, will make the public unlearn that Apple produces the iPhone.
A meme is old media, a beme is new media.
A meme takes off by accident, a beme by design.
A meme can take years to surface, a beme hours.
There are not very many mentions of beme on Technorati but it is a word that could ending up sticking.
