Potential Topic #1: The election and the blogosphere. Looking at the number of times each presidential candidate is mentioned, is there a way (or more realistically is there a direction to start looking for a way) to see if the "blogosphere" agenda is really different than the "media" agenda? This would blend into with my PhD work on studying the blogosphere from the perspective of systems theory and combine it with the "importance" of the upcoming election.

Potential Topic #2: Blogging for dollars. Using weblogs in business has taken off over the last year or two. What are these companies doing with their blogs? Are they intranet or internet based? Who are they blogging for? Again this would blend into my PhD research, though instead of a "public good" angle, it would take a more corporate / advertising / PR approach.