Linkage, Self-promotion

The most valuable feature of online communication is the link. Think of the web as another outer space, and imagine your laptop screen is the porthole through which you view the planets, stars, asteroids, and comets flying by as you propel yourself through the space. Links are units of propellant. Nothing is more valuable than fuel.

Bloggers should use links to back up their novel facts and terms, and to give readers access to more context for the viewpoints they express in their posts. Obviously, links aren't sources in the sense that a human being who gives a reporter new information is a one. But they are still sources because they can provide additional layers of context, and make a blogger accountable.

Give me the links!

Links are social media currency. Hype a good link to 150 pairs of eyeballs and a few of the brains behind those eyeballs will decide to click. Maybe one of them will pass it on to their own network of eyeball pairs. Now the link has a life of it's own. Who knows how far it will travel, how may networks it will infiltrate. Maybe it will (gasp!) go viral.

All that being said, here's a link-rich post I wrote recently for Scienceline.