Links, the Currency of The Machine
Here is the latest in the on-going series of essays, TV News in a Postmodern World. This one deals with something we all take for granted about the web — links and linking. These, I believe, are the real currency of the web and that one day, like cash, we’ll find a way to buy and sell goods and services using them. Who’ll calculate the value? “The Machine,” of which Kevin Kelly so brilliantly wrote in his 2005 Wired essay, “We Are The Web.”
Links play a key role in the web’s determination of the new metric “influence,” and this will grow in terms of validity and value as the years go by. Those of us in traditional media embrace the concept of inbound links, because we can easily see how they help “drive traffic” or distribute our content. We’re reluctant to play with outbound links, however, and this is to our detriment.
Links, the Currency of The Machine
This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Postmodernism, Media 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 19th, 2007 at 11:11 am
i just wanted to say that i really, REALLY enjoy reading your stuff.
thanks
March 20th, 2007 at 8:24 am
links and linking are the currency.
station groups have YET to link their own properties thereby leaving currency on the table.
if they ever get around to this rudimantary undertaking you can just imagine the woody they’ll get when they discover geo-targeted ads.