Hyperlinks are the currency of the internet

Weblogs and the people that write with them, copy each other’s words frequently, sometimes even automatically, and have an informal crediting system of mentioning sources. RSS even carries ‘source’ information.

This system works by power of the hyperlink. If you don’t credit me as a source, then I can stop linking to you, or write you up on my weblog etc. In the end, we both know that Hyperlinks are the Currency of the Internet.

Wow, an organic digital rights management system! Beautiful. [Adam Curry, via John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2002/08/27.html#a180; comments are here.

• Quality that emerges in action
• A look at links in weblogs
• You are my editor

Tagged as: blog ecosystem, emergence