To Link or not to Link-That is The Question
The question of whether to link or not; permission to do so in an age of chivalry; reciprocal linking in the minds of commercial or well established web sites; and a question of building community
are age old thoughts in the mind of our AP community, are they not?
Pondering the perplexities of an ever changing and dynamic web, the horror of a link, which has been squatted upon by an evil empire or thang, sharpens our wits and link checking too. But our AP
community has found an answer, at least according to our individual wants and desires by entering into the brave world of awards presentation.
Then a bright thought as to how all the wonderful award winners each of us have recognized could show our brave new bloggers, elderly and those who are gatherers and hunters the worth of our toil and
effort.
Yet unanswered but certainly something worthy of discussion?
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind of the surfer, than the slings and arrows of outrageous misinformation or would we takes up links together against this sea of turbulence and in the end NOT keep them
from the fruits of our labor?
Can you hear William Shakespeare, ye noble men and women?
Content Creators
Almost everyone who searches Google to find information, is being helped recover from the wasteland of marketing hype, by forcing producers to make their sites useful again.1 But have things really changed from twenty-five years ago when 19 middle aged men gathered to celebrate the first node installation on the Arpanet?2
Today anyone can publish anything on the web, have no need for traditional print resources and no web standards exist to ensure accuracy. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project released in 2004, online content creators are evenly divided among men and women and are broken down into three groups: power creators whose average age is twenty-five and blog among other activities, a middle group whose average age is 58 and are experienced internet users and the largest group whose average age is forty who search to compare pricing and other selective comparisons.3
Blogging and
.CSS Sigs are a more recent Internet phenomenon, fueled by their creation ease, but in retrospect not different
from the era of GeoCities, which empowered everyday citizens to rise up against the perceived tyranny of commercialism, which if unchecked would leave all but those who were powerful and moneyed, in
control of the peoples medium. In each era (but in continuance) the value of linking one piece of information to another recognized the tremendous value of “the web” and the
interconnection that intelligently linked an endless chain of consciousness. Following this truism every corporate site would become a leader of relevant information in their respective fields
of endeavor; each individual web site would compliment each component or link; the relevance of ideas and thoughts separating fact from opinion would empower those who seek information for whatever
purpose.
Content Seekers
Virtually all Internet users are aware of on-line shopping and will probably make a purchase when there is a feeling of security, either now or in the future, who are also according to the Pew Internet and American Life survey, seeking information for their favorite hobby, live in rural areas with low speed internet connections and have probably not embraced the newest of the new like blogs or a webcam.
Senior citizen surfing is not at present a significant force, nor are our disABLED, or so some may think. But those emerging groups already know something a younger or middle aged group may not know and will be empowered when they start to act like teenagers who act like they know what they are going, even if they do not.
Grandpa reflected on the computer and the Internet, “I am not afraid of these damn things” he then went out and updated his blog, which we was able to manage himself. He checked his RSS feed, recently sent photo album and checked with fellow bloggers about their thoughts on displaying several links from award presenters, who thought his creation was neat.
And yes, he is still temperate with a sip of "jack", but the damn cigarettes out the door in 1996 and he was going to reach his 89th birthday by golly, in a few months.
1 Wolfram, How to score higher in Google Search Engine
2 "The Creators", Wired Magazine, issue 2.12, Dec 1994
3 Content Creation Online, Pew Internet and American Life
.