Links as Language
A Contextual Approach to Content Creation
#LinksAsLanguage
David Dylan Thomas
Content Strategist,EPAM, Empathy Lab
@movie_pundit
ask early, ask often
links are a writing tool, like a
metaphor or a comma
Does this really deserve this much coverage?
Does this really deserve
this
much
coverage?
the link creates a noun
where none exists
I guess i should update my status more often.
I guess i should update my status more often.
accelerated payoff
Does this really deserve this much coverage?
Does this really deserve
this
much
coverage?
Does this really deserve this much coverage?
Does this really deserve
this
much
coverage?
Does this really deserve this much coverage?
Does this really deserve
this
much
coverage?
a link is a promise
deliver
play
undercut
a link is a footnote…
…on crack
three ways links have changed the
way we read
who taught you how to use a
hyperlink?
two most useless words to hyperlink
i know I should click.
just tell me what will happen when I do.
David Leonhardt said in his recent article for the New York Times that Anthony Marx was trying to change things.
David Leonhardt said in his recent article for the New York Times that Anthony Marx was trying to change things. Click here to read that article.
you are not a content creator, you
are an interaction designer
this is your content.
this is your content on the web.
"The hyperlinks of 1999 were the chief source of interactivity on the web. They were what got me from over here to over there.
In 2009, hyperlinks are more than a pointer.
Hyperlinks are inclusionary. Their purpose is to point to something else and include it in the given context."
-Alex Hillman
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
three types of knowledgevia Steve Schwartz
three types of knowledgevia Steve Schwartz
“And it seems to me that that webby structure
actually is a more accurate reflection of the
shape of knowledge: it’s an endless series of
connected ideas and facts, limited by interest,
not an article that starts here and ends there. In
fact, I’d say that Shakespeare himself was a
web, and so am I, and so are you.”
- David Weinberger
what makes online writing online writing
what’s not happening
the web is a brain
long term potentiation
ants don’t take orders
ants exchange information
pheromone trails
links are the pheromones of the web
this is why security and privacy on
the web are hard
but if I link away from my site, no
one will ever come back
if you link to something valuable,
YOU become valuable
LOOK AT THE WHOLE BOARD
we create for the web selfishly
we don’t have to
when you give your users choices,
you give yourself data
stop publishing web pages
funny, that link worked yesterday
new (possibly terrible) idea
open hyperlinks
this is your content.
this is your content on the web.
David Dylan Thomas
@movie_pundit
[email protected]