TrackBacks through History. Seth Gordon has posted an excellent explanation of TrackBacks that puts them in the context of the history of the Web. Very interesting. Added bonus: It even includes some Perl scripts.... [Joho the Blog]
Right on to Seth Gordon for this EXCELLENT overview of the state of the art of links.
I've often pondered this situation - remembering when links were just a notion in our heads and then suddenly BAM http is there. There's so much in this article that I will take with me, let me just summarize:
- there was a notion of 2 way links in an earlier system of T B-L called ENQUIRE
- there is the notion - still today - that links can represent MORE than what they are now
- trackbacks are a great way to not only inform someone you've left a comment, but also to categorize incoming 'collaboration' and input from others (the example Seth uses is of a Cooking site - where folks contibute recipes....)
- and my favorite, that links can represent more than just hypertext. That links can represent media, community, real-time connections, archival stuff, dyanmic nuggets, etc.
Seth break it down into six kind sof relationships:
- uses / used-by
- includes / part-of
- made / made-by
- describes / described-by
- background / detail
- similar-to / other
SIDE NOTE: MY aggregator has been so busy and full lately, and I've been off getting ready for Passsover and my father's 80th birthday - that I almost lost this article out the bottom of my Radio aggregator. I'm GLAD I remembered to read it! Whew - that was close! Thanks to Dr. Weinberger for this one!
What I'd really like is this "community map" with the faces of my own friends - so I could then use this as a navigation control. Of course the challenge will be when multiple dimensions of freinds are formed and all those heavy duty social software patterns form. Some people spend ALL THEIR TIME just trying to visualize communities.
