Context and Attribution

Links are the fabric of the web. And with the success of Google, links are guideposs of the web as well. But while links may hold the web together, content is what makes it meaningful. It is not productive to promote one at the expense of the other.

I can’t begin to enumerate the reasons to make content available on the web. But I can confidently say that people work better when their work is appreciated. And links, in context and with attribution, are how we show appreciation on the web.

RSS feeds are freely available. That doesn’t give you all rights to the content in those feeds. Please add context and attribution when incorporating items from RSS feeds in your weblog. Attribution via a title link to the author’s weblog is not enough - add enough context to identify it as another’s work.

16 Jan: Context and Attribution Redux