That links question:

Interesting to me that some people don't like blogs with lots of links. Hmm. I guess to some, blogs are for writing.

To a researcher, though, blogs are for links. Always have been. Blogs help me find new things I never thought about or found before. More links the better.

I remember reading Adam Curry's comment about links as conversation years ago, and having a light turn on in my brain. (I repeated it last year on this blog; the link back to my original 2002 blog posting on it is probably not available, since the archives reside on my original Earthlink space which inexplicably became overwhelmed last fall.) Curry said: 'links are the only true currency of the Web'. I still like it.

My posting last year also mentioned a blog comment on newspaper blogging from Tom Johnson: "But I wonder if the BIG NEWSPAPER will understand that the process of linkage and blog infrastructure will ultimately be more important than the content?"

I bring this up again because of a dialog on Doc Searls' and Ed Cone's blogs:
Cone writes this:

In my very first newspaper column about blogging, published four years ago this month, I described linking as "writing in 3-D."

Beyond the rush of publishing in real time, blogging adds an extra element to the process of composing your thoughts. It's like writing in 3-D. The ability to link to other sites from within your own work can enrich whatever you have to say with context or counterpoint.

Linking also brings value to your readers by making your blog a portal into a much broader web experience. It makes your blog part of a conversation, not a lecture.
It's called internetworking for a reason.

Doc, expanding:

I had been writing for thirty years before I started doing it in 3D, in 1995. For the first time I felt like I was writing with two hands, seeing with two eyes. I no longer felt trapped behind my own lectern. Eleven years later I'd still rather write (and read) linky text than linkless text.

Yup. And I'm so much more likely to link to someone else's posting if it contains lots of links.

(One additional thought, though: I don't like blogs with lots of links that don't explain what they link to. (See first link in this story.) That's why I rarely read Dave Barry's blog (sorry, Dave and Judi). But obviously, there are lots of people out there (see the massive number of comments on Dave's blog) with plenty of time to follow anonymous links.)