It's the link, man.

21st century —

There's a missing element in all this jabber about the potential of e-books — and in the mere concept of "blogging" (web-logging.)

It's the link.

Hypertext. Linkability. Connectability independent of location.

Even the idea of a "weblog" is dissonant. "Web." "Log." It's the constraint of immense potential within a narrow format.

Electronic text has capabilities not approached in its role as proxy for old-fashioned print.

Those capabilities emerge in the complexity made possible by the simplest definitive capability — the link.

It's as if electronic text is yet stuck in linearity. Even those who write exclusively for online purposes usually only link referentially — in a straight line.