Blog

:{{otheruses}}

History

Precursors

• Electronic communities existed before internetworking, but generally had some quality to them. For example the AP wire was, in effect, similar to a large chat room where there were "wire fights" and electronic conversations. Another pre-digital electronic community, Amateur (or "ham") radio, allowed individuals who set up their own broadcast equipment to communicate with others directly. Ham radio also had logs called "glogs" that were personal diaries made using wearable computers in the early 1980s.
• Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, email lists and bulletin boards. In the 1990s Internet forum software, such as WebX, created running conversations with threads. The term "thread", in reference to consecutive messages on one specific topic of discussion, comes from email lists and Usenet as well, and "to post" from electronic bulletin boards, borrowing usage directly from their corkboard predecessors. Many of the terms from weblogging were created in these earlier media. See "Common terms", below.
• Diarists kept journals on the Web: most called themselves online diarists, journalists, journallers, or journalers. A few called themselves escribitionists. The Open Pages webring contained members of the online-journal community. The first famous journaller was probably Justin Hall.
• Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger protocol.

Blogging begins

Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier, specifically blogrolls and TrackBacks, as well as comments and afterthoughts. This way, instead of a few people being in control of threads on a forum, or anyone able to start threads on a list, there was a moderating effect that was the personality of the weblog's owner. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers.

Related Topics:
Blogroll - TrackBack - Forum - Justin Hall - Swarthmore College

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The term "weblog" may have been coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997. The shorter version, "blog", was coined by Peter Merholz, who, in April or May of 1999, broke the word weblog into the phrase "we blog" in the sidebar of his weblog. http://www.peterme.com/archives/00000205.html This was interpreted as a short form of the noun http://www.bradlands.com/weblog/1999-09.shtml#September%2010,%201999 and also as a verb to blog, meaning "to edit one's weblog or a post to one's weblog". The site Open Diary, while not using the term blog until recently, launched in 1998, had over 2000 diaries by 1999, and near 400 000 as of September 2005. Blog usage spread during 1999, with the word being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted weblog tools: Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan's company Pyra Labs launched Blogger (which was purchased by Google in February 2003) and Paul Kedrosky's GrokSoup. As of March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms weblog, weblogging and weblogger in their dictionary. http://www.oed.com/help/updates/motswana-mussy.html

Related Topics:
Jorn Barger - 1997 - Peter Merholz - 1999 - Sidebar - Open Diary - Evan Williams - Meg Hourihan - Pyra Labs - Blogger - Google - February 2003 - Paul Kedrosky - GrokSoup - March 2003 - Oxford English Dictionary

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One of the pioneers of the tools that make blogging more than merely websites that scroll is Dave Winer. One of his most important contributions was the creation of servers which weblogs would ping to show that they had been updated. Blog reading utilities use the aggregated update data to show a user when their favorite blogs have new posts.

Related Topics:
Dave Winer - Server - Ping

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Blogging's rise to influence

Among the first established political blogs with U.S.-wide audiences were Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Jerome Armstrong's MyDD.com, and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's DailyKos -- all of which launched widely read blogs in 2001-02. The first blog-driven political controversy was probably the fall of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who had remarked, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, that Thurmond's leadership abilities may have made him a good President. Since Thurmond had spent much of his early political career sympathetic to white supremacists, Lott's statements were conveyed in the media to be racist. In the aftermath, bloggers such as Josh Marshall strove to demonstrate that his remarks were not an isolated misstatement, by finding evidence including quotes from other previous speeches of Lott's which were taken to be racist. Their efforts kept the story "alive" in the press until a critical mass of disapproval forced Lott to resign his position as Senate Majority Leader.

Related Topics:
Andrew Sullivan - AndrewSullivan.com - Ron Gunzburger - Politics1.com - Jerome Armstrong - MyDD.com - Markos Moulitsas Zúniga - DailyKos - U.S. Senate Majority Leader - Trent Lott - U.S. Senator - Strom Thurmond - President - Josh Marshall - Racist

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By this point blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals had begun to appear, primarily focusing on using the tools, or creating content. But the importance of a blog as a way of building an electronic community had also been written on, as had the potential for blogs as a means of publicizing other projects. Established schools of journalism began researching the blogging phenomenon, and noting the differences between current practice of journalism and blogging.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since 2003, weblogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, or spinning news stories. One of the most significant events was the sudden emergence of an interest in the Iraq war, which saw both left-wing and right-wing bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that did not reflect the traditional left-right divide. The blogs which gathered news on Iraq, both left and right, exploded in popularity, and Forbes magazine covered the phenomenon. The use of blogs by established politicians and political candidates—particularly Howard Dean and Wesley Clark—to express opinions on the war and other issues of the day, cemented their role as a news source. Meanwhile, the increasing number of experts who blogged, such as Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong, gave blogs a built-in source of in-depth analysis.

Related Topics:
2003 - News - Iraq war - Left-wing - Right-wing - Howard Dean - Wesley Clark - Daniel Drezner - J. Bradford DeLong

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Iraq war was the first "blog war" in another way: bloggers in Baghdad gained wider readership, and one (Salam Pax) published a book of his blog. Blogs also arose amongst soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "milblogs" have given readers a new perspective on the realities of war. Reading the thoughts of people who were "on the spot" provided a supplement and perhaps a differing viewpoint to official news sources. Blogs were often used to draw attention to obscure news sources, for example posting links to the traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the M11 attacks. Bloggers would often provide nearly instant commentary on televised events, which became a secondary meaning of the word "blogging", such as "I am blogging Rice's testimony," i.e., "I am posting my reactions to Rice's testimony to my blog as I watch it."

Related Topics:
Iraq war - Baghdad - Salam Pax - Demonstration - M11 attacks - Rice

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the end of 2003 top rated blogs Instapundit, Daily Kos, and Atrios were receiving over 75,000 unique visitors per day. Much on the same lines, personal blogging became a rage in US, Europe and lately in Asia also. Soon after, Blogs came to be classified for their premium content.

Related Topics:
Instapundit - Daily Kos - Atrios

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Blogging goes mainstream

In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion formation. Even politicians not actively involved in a campaign such as Tom Watson, a UK Labour Party MP, began to use blogging as a means for creating a bond with constituents and creating a channel for their ideas and opinions. Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The Blogging of the President", which covered the transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces began to reach print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of that year both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the publicity arsenal, with mainstream programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, forming their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004. (Wikinews)

Related Topics:
Political consultant - Tom Watson - UK - Labour Party - MP - Minnesota Public Radio - Christopher Lydon - Matt Stoller - Columbia Journalism Review - Democratic - Republican National Convention - Chris Matthews - Hardball - Merriam-Webster

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Blogs were some of the driving forces behind the alleged "Rathergate" scandal involving Dan Rather of CBS and some memos used on the show 60 Minutes II. Within 72 hours a coordinated group of bloggers had built a case that they were likely forgeries. The evidence presented eventually created such concern over the issue that CBS was forced to address the situation and make an apology for their inadequate reporting techniques. This is viewed by many bloggers as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media as a source of news. It also showed how blogs could keep the pressure on an established news source, forcing defenses and then a retraction of the original story.

Related Topics:
Rathergate - Dan Rather - CBS - 60 Minutes II - Forgeries

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Blogging is also used now to break consumer complaints and vulnerabilities of products, in the way that Usenet and email lists once were. One such example is accusations about vulnerability of Kryptonite 2000 locks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bloggers have also moved over to other media. Duncan Black (a.k.a. Atrios), Glenn Reynolds, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (a.k.a. Kos), Ana Marie Cox (a.k.a. Wonkette), and others have appeared on radio and/or television. Hugh Hewitt is an example of a media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. Amateur blogs can also provide well-written, quality blogs, although, you have to weed them out from the run of the mill blogs.

Related Topics:
Duncan Black - Atrios - Glenn Reynolds - Markos Moulitsas Zúniga - Kos - Ana Marie Cox - Wonkette - Hugh Hewitt

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott and Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis as eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore."

Related Topics:
January 2005 - Fortune - Peter Rojas - Xeni Jardin - Ben Trott - Mena Trott - Jonathan Schwartz - Jason Goldman - Robert Scoble - Jason Calacanis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~