weblogs: a history and perspective response

This piece does a nice job of exploring the growth of blogging, the statements presented are strengthened by the writer's experience in the world of blogging. I learned much from this article, especially in regards to the formative years of blogging. To me the concept of blogging seems fairly new, so I was semi-surprised to learn it's roots stretch back to 1998.

"While weblogs had always included a mix of links, commentary, and personal notes, in the post-Blogger explosion increasing numbers of weblogs eschewed this focus on the web-at-large in favor of a sort of short-form journal. These blogs, often updated several times a day, were instead a record of the blogger's thoughts: something noticed on the way to work, notes about the weekend, a quick reflection on some subject or another. Links took the reader to the site of another blogger with whom the first was having a public conversation or had met the previous evening, or to the site of a band he had seen the night before."

I am fascinated by the shift mentioned in this paragraph. It seems that at this point in time blogs mutated into real time forms of communication. This practice of repeated posting on the same day has lead to the ultimate real time blog service: Twitter. The existence of Twitter is a profound step in the history of blogging, as it marks a glass ceiling for the format. While blogging will continue to change in ways not yet foreseeable, the extent of it's speed has been reached.

With the ability for anybody to write what they are doing at any time, focus must shift back to quality. With so many millions blogging in some way or another, their must be standards to which these writings are held in order for a readership to form. Those standards are ever changing and vary from group to group. But the bottom line becomes: this is an amazing time in history to be a writer because you can easily find an audience for you specific message.