History of the Blog: The Evolution of Blogging
Who’s Your Daddy? Your Blog Daddy That Is
CNET has an interesting article on who is the real BlogFather of all. Is it the irascible Dave Winer? The iconoclastic Jorn Barger? Or was the first blogger really Justin Hall, a Web diarist and online gaming expert whom The New York Times Magazine once called the “founding father of personal blogging“?
Hint: It wasn’t the Bloke either…
In my own small way I may have helped a little by showing others how to create RSS newsfeeds from scratch many years ago when most blogs (if any) didn’t even have feeds. Admittedly it was just a small contribution but what we can learn from this is no one person can really lay claim to being the creator of blogs.
Many have participated in the evolution of the medium and that also includes you and me. What’s more important than who did what is that the idea of blogging remains pure – an empowering technology that ALL of us can benefit from, and it is so much larger than any of it’s parts.
As the blogosphere continues to evolve who knows where we will take it from here? But as we take this medium to the next level let’s be forever vigilant to ensure that blogging remains open and free from those who would exploit it as their own private blogarchy or ABM bank machine.
Now onward to the Evolution of Blogs:
Sometime in 1971 December 1977 January 1994 January 1995 April 1997 September 1997 December 1997 Sometime in 1999 August 1999 January 2001 October 2001 February 2003 May 2003 October 2003 January 2004 October 2005 February 2006 January 2007 February 2007 You can read more of the evolution of blogs at CNET…
Stanford’s Les Earnest creates the “finger” protocol.
The finger protocol becomes an official standard.
Swarthmore student Justin Hall begins compiling lists of links at his site, links.net, and continues adding to the site for 11 years.
Early online diarist Carolyn Burke publishes her first entry for Carolyn’s Diary.
Dave Winer launches Scripting News, which he calls the longest-running Web log currently on the Internet.
Slashdot begins publishing “News for Nerds.”
Jorn Barger’s RobotWisdom.com site apparently becomes the first to call itself a Web log.
• Brad Fitzpatrick launches Livejournal, which he calls his “accidental success.”
• Peter Merholz of Peterme.com declares he has decided “to pronounce the word ‘weblog’ as ‘wee-blog.’ Or ‘blog’ for short.”
• The word “blog” first appears in print, according to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
Three friends who founded a San Francisco start-up called Pyra Labs create a tool called Blogger “more or less on a whim.”
First crop of blogs nominated for the “Bloggies” award.
First version of Movable Type content management software becomes available.
Google acquires Pyra and its Blogger software.
First official version of WordPress open-source blogging software released for download.
Six Apart releases first version of its Typepad blogging service.
Boston-based Steve Garfield launches his video blog, considered one of the first such “vlogs.”
VeriSign buys Dave Winer’s Weblogs.com. Around the same time, AOL snaps up blog publisher Weblogs Inc.
Veteran blogger Jason Kottke abandons his yearlong attempt to live off of micropayments through his blog.
Members of the Media Bloggers Association are among the first bloggers to receive press credentials from a federal court.
Freelance video blogger Josh Wolf becomes the longest-serving journalist behind bars in U.S. history, on contempt charges.
Don't Miss Another Blog Tip! Subscribe to the Newsfeed Today 
What do you think? Leave a Comment and join the conversation...
Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Be COOL! Grab a Button
.gif){kind=small}
7.jpg "The guy behind Blog Bloke")
I looked up the history of blogs (okay, not so recently, about 4 months ago) and I didn’t get nearly as good a post. Thanks so much Bloke.
You are so very welcome Doc and thanks for dropping by.
Cracking post, BB. That is a seriously interesting read.
What got me is that the IM staple of list building started all the way back in 1994. Just goes to show how all those “Get Rich Quick” eBooks are just recycling old stuff, eh?
Exactly Mike. That’s why I call it the great Recyclesphere.