1.1. HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF BLOGGING
The World Wide Web and the idea of a blog appeared at the same time. Tim Berners-Lee, often described as the Web's inventor, created the first “blog” in 1992 to outline and render visible the ongoing development of the Web and the software necessary to navigate this new space. Web history, especially the early growth of Web servers and sites, is chronicled on the various “What's New” pages in the archives of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Another example of a blog that existed before the word was coined is Slashdot. Following its debut in September 1997, Slashdot operated as a clearinghouse for information in its “News for Nerds,” with a small set of editors who decided what to publish of numerous articles and news items submitted by the “geek” community. Indeed, Web sites mentioned on Slashdot were often overwhelmed, leading to a condition now known as being “slashdotted.”
In 17 December 1997, Jorn Barger, an early online presence, coined the term web log to describe his Web site RobotWisdom.com. In early 1999 another individual with considerable online experience, Peter Merholz, began to employ the term “blog” on his site Peterme.com.[1] While the history of the term is pretty well settled, the same cannot be said of the identity of the first blogger. Depending on the definition of a blog, Berners-Lee may not qualify as the first blogger. Claimants to this title include Justin Hall, a college student who started an online list at links.net in 1994; Carolyn Burke, who began publishing Carolyn's Diary online in 1995; and Dave Winer, who has published Scripting News online since April 1, 1997.[2]
Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.[3] In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google[4] under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free.[5]
The growth of the blogosphere has been nothing short of remarkable. Technorati, Inc., a Web site and organization dedicated to mapping and searching the blogosphere, found that by October 2005 there were 19.6 million blogs, a number that has been doubling roughly every five months. Approximately 70,000 new blogs are created each day—or, more vividly, nearly one every second. Also of importance is the growth of blogs in languages other than English, especially Chinese.
Despite the overwhelming number of blogs, very few individuals make a living as a blogger. A few individuals earn money from their Web sites by carrying ads and appeals for funds, and some blogs are financed by corporate or organizational owners; nevertheless, most bloggers derive nonmonetary rewards from their activity. In particular, blogs offer ordinary individuals the ultimate soapbox and an opportunity to create their own digital identity or personal brand.
One reason for the proliferation of blogs is the ease with which they can be established and maintained. Many services and software systems are available that allow an individual to set up a blog in less than an hour. Of course, updating a blog is essential for maintaining its presence and importance. Statistics on blogs that are started but not updated remain elusive, but the proportion is undoubtedly substantial.
Like the fad for personal Web pages in the 1990s, the proliferation of blogs has led to the creation of Web sites that group blogs, often with a similar political emphasis or subject orientation, to form “superblogs.” An example of this phenomenon is The Huffington Post, founded in 2005 by American author and syndicated newspaper columnist Arianna Huffington, which hosts dozens of other bloggers who post mostly on politics and current affairs.[6]
The origin of blog can be traced back to the time when people started to maintain log or personal diary. According to Oxford Dictionary, a log is an official record of events during a particular period of time, especially a journey on a ship or plane.
Maintaining a diary was something many parents advocated to their school going children. It served two purposes: improve language skills and handwriting. The beneficial side effect was that it was a record of one's daily activities as a child—something that was interesting to read in later years. Diaries are seen as intimate friends by those who maintain them. The private accounts, the writer's intimate thoughts and ideas which are detailed in diaries offer a glimpse into the person's true nature. This makes diaries interesting reading and probably the most famous of such an account is the one by Anne Frank which chronicles her and her family's life under the Nazi rule during World War II, and which was ultimately published. Tragic accounts aside, the content of a diary—no matter how mundane from the writer's perspective—can be interesting to people in a different place and time.[7]
We are witnessing the biggest revolution in publishing since the Gutenberg press was invented over 570 years ago. The printing press enabled writers to become best-selling authors by providing them with the means to mass produce books for the first time. Authors that were in the right place at the right time included Luther and Erasmus (who was reputed to have sold 750,000 copies during his lifetime). Italy became the early publishing center of Europe with print shops established in 77 cities by 1500.
Blogging started in the 1990′s as online diaries. In 2011 Huffington Post, which became the largest blog in the world was sold to AOL for $315 million. Blogging has changed and is evolving to whole new level that is global, instant and multi-media.[8]
[1] Peter Merholz jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase “we blog” in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.
[2] Michael Aaron Dennis, "blog." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. (CD-ROM).
[3] John Baker, Origins of "Blog" and "Blogger", American Dialect Society Mailing List (www. linguistlist.org: 17/4/2013), http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0804C&L=ADS-L&P=R16795&I=-3.
[4] ___, “Our history in depth “(www.google.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.google.com/about/company/history/
[5] ___, “The Story of Blogger” (www.blogger.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.blogger.com/about.
[6] Michael Aaron Dennis, "blog." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. (CD-ROM).
[7] Team Digit, eds., Fast Track to Blogging (Mumbai: 9.9 Interactive Pvt. Ltd, 2003), 2.
[8] Jeff Bullas, Past, Present and Future of Blogging: 3 Infographics (www.jeffbullas.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/16/past-present-and-future-of-blogging-3-infographics/.
The World Wide Web and the idea of a blog appeared at the same time. Tim Berners-Lee, often described as the Web's inventor, created the first “blog” in 1992 to outline and render visible the ongoing development of the Web and the software necessary to navigate this new space. Web history, especially the early growth of Web servers and sites, is chronicled on the various “What's New” pages in the archives of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Another example of a blog that existed before the word was coined is Slashdot. Following its debut in September 1997, Slashdot operated as a clearinghouse for information in its “News for Nerds,” with a small set of editors who decided what to publish of numerous articles and news items submitted by the “geek” community. Indeed, Web sites mentioned on Slashdot were often overwhelmed, leading to a condition now known as being “slashdotted.”
In 17 December 1997, Jorn Barger, an early online presence, coined the term web log to describe his Web site RobotWisdom.com. In early 1999 another individual with considerable online experience, Peter Merholz, began to employ the term “blog” on his site Peterme.com.[1] While the history of the term is pretty well settled, the same cannot be said of the identity of the first blogger. Depending on the definition of a blog, Berners-Lee may not qualify as the first blogger. Claimants to this title include Justin Hall, a college student who started an online list at links.net in 1994; Carolyn Burke, who began publishing Carolyn's Diary online in 1995; and Dave Winer, who has published Scripting News online since April 1, 1997.[2]
Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.[3] In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google[4] under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free.[5]
The growth of the blogosphere has been nothing short of remarkable. Technorati, Inc., a Web site and organization dedicated to mapping and searching the blogosphere, found that by October 2005 there were 19.6 million blogs, a number that has been doubling roughly every five months. Approximately 70,000 new blogs are created each day—or, more vividly, nearly one every second. Also of importance is the growth of blogs in languages other than English, especially Chinese.
Despite the overwhelming number of blogs, very few individuals make a living as a blogger. A few individuals earn money from their Web sites by carrying ads and appeals for funds, and some blogs are financed by corporate or organizational owners; nevertheless, most bloggers derive nonmonetary rewards from their activity. In particular, blogs offer ordinary individuals the ultimate soapbox and an opportunity to create their own digital identity or personal brand.
One reason for the proliferation of blogs is the ease with which they can be established and maintained. Many services and software systems are available that allow an individual to set up a blog in less than an hour. Of course, updating a blog is essential for maintaining its presence and importance. Statistics on blogs that are started but not updated remain elusive, but the proportion is undoubtedly substantial.
Like the fad for personal Web pages in the 1990s, the proliferation of blogs has led to the creation of Web sites that group blogs, often with a similar political emphasis or subject orientation, to form “superblogs.” An example of this phenomenon is The Huffington Post, founded in 2005 by American author and syndicated newspaper columnist Arianna Huffington, which hosts dozens of other bloggers who post mostly on politics and current affairs.[6]
The origin of blog can be traced back to the time when people started to maintain log or personal diary. According to Oxford Dictionary, a log is an official record of events during a particular period of time, especially a journey on a ship or plane.
Maintaining a diary was something many parents advocated to their school going children. It served two purposes: improve language skills and handwriting. The beneficial side effect was that it was a record of one's daily activities as a child—something that was interesting to read in later years. Diaries are seen as intimate friends by those who maintain them. The private accounts, the writer's intimate thoughts and ideas which are detailed in diaries offer a glimpse into the person's true nature. This makes diaries interesting reading and probably the most famous of such an account is the one by Anne Frank which chronicles her and her family's life under the Nazi rule during World War II, and which was ultimately published. Tragic accounts aside, the content of a diary—no matter how mundane from the writer's perspective—can be interesting to people in a different place and time.[7]
We are witnessing the biggest revolution in publishing since the Gutenberg press was invented over 570 years ago. The printing press enabled writers to become best-selling authors by providing them with the means to mass produce books for the first time. Authors that were in the right place at the right time included Luther and Erasmus (who was reputed to have sold 750,000 copies during his lifetime). Italy became the early publishing center of Europe with print shops established in 77 cities by 1500.
Blogging started in the 1990′s as online diaries. In 2011 Huffington Post, which became the largest blog in the world was sold to AOL for $315 million. Blogging has changed and is evolving to whole new level that is global, instant and multi-media.[8]
[1] Peter Merholz jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase “we blog” in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.
[2] Michael Aaron Dennis, "blog." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. (CD-ROM).
[3] John Baker, Origins of "Blog" and "Blogger", American Dialect Society Mailing List (www. linguistlist.org: 17/4/2013), http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0804C&L=ADS-L&P=R16795&I=-3.
[4] ___, “Our history in depth “(www.google.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.google.com/about/company/history/
[5] ___, “The Story of Blogger” (www.blogger.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.blogger.com/about.
[6] Michael Aaron Dennis, "blog." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. (CD-ROM).
[7] Team Digit, eds., Fast Track to Blogging (Mumbai: 9.9 Interactive Pvt. Ltd, 2003), 2.
[8] Jeff Bullas, Past, Present and Future of Blogging: 3 Infographics (www.jeffbullas.com: 17/4/2013), http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/16/past-present-and-future-of-blogging-3-infographics/.
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