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The Origin of Blogs and Blogging

    Hello dear readers, when teacher Tara proposed for members of EC community to write about blogging, first, it sounded like an incredible oportunity to know deeper this incredible tool! One which bloggers keep in contact oftentimes or even everyday.  Second, I thought about a meaningful topic which I could talk here. After all, blogs are so popular today, that is almost impossible not to have only one topic related, which it wasn't previously explored. After some time of research and uncertainties about my choice, I considered talk about the origins of this tool.Why not? I explain. Thanks to the historic unfoldings, we have the privilege to have this facility available in our hands clicks-away. Follow me in this history to deepen a bit more your skills of blogs and blogging.

   The word "blog" comes from the word "Weblog" or "web log", which conveys the idea of a website wherein its entries are displayed in reverse chronological sequence, although is written in chronological one. The covered topic can be as distinguished as  you can imagine. It can contribute for its content besides owner, users or external website/ blog.

   The most primitive form of blog is credited for Links.net, by Justin Hall in 1994. At that time, Justin attended Swarthmore College in USA, and his work wasn't recognised as a "blog". He himself saw his work as a personal page only. The page was a place just for his thoughts, but, in a way, could change how everybody could share their ideas on the Web.

   In 1997, people start using websites as personal pages more and more, while the word "weblog" came to light for the first time, being attributed to Jorn Barger in his blog Robot Wisdom.

   In 1999, the programmer Peter Merholz shortened "Weblog" for "blog". That time, creating and mainly keeping a blog was an activity for few, since, the blog's updates were manual, most of them linked from a home page or archive and so, hard to handle. If you want a customizable option you should have some technical background. This way, options for begginers were still missing.

   Also that period, blog platforms got started to be developed. It was the online diarie's era! What can be emphasized relating to this epoch is in two words:privacy and simplicity. Blogs didn't promote your content outside their own environment, so,you couldn't share your posts on social networks, for example. Users, most technology experts, only could alter settings like colour standards or unimportant layout features. Thus, blogging was made in a certain way, privatively, once, just people that knew your adress could find your blog, and, simply, because significant setting changings were  exception. Xanga, LiveJournal and Blogger services are between some of the blog platforms of this time.

   The blogging skyline of previous period started to change when bloggers get interested in fresh content, the content which was better in quality. They felt the need to get out of their reduced "little world" of contacts in search of new stuff.

   Do you want to know what follows? Then, I'll tell you  in the second part of my blog "The origin of Blogs and Blogging". I hope your have the same enthusiasm to read it! Coming soon!

Goodbye for now,

Daniel.