THE FIRST MAINSTREAM PUBLICATION to mention the word "blogs" was The New York Times on August 2, 1999. While blogging has receded as a touchpoint for everyday discussion, services like WordPress continue offering compelling reasons to host content on the open internet instead of behind closed apps such as Instagram and Facebook.
Some claimed that weblogs didn't get started until late 1999, a few months after Blogger was first deployed. This was contradicted by the Times article and by by Scott Rosenberg at Salon, in May 1999. Both pieces reported on a weblog world that was already established and growing. Today, nearly every student in my university classrooms were born after I started blogging. Most of them prefer their short form news and information via Instagram. I doubt any of them have commented on or subscribed to a blog.
I still read Dave Winer's daily musings on Scripting News but normally I scroll Dave while swiping through Inoreader or Feedly.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches blogging fundamentals during a Content Management Systems module for the Technological University of the Shannon.]
