Blogs, Blogs, Blogs...

When I was in grad school, my other techy friends and I were the "early adopters" of the English Department. Okay, we were the geeks. We had our writing students creating websites to showcase their writing and talking on bulletin boards and listservs as early as 1994 -- back when Netscape was Mosaic and before Internet Explorer was a gleam in Bill Gates' eye. Heck, we were using the web back when it was still text-based. Anyone remember Lynx? Just me? mmkay...

Over the those first few years the web was really exploding, and one of us was always beta-testing some kind of web-based program or another. I still remember popping into the computer lab to hang out and hearing Mark (one of my fellow computers & writing geek buddies) announce that he'd just started a "blog." I think my exact response was, "A what?" He explained that blog was short for web-log, and they were online journals, ways of telling others about the cool sites you'd found. Like so many of the other things we were doing with our students, blogs were another way make yourself heard and share your thoughts with other like-minded (or not so like-minded) folks.

Even at the beginning there was a sense that the web was going to change the way people communicated. And, boy did it. Well... once you get past the fact that an awful lot of online writing L00KS LIEK THIS1!!1!1!1 these days. ::shudder:: Still, I don't think you can argue the web hasn't changed the way we share information and entertain ourselves. Anyone read The Tipping Point? It talks about how trends and concepts and products reach a point of critical mass to become part of the cultural fabric. Some time in the last couple of years, that happened with blogs.

Depending on whom you ask, there now are anywhere between 8 million and 24 million blogs online. Really does anyone not have a blog? Okay, I don't. I'd better go buy a video iPod before they revoke my early-adopter card. I think maybe more important than sheer numbers is the way that blogs have evolved into positions of real power and relevance. Music blogs are pushing a resurgence of indie music, writers' blogs are giving a new way to talk to readers and giving readers unprecedented access to their favorite authors (waves to the Quills). Political blogs are changing the way reporters are doing their jobs--for better or ill. Bloggers are even credited (or blamed, depending on your political affiliation) with bringing down Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and CBS anchor Dan Rather from their positions of power.

So what say you? Have you jumped on the blogging train yet? What are your favorite blogs?

--Cissy Hartley, mystery blogger
writerspace.com