So Who’s the First Blogger?
So there’s the elusive question. Who’s the world’s first ever blogger. A CNet article discusses how ten years ago, the concept of blogs was born, and who the people involved were.
Was the first blogger 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”?
Or did all three merely make incremental improvements on earlier proto-blogs? The answer is most likely “yes” to all of the above. In truth, awarding the title “first blogger” is more than a little tricky because the definitions of blog and blogger are slippery. Any definition should probably include posts sorted by date, with the newest posts at the top and the rest archived for future use (criteria that would eliminate the Drudge Report, for instance).
CNet points out, quite correctly, that the main problem here is firstly how to define the concept of blogging. Is it the format, meaning reverse-chronological updates? Or is it the intent, meaning to share opinion or stories? Or is it the method of publication? The use of hyperlinking to relevant external sites? Or is it the presence of reader comments?
However you would define the concept of the Web Log, it boils down to one thing: do we really need to know who the first ever blogger was? I think it would be nearly impossible to determine that. And if ever you were to single out someone that fits the title, you’d be sure to have someone contest that claim.
I tend to think that it’s not an issue of who the first blogger was. It’s not a question of who was there first, but I think what’s more important is identifying the people who have made significant contributions that have now shaped what blogging is, and that have raised blogging to a higher level and importance to the eyes of the rest of the world.
What do you think?