after midnight

I've been researching blogs for a presentation on the personal essay...Interesting links I've run into so far:

1. http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html early definition of blogs/blogging

"In early 1999 Brigitte Eaton compiled a list of every weblog she knew about and created the Eatonweb Portal. Brig evaluated all submissions by a simple criterion: that the site consist of dated entries. Webloggers debated what was and what was not a weblog, but since the Eatonweb Portal was the most complete listing of weblogs available, Brig's inclusive definition prevailed."

2. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/06/13/megnut.html

This article works to define “blog.” Of note:

“Blog posts are short, informal, sometimes controversial, and sometimes deeply personal, no matter what topic they approach. They can be characterized by their conversational tone and unlike a more formal essay or speech, a blog post is often an opening to a discussion, rather than a full-fledged argument already arrived at.“
(Of note because I'm comparing blogs to personal essays...underlined because I thought this part was particularly pertinent to something that seemed important at the time, and I can't get rid of the underlining with my very limited html. I suppose I could re-paste it into this post, but it's 12:14, and I've been on my way to bed for an hour.)

3. Edward Cone: A Personal Look at Blogging Tue, May 28, 2002; by Dave Winer.

http://davenet.scripting.com/2002/05/28/edwardConeAPersonalLookAtBlogging

“This is part of blogging’s true power, the democratization of the distribution of information. Goldberg says that bloggers can only feed off the work of the mainstream press, but bloggers will lead, drive, and shape the news coverage of the major media, too. (")

“And blogging provides a forum for stuff I don’t have room for elsewhere-ephemera, short items, personal notes, my pet theory that the Dwarves are Tolkien’s Jews-as well as a testing ground for work in progress."

All very interesting in it's way (ugh- the underlining is now inescapable!)...