8.27.2001

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOGGER
[ Reprinted courtesy of NextDraft, a cool service that will send you these types of daily communiques when you subscribe ]

It really wasn't all about the money. Sure the money was a factor for many internet companies and anyone who even discussed the topic of the web ended up spending some time talking about the dough. It was the story after all. We haven't seen too many booms like that in history and the ridiculous accumulations of wealth made for some pretty decent fodder. And it was, in many ways, the most simple part of the story so it was covered heavily. And now that the money part of the web has calmed down, the only story out there seems to be that the money is gone. But is was never the only story.

Perhaps the most common and most irritating angle taken was the incessant coverage of the dot com parties. First these events were painfully over-covered. Then the end of these parties was even more painfully blanketed. As a person involved in the internet 'scene' I was occasionally interviewed to comment on some topic. The most common of these was the rise and/or demise of the internet party. Here's a little secret. Most people who went to those parties were there for two reasons. First, back in the heyday, everyone was working until two in the morning, so these parties were almost like a lunch break. Second, everyone was incredibly excited about their work and wanted to hang out and chat with others who were equally excited. When you have a front row seat at the revolution, who wants to go home? Sure there was talk of options and stock prices. But when the market went crazy, these were also topics of conversation around many dinner tables. And the media could always find some twenty-something dot com millionaire idiot who was willing to show reporters the view from his new penthouse or take a camera crew for a spin in the new convertible. There is perhaps no less intriguing and less impressive combination than very new money mixed with unctuous insecurity, a desperate need to compensate, thoughtlessness about others, an inability to understand and accept the very real element of luck, and a new set of wheels.

But that was never the real story.

The real story is about companies like Blogger. Two years ago this week, the folks at Blogger.com created a simple tool that enabled users to easily post comments and thoughts to their own web sites. Over the last two years, thousands of writers and artists (even those who previously had no idea that they were either) have used this tool to create their own public diaries or highly trafficked sites. Some of the sites are just a collection of random thoughts visited by friends. Others are topic-specific and welcome thousands of visitors a day. None of these sites cost millions to produce. Blogger itself is currently being run by one guy.

The web removed a barrier. An obstacle that often separated creativity from action has been poked full of holes. Long after we forget the details of the economic revolution, we will still enjoy the fruits of the creative one. The internet makes sharing one's thoughts or art as simple as pressing the send button. That's what many people were really talking about at all those parties - how empowering it is that products they envisioned and built were being used by millions of people throughout the world. The internet economy will rise again and technology will be, in many ways, the central driver of growth across many parts of the world. In dot com regions like the Valley and SF the gloom that accompanies joblessness and crushed companies will gradually lift. And the parties? Will they return? Well, in many parts of the web, they never stopped. In fact, there is one going on right now.

Happy second Birthday, Blogger.
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[ From the 8.24.01 issue of NextDraft, reprinted here.....well.......cut'n'pasted here, if you can call that reprinting........hit this link to subscribe. ]

8.21.2001

Resettling

Your Humble Chronicler happily reports that The Band has safely and (more or less) smoothly made the transition from the BIG city (Pittsburgh, PA, population ~3 million) to the small town (Tallmadge, Ohio, population 16.5.....thousand!). The New Gig is underway, Sonshine is enrolled in his new school, El Chat Diablo (aka Ferocite) has adapted to his new expanded (and carpeted) digs and we've even found a preliminary dry cleaner nearby the new 'hood. Our Muse continues to search for the right new gig for herself, whiling away the time at home tutoring the next door neighbor's 2-mo-old cat, Bingo (aka Bongo, JoJo, TinyCat and, most recently, Uma Thumban), a little orange waif of a feline, with six claws on each front paw.

I will also happily report that We Are Not Missing the Big Old Bad Old City. At all. While it will likely never fade to a distant memory, it's also about as likely that it will ever rise to the level of High Nostalgia, such as lola describes here.

Later.

- - R.