Editing Blog (section)

===Origins===
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including [[Usenet]], commercial online services such as [[GEnie]], [[Byte Information Exchange]] (BIX) and the early [[CompuServe]], [[electronic mailing list|e-mail lists]],<ref>The term "e-log" has been used to describe journal entries sent out via e-mail since as early as March 1996.{{cite web|last=Norman|first=David|title=Users confused by blogs|date=July 13, 2005|url=http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2005-07/msg00208.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607235110/http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2005-07/msg00208.html|archive-date=June 7, 2007|access-date =June 5, 2008}} {{cite web|title=Research staff and students welcome 'E-Log'|publisher=University College London|date=December 2003|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news-archive/archive/2003/december-2003/latest/newsitem.shtml?03120901|access-date=June 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812190236/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news-archive/archive/2003/december-2003/latest/newsitem.shtml?03120901 |archive-date=August 12, 2007}}</ref> and [[bulletin board system]]s (BBS). In the 1990s, [[Internet forum]] software created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual "[[Bulletin board|corkboard]]".{{Explain|reason=Too vague|date=May 2023}}

Berners-Lee also created what is considered by [[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopedia Britannica]] to be "the first 'blog{{' "}} in 1992 to discuss the progress made on creating the World Wide Web and software used for it.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Dennis |first1=Michael Aaron |author-link1=Michael Aaron Dennis |last2=Hosch |first2=William L. |last3=Tikkanen |first3=Amy |date=2007-04-11 |title=blog |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/blog |access-date=2023-05-03 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>

From June 14, 1993, Mosaic Communications Corporation maintained their "What's New"<ref>"[http://home.mcom.com/home/whats-new.html What's New!]". Mosaic Communications Corporation. Retrieved June 15, 2013.</ref> list of new websites, updated daily and archived monthly. The page was accessible by a special "What's New" button in the Mosaic web browser.

In November 1993 [[Ranjit Bhatnagar]] started writing about interesting sites, pages and discussion groups he found on the internet, as well as some personal information, on his website Moonmilk, arranging them chronologically in a special section called Ranjit's HTTP Playground.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://moonmilk.com/playground.html |title=Ranjit's HTTP playground |date=1998-05-19 |website=Moonmilk |access-date=2023-11-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/19980519210345/http://moonmilk.com/playground.html |archive-date=1998-05-19}}</ref> Other early pioneers of blogging, such as [[Justin Hall]], credit him with being an inspiration.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Rosenberg |first=Scott |subject-link= Scott Rosenberg (journalist) |interviewer=Simon Owens |title=Scott Rosenberg Traces the Blogosphere's Origins |work=Mediashift |date=23 September 2008 |publisher=PBS |quote=For instance, Justin Hall started his site in January 1994, before most of us had heard of the web. I asked him, 'Well, you're one of the first bloggers, was there anyone out there who you were getting inspiration from?' And he pointed me to this other guy named Ranjit Bhatnagar who was keeping a site at moonmilk.com in 1993. And, sure enough, it was a reverse chronological list of stuff he found on the web. |url=http://mediashift.org/2008/09/scott-rosenberg-traces-the-blogospheres-origins266/ |access-date=26 November 2023}}</ref>

The earliest instance of a commercial blog was on the first [[business to consumer]] Web site created in 1995 by [[Ty Inc|Ty, Inc.]], which featured a blog in a section called "Online Diary". The entries were maintained by featured [[Beanie Babies]] that were voted for monthly by Web site visitors.<ref name=BeanieBabies>{{cite book|last=Bissonnette|first=Zac|date=March 2015|title=The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute|publisher=Penguin Books|chapter=The $12-per-hour Sociology Major Who Made Ty Warner a Billionaire| pages=107–121|isbn=978-1591846024}}</ref>

The modern blog evolved from the [[online diary]] where people would keep a running account of the events in their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. [[Justin Hall]], who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at [[Swarthmore College]], is generally recognized as one of the earlier bloggers,<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/20/MNGBKBEJO01.DTL|title=Time to get a life&nbsp;— pioneer blogger Justin Hall bows out at 31|last=Harmanci|first=Reyhan|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=February 20, 2005|access-date=June 5, 2008}}</ref> as is [[Jerry Pournelle]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/#whatabout |title=Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor |work=jerrypournelle.com |quote= I can make some claim to this being The Original Blog and Daybook. I certainly started keeping a day book well before most, and long before the term "blog" or Web Log was invented. BIX, the Byte information exchange, preceded the Web by a lot, and I also had a daily journal on GE Genie. Both of those would have been considered blogs if there had been any such term. All that was long before the World Wide Web. |author=Pournelle, Jerry |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216092746/https://www.jerrypournelle.com/#whatabout |archive-date= Feb 16, 2024 }}</ref> [[Dave Winer]]'s Scripting News is also credited with being one of the older and longer running weblogs.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-985714.html
|title=Newsmaker: Blogging comes to Harvard
|first=Paul
|last=Festa
|publisher=[[CNET]] News
|date=February 25, 2003
|access-date=January 25, 2007
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707204556/http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-985714.html |archive-date= Jul 7, 2009 }}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|date=June 10, 2002
|first=David F.
|last=Gallagher
|title=Technology; A rift among bloggers
|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DE103DF933A25755C0A9649C8B63
|quote=...Dave Winer... whose Scripting News (scripting.com) is one of the oldest blogs.
|url-access=subscription
|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122150419/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/business/technology-a-rift-among-bloggers.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm |archive-date= Jan 22, 2013
}}</ref> The Australian Netguide magazine maintained the Daily Net News<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/19961112042649/http://netguide.aust.com/daily/index.html Australian Net Guide]". netguide.aust.com (November 12, 1996). Retrieved June 15, 2013.</ref> on their web site from 1996. Daily Net News ran links and daily reviews of new websites, mostly in Australia.

Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, digital video, and digital pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and [[EyeTap]] device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as [[sousveillance]], and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters. Some early bloggers, such as The Misanthropic Bitch, who began in 1997, referred to their online presence as a [[zine]], before the term blog entered common usage.

The first research paper about blogging was [[Torill Mortensen]] and [[Jill Walker Rettberg]]'s paper "Blogging Thoughts",<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mortensen |first1=Torill |last2=Walker|first2=Jill|date=2002|title=Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool|url=https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/1956/13070/Blogging-Thoughts.pdf |via=Bergen Open Research Archive |journal=Researching ICTs in Context|pages=249–279 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220228073152/https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/1956/13070/Blogging-Thoughts.pdf|archive-date= Feb 28, 2022 }}</ref> which analysed how blogs were being used to foster research communities and the exchange of ideas and scholarship, and how this new means of networking overturns traditional power structures.