There have been several articles, blogposts and books written about blogging: what it is and how it started and where it’s going. Here are some links to some of the best of them :

This piece from SimonWorld.com (Aug 2004) is a must read.

Probably the most comprehensive collection of blog related articles:  Plasticbag.org

Rebecca Blood’s famous essay: weblogs: a history and perspective, (7 September 2000)

In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of “other sites like his” as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse’s ‘page of only weblogs’ lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999….

Read More at Rebecca’s Pocket

Ten Tips from Metascene: Are you sure you want to do this?

Posting a weblog or any kind of personal web page should be fun. If you are not having a good time, why bother? If you are doing this for reasons other than personal satisfaction, chances are you will be disappointed. If you’re not having fun putting it together, how can you expect other folks to have a good time reading it?

Read More at: Metascene’s Old Site

Some Early Stuff:

This just might be the first “weblog” posting. It’s Marc Andersen with Mosaic’s “What’s New” page.

This page from Justin Hall’s “Links from the Underground” was an early prototype.

And a piece by William Gibson predicted what he called “presurfing”. That is getting interesting links together and putting them on a page for visitors so they could find them easily without the bother of discovering the sites themselves.

“Pretty soon I think there’ll be people who make a
living pre-surfing it for you. There’s a real need for that — otherwise it becomes this monster time-sink. You can just sit there forever. Looking. Looking. And maybe not finding anything. Seeing a lot of goofy stuff”.

A very early exponent of this and a legendary blogger (who seems to go missing every so often) is Jorn Barger, who is credited with coining the term “weblog’, with his RobotWisdom site.

And a dissenting opinion from John Dvorak

Blogs, or Web logs, are all the rage in some quarters. We’re told that blogs will evolve into a unique source of information and are sure to become the future of journalism. Well, hardly. Two things are happening to prevent such a future: The first is wholesale abandonment of blog
sites, and the second is the casual co-opting of the blog universe by Big Media

Read it HERE

And a response from Shel Israel in “An Open Letter to John C. Dvorak”

Here is another piece by Dvorak.

It is quite amusing and sarcastic and still, sadly, relevant. He’s got a point about blogging pretentiousness and hubris. But with 90 million blogs I think his is a lost cause.

UPDATE: Hey! Dvorak eventually became an enthusiastic blogger himself as you can see HERE.

Anil Dash comments  on Dvorak’s piece and gives a great summing up of what blogging is or could be:

…here are a few other ways you can have a weblog:
*Remind people that there are real families and emotions behind the news stories they see.

*Start a literate, challenging discussion on the future of the online realm, particularly in the world of personal expression.

*Share a simple, universal anecdote with the world. Remind us of our humanity.

*Make me laugh. Spill the beans on what you’ve been up to.

*Show me where the tech world that I am so interested in is going to be moving in the future.

Or, you can do what some traditional journalists do, and just snipe at the easy marks in a medium full of exceptional work. Should we point out that 90% of technology journalism practiced by Dvorak and his ilk consists of “this software/hardware company put out a press release
announcing a new product that’s got bug fix/15% faster performance!” Trolling, even in print, is unbecoming.

Dash comes back for more..

Hell, let’s keep it rolling:

*Change the world. No, really. By starting a dialogue between two antagonized groups.

*Document your life. Take those small vignettes that make up a whole
life and open them up to the world, not out of narcissism, but because
there’s something universal and important to everyone’s experiences,
even those of us who don’t have monthly columns.

*Be a mentor, an elder statesman. Share the knowledge and experience
you’ve gained to help others in your area of expertise. Let others gain
from your perspective, without the pretense or intermediation of being
an “expert” in a traditional forum.

*Point a magnifying glass on the absurd. I don’t get enough smiles in
my day, and I don’t read enough good writing. Am I greedy for wanting to see more?

*Share your fixation. Love fonts and typography? Soup? Find the people who think that’s cool.

Oh, and yeah. If you just want to be a high-school kid, keeping up to date with your friends, posting lyrics to your favorite songs, bitching about your mean teacher who gave you a bad grade? That’s cool too. Don’t believe anybody who tells you otherwise. They’re just afraid of what will happen with a generation that grows up used to expressing themselves well in a medium that is threatening to the old folks. (Anil Dash 2002)

Some more interesting links:

The Art of the Blog by Maria Schneider

Web logs are the new online journaling craze. Get on board the buzz with this guide on how to blog!

The Network Is The Computer by John Hiler  (co-developer of Xanga)

Who Cares What You Think? Blog and Find Out  by Howard Kurtz

You’ve Got Blog by Rebecca Blood

How to put your business,  your boyfriend, and your life on-line.

The Art of Blogging - Part 1 by George Siemens

Overview, Definitions, Uses, and Implications

The Art of Blogging - Part 2 by George Siemens


Getting Started, “How To”, Tools, Resources.

The following is a list of guidelines for beginning bloggers:

1. Start. As stated earlier, blogging is best learned by blogging…and by reading other bloggers. So…start.

2. Know your motivation. Why are you blogging? What do you hope to achieve?

3. Link. The heart of blogging is linking…linking and commenting. Connecting and communicating - the purpose of the Internet.

4 Experiment. Developing a writing style is an evolutionary process. Try different approaches and formats until you find one that fits your message, audience, and personal motivations.

5.Use life and your experiences as your “idea generation” file.

6.Get an opinion. Then express it.

7.Express your personality…let your humour, your perspective on life, and your values shine in your writing.

8.Post regularly. This is important - readers drop off/lose interest with irregular blogs (syndication and aggregators allow blog readers to stay in touch with infrequently updated blogs - more on that in the section “Extending Blogs”).

9.Keep your writing clear and concise. Avoid jargon…but utilize the unique aspects of the medium (visual, links, sound).Focus on communication (function) before form.
 
10.Write for a reason, not recognition. Most bloggers have small audiences. Satisfaction is derived from the writing process, not the audience response.  (George Siemens)

How to Write a Better Weblog  by Dennis A. Mahoney

So you want to blog and why wouldn’t you?  by Mike Murray

It’s all the rage. but maybe you don’t know how to get started or you
really don’t know what a weblog is. if that is the case then I’m here
to help you out. I’ll share with you what I have discovered as I’ve
read and created blogs.

I tidied this up a bit today and I’ll be adding some more recent observations about blogging in the near future. Having said that, these pieces represent the views of some of the very earliest bloggers and the advice from most of them is, perhaps surprisingly, just as relevant today as it was back then.