I Love Blogging

I think the Web has gone like this:

Static - Dynamic - Personal - Connected - Interactive - App - ...?

It all started with the static web, HTML code was typed in using an editor, that file was placed in a special place for a web server to show it to people.

Then we had dynamic, people were no longer creating the HTML for the browsers it was machines doing it (usually based upon templates into which data was squished).

Then comes journals and blogging, initially personal but then connected, which was merely a step up from dynamic. Instead of numbers from a database being squished into the template it was words and pictures. Of course some sites took this and ran with it big time, Facebook, but also WordPress and Twitter among many others. This was called, by some, Web 2.0 or even the ReadWriteWeb.

At the same time, or just after, came interactive, where a web page's contents could be manipulated in the browser. This of course led to more and more complex interactions when finally someone added in "offline" capability and basically they were now fully functioning web apps.

None of this is to say that the previous iteration of the web was completely wiped away by the next, there are plenty of static websites out there, many dynamic ones, and you're currently reading a personal website. Each to their own skills and sensibilities.

I do think that at each step it got easier and easier for non-techies to get involved.

Which is probably why I am in the middle - I'm not using apps coz not enough ability to see the guts, but also not using hand coded static pages coz I can't be arsed.

AND, blogging is personal, mine, I am not trying to convince people of anything, I am not attempting to write the great political argument, and I am certainly not trying to make myself popular by sharing the latest memes or gain credit with someone else's value system.

It's personal.

It's also a side I can present to the world.

It's not in any way a false side of me, but it's certainly not the whole of me.

I’ll never stop blogging: it’s an itch I have to scratch – and I don’t care if it’s an outdated format

“Ramble” is the right word. When blogging, I can meander, take short cuts and trespass in fields where I don’t belong. Because I’m not pitching an idea to a publication or presenting my credentials as an authority, I am able to tackle subjects outside my expertise. It’s highly unlikely I could persuade a magazine to let me write an essay comparing Bob Fosse and Lenny Bruce, or find a thread connecting Fellini’s Amarcord, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Jacques Tati’s Playtime.

And if you are blogging remember, Please, Own Your RSS Links.