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A Decade of RasterWeb!

On this day, ten years ago, a weblog named RasterWeb! appeared for the first time on the internet.

Today, it is one of the the longest continuing running weblogs on the Internet.

This site may have played a big role in several important trends.

  • It may have helped bootstrap the blogging world.
  • It was the one of the early sites involved in podcasting.

Ok, with apologies to Dave Winer for the above, this is the 10 year anniversary of this weblog. When I say that, I mean that this is one of the original blogs. If you go to jjg’s the page of only weblogs and look at “ye olde skool” list, those are the folks who were around at the same time, pre-2000, and blogging regularly. Follow those links today, and many are gone, some are still around but on hiatus, and many have lost their archives due to moving to different weblog systems over the years. Scripting News started in April 1997, CamWorld in June of 1997, and RasterWeb! in August of 1997. For each of those you can still get to the archives, and the first posts. I consider this somewhat important. We’re bloggers, who believe in the long-term. I’ve seen people who say they’ve been blogging since 1996, and when pushed they say how they had a journal or a Geocities site that is long gone, or they changed sites 5 times or whatever. Blogging is somewhat about the permanence, the fact that you stand behind what you say, and people can link to it, and that link is gonna be there a month or a year, or 5 years later. I worked meticulously to re-write any links when I moved from zymm.com to rasterweb.net many years back. My first thought, as a blogger, was that I didn’t want to break the links of people who linked to things I was saying. I hated when big media sites did it, so I didn’t want to.

So while Dave Winer and Cameron Barrett are pretty well known, I am definitely not “internet famous” in any way. I don’t live in California, or New York, and haven’t done anything amazing to bring attention to myself, I’ve just been blogging for 10 years. I’m probably most well known as being the guy who told Drew (of Dawn and Drew fame) that he should try podcasting. That’s just fine with me. I’ve gotten a lot out of blogging over the years. No, it didn’t help me get a job when I needed one, or make any amazing business deals, but what it has done is help connect me with many amazing people over the years, people I consider my friends. This to me is much more valuable than anything else, the connections I’ve made, and the people I’ve met. That’s what it’s all about.

Now, on a less serious note, I’ve take Cam out of the list of “continually running weblogs” since he often goes months without a post, and then may only have 1 in a month, so really, after Dave’s Scripting News, I think RasterWeb! is the second longest continually running weblog on the internet with all archives still available and all old links still working” So there. As soon as Dave quits, I will earn the title! And that’s the real reason I keep doing this. (But not really, I’m just kidding about that part.)

So that’s it. 10 years. I look forward to another 10. See ya on the internets…

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Podcasting Correction

Through some odd set of circumstances, I ended up searching Amazon for my own name, and found that I was mentioned in the Podcasting Bible.

Podcasting Bible: Page 40

In the image above you’ll see some highlighted text that says “Amphetadesk, an RSS newsreader developed by Pete Prodoehl” The problem is, that text is inaccurate and/or misleading. I’m not one to take credit for things I didn’t do. (But wait, isn’t the history of Podcasting filled with people taking credit for what they didn’t do?) Morbus Iff was the lead developer of Amphetadesk. Morbus is a friend of mine, and I was a big fan of Amphetadesk. I don’t know that any of my code or suggestions ever went into Amphetadesk, but I did create a skin for Amphetadesk which enabled the links found in RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures.

It appears the Podcasting Bible was published by Wiley in February 2007. Oddly enough, some of my writing oes appear in another Wiley book, Videoblogging. I mentioned that in the post I am a (Contributing) Author!

Anyway, if you want to give me credit for things I didn’t do, please feel free to do so… but you should know that I may try to set the record straight.

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Podcasting in September 2004

One year ago this week marks a point in time when podcasting really started to take off, and when it got it’s “official” (still widely complained about) name…

What? You want to see what I had to say? Take a look at these messages: 52, 64, 82, 85, 144, 146, 149, 187, 201, 215, 211, 264, 282, 288, 322, and 339.

It seems like I was the “reluctant evangelist” suggesting that “we” or “someone” should work on evangelizing podcasting… Well, I’m an idea man, I can’t be expected to take action on all of my ideas! (Luckily others did…)

One more, the first mention of “podcasting” on the list (courtesy of Dannie J. Gregoire) one year ago today…

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A Mention, A Mention!

Ha! Look at that! blood and mathowie discuss me… (I said “discuss” not “disgust” mind you!)

But if that were the case, then all the early bloggers would be well known. RasterWeb (b. 1997), Now This (b. 1997), and the Bradlands (b. 1998) should have much more traffic than you…

The funny thing is, it’s sort of like “Hey, they’ve been around forever and are still unpopular! Which happens to be just fine with me, as popularity has never really been a goal of RasterWeb! or a goal of mine either…

For the record (not that anyone will read this, since, you know, I am unpopular and have no readers even though I’ve been at it for nearly 8 years…) Where was I? Rambling again, maybe that’s my problem… Ah yes, To give back to the internet, to share what I know, to open ports of communication and all that, to discuss with like-minded freak, geeks, and nerds the things I find fascinating, to write, and rant, and make cool things… I love the internet! Creative people need an outlet. Need it! Without that they go insane. This is one of my outlets…

I also think that what Matt overlooks is that he created or was involved with some very high-profile web sites, and was employed by high-profile companies, and of course does not live in the midwest. I also don’t really go to conferences or hang out with the cool kids of blogging, so few people really know me that well outside of this site. Crap, I’ve known Dave Winer on mailing lists and the web for like 10 years now, and last fall he thought I lived in Denmark or something!

Highlight of my day, mathowie says:

I still read RasterWeb…

Thanks Matt!

(BTW, the proper spelling is RasterWeb! but I’ll let it go, as I certainly don’t expect people to remember such minute details… I truly will claim the title of “toiling away in obscurity longer than anyone else…” Foo!)

(Update: rebecca fixed the spelling, except for the ! but I’m all Yahoo!-like with that anyway…)

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Harold and the History of Podcasting

Worth a read for more background on the whole podcasting thing: Harold Gilchrist’s My contribution to Audioblogging/Podcasting

Chances are you hear a few names tossed about with the words “invented” and “podcasting” near them, but I’d recommend a bit of history, and Harold can provide some… Each person knows what they brought to the story, but often everyone else only knows what they’re told by the media.