Customer Reviews

Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great book -- It reads like a novel, and contrary to most "business" books it is very well written. Writing present or quasi-present history is a difficult genre and any author will always be suspected of lacking the distance necessary to separate out the wheat from the chaff especially, especially in a world where everybody craves for celebrity status. Scott Rosenberg largely and skillfully avoids this pitfall.
Over the last 25 years, digital technologies have empowered people a little bit more each time, but blogging has brought a new type empowerment, not simply the ability to do more things better and faster, but to say and share things differently. The three main sections of the book describe the progressive expansion of the art of blogging from pioneering individuals to the build-up of the massive blogosphere that has reshaped our connection to what's happening around us and to the news media altogether. The book is a gold mine of information -- and helps better understand the foundations of today's social media.

As a former journalist trained on the job at Forbes, who currently blogs about clean air issues and destinations, I recommend Scott Rosenberg's book, Say Everything. What stood out for me was Scott's explanation about why blogs are meaningful for niche audiences and how trusting the voice of a blogger is not much different than trusting the voice of a mainstream reporter. There's a lot of chatter in the world about how trustworthy a blogger may be. As a former reporter who at times felt chained to the opinions of a magazine and editor, (who in turn may have needed to consider advertisers when writing a story) I believe there's great freedom and honesty that comes with blogging. Like everything in life, we must discern who we will trust. I trust Scott Rosenberg has a good pulse on blogging.

I'm an occasional blogger, for fun not for profit. And I've followed a number of blogs for several years, leading to a few online friendships. I enjoyed this book immensely, especially the chapter titled "Journalists vs. Bloggers." It's the kind of book you can read sort of randomly.

It's a bit weird reading "Say Everything," Scott Rosenberg's book about the history of blogging. I've read lots of tech books, but this one involves many people I know, directly or indirectly, and an industry I've been part of since its relatively early days. I've corresponded with many of the book's characters, linked back and forth with them, even met a few in person from time to time. And I directly experienced and participated in many of the changes Rosenberg writes about.

The history the book tells, mostly in the first couple of hundred pages, feels right. He doesn't try to find The First Blogger, but he outlines how the threads came together to create the first blogs, and where things went after that. Then Rosenberg turns to analysis and commentary, which is also good. I never found myself thinking, Hey, that's not right! or You forgot the most important part!--and according to Rosenberg, that was the feeling about mainstream reporting that got people like Dave Winer, a major instigator of the technology, blogging to begin with.

Rosenberg's last book, "Dreaming in Code," came out only last year, in 2008, so much of what's in "Say Everything" is remarkably current. He covers why blogging is likely to survive newer phenomena like Facebook and Twitter. And he doesn't hold back in his scorn for the largely old-fashioned thinking of his former newspaper colleagues (he used to work at the San Francisco Examiner before helping found [...]).

But then I hit page 317, where he writes:

"...bloggers attend to philosophical discourse as well as pop-cultural ephemera; they document private traumas as well as public controversies. They have sought faith and spurned it, chronicled awful illnesses and mourned unimaginable losses."

That caused a bit of a pang. After all, that's what I've been doing on my blog, writing about my cancer, for the past few years. It hit close to home. Next, page 357:

"For some wide population of bloggers, there is ample reason to keep writing about a troubled marriage or a cancer diagnosis or a death in the family, regardless of how many ethical dilemmas must be traversed, or how trivial or amateurish their labours are judged."

Okay, sure, there are lots of cancer bloggers out there. I'm just projecting my own experience onto Rosenberg's writing, right? Except, several hundred pages earlier, Rosenberg had written about an infamous blogger dustup between Jason Calacanis and Dave Winer at the Gnomedex 2007 conference in Seattle.

The same conference where, via video link, I gave a presentation, about which Rosenberg wrote on his blog:

"Derek K. Miller is a longtime Canadian blogger [who'd] been slated to give a talk at Gnomedex, but he's still recovering from an operation, so making the trip to Seattle wasn't in the cards. Instead, he spoke to the conference from his bed via a video link, and talked about what it's been like to tell the story of his cancer experience in public and in real time. Despite the usual video-conferencing hiccups (a few stuttering images and such), it was an electrifying talk."

Later that month, he mentioned me in an article in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper. When he refers to people blogging about a cancer diagnosis, he doesn't just mean people like me, he means *me*. Thus I don't think I can be objective about this book. I think it's a good one. I think it tells an honest and comprehensive story about where blogging came from and why it's important. Yet I'm too close to the story--even if not by name, I'm *in* the story--to evaluate it dispassionately.

Then again, as Rosenberg writes, one of blogging's strengths is in not being objective. In declaring your interests and conflicts and forging ahead with your opinion and analysis anyway, and interacting online with other people who have other opinions.

So, then: "Say Everything" is a good book. You should read it--after all, not only does it talk about a lot of people I know, I'm in it too!

Originally posted at [...]
JWT sent me this book by Scott Rosenberg on blogging's first 15 years. In part one, the author (former editor of Salon.com) goes back to the early days of online diaries and link pages. In part two, Rosenberg tells how technological advances (e.g., the simple interface of Blogger, which hosts this blog) led to an explosion of blogging. In part three, Rosenberg gets to the interesting stuff, the impact and future of blogging.

This readable and interesting book left me with these ideas:

* Warnock's Dilemma, i.e., you may get no response to your blog post because:
1. The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There's nothing more to say except "Yeah, what he said."
2. The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.
3. No one read the post, for whatever reason.
4. No one understood the post, but won't ask for clarification, for whatever reason.
5. No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.
I've considered all these reasons when wondering about the lack of comments on posts on this blog.

* The internet has been hard on newspapers (classified ads have moved to Craigslist; weather, sports and business statistics are best viewed online), but magazines are also threatened. I agree with this thinking, and see how daily papers will be replaced by the continuous flow of news from the internet.

* Is blogging journalism? Yes, indeed if it uses the same techniques of journalists (fact-checking, original material, analysis). In fact, I would draw a parallel with the academic world and ask this: "Is blogging academic?" Yes, and academic blogging (on "edublogs"? "Profblogs"? Some better name?) can not only be academic, but better than academic. Consider:
o Blogs are faster to distribute and free to anyone on the internet.
o Blogs allow commenting, conversation and corrections.
o Blogs allow "infinite" exposition, linking to sources and debate.
The only advantage of academic publication in journals is that such publications are peer reviewed by referees and editors, but that advantage is not exclusive to academic work -- it can work with blogs, and would -- given the speed and breadth of access and conversation -- work even better with blogs. In the words of Marc Andreessen: "It is crystal clear to me now that at least in industries where lots of people are online, blogging is the single best way to communicate and interact." We (academics) should keep this in mind as we debate the future of academic discourse. (Of course, Tyler Cowen is already on board.)

Bottom Line: Blogging is important to our culture and our intellectual growth. I give this book four stars for its thorough, clear and contextual explanation of the history and importance of blogging.

Mr Rosenberg has done it again with "Say Everything". The last book, "Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software" was one of my favorite books about being in the software trenches. in "Say Everything", Mr Rosenberg takes on a much bigger task - giving us the story of the internet via the very abridged history of blogging according to him.

First the negatives, the book is very much centered on the "according to Mr. Rosenberg" bloggers. So the proto social blogging site Livejournal gets barely 2 pages (when it fact it formed the basis for community/friend blogging - at least in my myopic worldview). There is also some repetition and the first chapter doesn't read anywhere near as well as the rest of the book. It could be that I really didn't care about Justin Hall, but even after the chapter I failed to see why I should care about him.

However right after that it takes of with the story of David Winer. Now we had a real personality and possibly the start of "blogging" via email lists. Things would heat up from there as we are told (or retold) the story of Blogger. The story of Heather Armstrong was quite well done and it made for a compelling chapter on one of the pitfalls of laying all your cards on the table. Heck, one of my favorite bloggers/media personalities out there, Anna Marie Cox, even got a few shout outs (though maybe not in the most flattering light)

However the best part comes a little past midway. It's here that Mr Rosenberg talks about blogging and journalism. This is quite fascinating stuff; the pains, the blinders, the confusion and the denial are all quite palpable. It's clean that there isn't a lot of love from Mr Rosenberg for the old media and I'm sure the feelings are mutual. This chapter, more than any other, was worth the price of admission.

If you are looking for a fun, occasionally inspiring book to read then "Say Everything" could be for you. Just remember that you are only seeing a pinpoint on the tip of the iceberg when you read it.

SAY EVERYTHING: HOW BLOGGING BEGAN, WHAT IT'S BECOMING, AND WHY IT MATTERS offers a history of blogging's rise and triumph, consider its impact on political, social, business and personal lives and providing close-ups of Blogger founders and innovators who pioneered the industry. Chapters discuss pre- and post-blogging environments with an eye to revealing how society has changed because of them.

"Say Everything" is a detailed account of the history of blogging as well as the individuals who brought about this medium which is growing in popularity each day. I had read other books on blogging, however there was much I was not aware of that became apparent as I was making my way through this book. For example, did you know that blogging has been around for roughly 15 years? This is one aspect that I found astounding considering that much of the population is just now becoming aware of blogs.

The author writes in great detail, probably providing more information than most would likely care to know - although this is one of the strengths of this book - even if you are well versed in the Internet and blogging you will get something out of "Say Everything." On the other hand if you are new to blogging and would like to learn what everyone is talking about, this book makes the topic approachable.

One complaint I do have is this book felt very long to me. At nearly 400 pages it sometimes felt as if I would never finish. This style seems strikingly contrary to the format of blogging - which lends itself to short bursts of easily digestible information. I feel that "Say Everything" would have been much stronger if it actually followed the blogging format - it felt strangely out of place to treat the topic so comprehensively, yet in an pre-blogging style of writing. Although this should not discourage you from purchasing this book, it is worth noting as some investment in time is required.

Overall I found "Say Everything" to be a fascinating read based on the author's perspective as a blogging insider who had witnessed the early days of the medium firsthand. Although a bit long, it is worth the time and effort if you are interested in blogging, and the Internet.

Scott Rosenberg takes tons of information and puts in in the context of some really interesting people like Justin Hall and some world-changing events like 9/11 to give us a history of the Net and blogging. Even though these are both topics I'm familiar with, I learned a lot. And more importantly, it really got me thinking about what came before and what might be down the road for blogs and whatever is next. Definitely recommend even if you're only slightly interested in the topic.

Scott's overview of the who, what, when, where and why of blogging is tremendous. It's a terrific read - not too insidery for people who didn't live through this, and pitch-perfect for those who did. He covers the controversies without picking sides, makes old stories relevant by showing their connection to today's trends, and manages to highlight many of the right personalities to tell the broader arc of blogging.

This isn't a geek book - Scott appropriately stays away from endless acronyms, buzzwords and jargon, and instead rightly focuses on the stories that have helped make so many of us devotees of the medium. If you're wondering why there are so many blogs today, it's hard to imagine a better primer than Say Everything. More importantly, if you want to understand what that ubiquity means as we look ahead, give the book a read.