Blogging is 25 years old. Thanks Dave!

Today is a special day. Not just for me, but for the blogosphere in general. It is through Dave Winer, amongst others, how I have found true joy and passion in this thing called blogging. Now, at this time, marks the 25 years anniversary when Dave started his blog scripting.com. I was just online back then, together with some friends we found this thing called De Digitale Stad and it was just a few months later I decided to buy my own computer and get online through Planet Internet. That’s when Dave was already writing everyday. On his own mothership.

It took me five years to find him, when I started my own blog. I think it was through Adam Curry how I found out about Dave. I found the software he wrote, like Radio Userland and Frontier. I tried it all but to be honest, I found it all very confusing at the time. But I kept following Dave. We met only once, at a dinner in Amsterdam back in 2001. Adam Curry had invited some people from the USA. Together with Marc Canter, Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan and a few Dutch folks, we had a nice evening in Amsterdam. This was just a few months before 9/11 and your blog blew up as a central hub for all the local news from New York when it was most needed. That showed me the power of blogging.

Dave’s blog is one constant in my online life. The last couple of years I lost track of blogs and RSS in favor of social media, but with my renewed interest in the web and how you should have your own turf instead of just leased land, Scripting.com is on my daily media-intake.

Dave, I want to thank you for all the inspiration you are in what you do and how you do it. Your Morning Coffee Notes inspired me to do my own Sunday Morning Tea Notes for a while. I admire your independent thinking and how you go against the grain to pursuit your own goals. I am in awe how you keep on truckin’ with new software, new apps, new ideas sometimes as a half repo in Github but who cares. I try out what you make, sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. But that’s cool.You are still the OG Blogfather!

Blog on, still diggin’!