Celebrating seven years of blogging

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

December 15, 2000. That’s when I started blogging. In seven years a lot has happened. The first two years of my blog have disappeared. They might be on a hard drive somewhere, I’m still trying to track them down. Dave Winer first linked to me on December 29th (sent me about 3,000 people, if I remember my stats right).

The term “weblog” is 10 years old on Monday. So lots of blogging birthdays. Jorn Barger, the guy who came up with the name, has some tips for new bloggers to celebrate. It’s good advice and advice I try to listen to. It’s amazing that I was three years behind Jorn but that when I started there was still only a very small community of bloggers (less than 200 that I could find — I did some research since Dori Smith asked me to do a session on blogging at the Internet conference I was helping Dan Shafer plan).

The Internet Archive has some of my posts backed up, but the earliest one they have is from February 2001 and the one they have from 9/11 is totally gone.

When I started I had absolutely no idea I’d have worked at two of the world’s biggest technology companies, at least in part because of my blog (NEC and Microsoft) and that I’d have so many fantastic experiences.

Truth is that this form of communication is still in its infancy. Imagine talking about newspapers just 10 years after they were developed and thinking “this is it, no more to do.” Yeah, right.

2008 is going to bring us live streaming video from our cell phones. What’s beyond that? Who knows, but I’m along for the ride!

Thanks to everyone who has sent me a link, called me an idiot, put up with my questions and laugh, read my posts without saying anything, or just joined me someplace for coffee. There are way too many people who’ve added something to my life to list. Dave Winer certainly is at the head of that list, so I’m glad we got to spend the afternoon together today.

In the past seven years I’ve survived:

1. The bubble bursting.
2. A car wreck.
3. A terrorist attack.
4. A divorce.
5. My grandma dying.
6. My mom dying.
7. A new marriage.
8. Five moves.
9. Five jobs (soon to be six).
10. Three URLS (1 http://scobleizer.manilasites.com 2. http://scoble.weblogs.com 3. http://scobleizer.com ).
11. I don’t know how many social networks I’ve been on (Twitter, Upcoming, Seesmic, Kyte, Flickr, Orkut, MySpace, Google Reader, Facebook, Yelp, Pownce, Jaiku are some of the ones I’m on currently).
12. Successfully getting Patrick into teenage years.
13. Birth of a new son, Milan.
14. Writing a book about corporate blogging with Shel Israel, “Naked Conversations.”
15. A new bubble?

Whew, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of interviews I’ve done (about 500 while at Microsoft and about 300 since then) or all the Google Reader shared items (about 8,000 — UPDATE: I just passed 8,000) or the posts I’ve done (I have no clue).

One regret? I’ve never gone back and read old items I’ve posted other then the few I’ve linked to here. I really should look back a bit more and see what life was like.

Anyway, I hope I’m here with you all seven years from now celebrating Milan’s seventh birthday. I wonder what’s going to happen in the next seven years?

Let’s take that ride together, shall we?

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

Published

122 thoughts on “Celebrating seven years of blogging”

  1. Robert, I agree that we are at the beginning of something (not the end). Just got home from the Plaxo holiday party and the energy is high. BIG things coming in 2008 for what will become the “Social Web”.

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  2. Robert, I agree that we are at the beginning of something (not the end). Just got home from the Plaxo holiday party and the energy is high. BIG things coming in 2008 for what will become the “Social Web”.

    Like

  3. I’ve just hit 6 months with my blog. I’ve enjoyed the learning process and enjoyed the discipline of writing and following a great start-up market. Blogging and bloggers can be annoiying if all they do is bitch, but a blog like scobleizer, GigaOm, TechCrunch, and other are awesome. I follow similar topics with my own insite. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS and or del.icio.us (mark as favorite using whatever tool you like) my site and comeback often.

    http://actionstalk.com

    Like

  4. I’ve just hit 6 months with my blog. I’ve enjoyed the learning process and enjoyed the discipline of writing and following a great start-up market. Blogging and bloggers can be annoiying if all they do is bitch, but a blog like scobleizer, GigaOm, TechCrunch, and other are awesome. I follow similar topics with my own insite. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS and or del.icio.us (mark as favorite using whatever tool you like) my site and comeback often.

    http://actionstalk.com

    Like

  15. Congratulations and here’s to many more years. Looking forward to the pics of Patrick’s high school graduation and Milan’s first day of kindergarten.

    Oh, and some more posts about cool new things to try, too!

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  16. Congratulations and here’s to many more years. Looking forward to the pics of Patrick’s high school graduation and Milan’s first day of kindergarten.

    Oh, and some more posts about cool new things to try, too!

    Like

  19. Just: Congratulations.

    I haven’t been here that long, kept hearing your name mentioned, finally made the effort to find and stay, and then went through the phase of obsessive checking and then calming down.

    Thanks.
    for your kindness, openness, wisdom, and more.

    Yours kindly,

    Shakir

    Like

  20. Just: Congratulations.

    I haven’t been here that long, kept hearing your name mentioned, finally made the effort to find and stay, and then went through the phase of obsessive checking and then calming down.

    Thanks.
    for your kindness, openness, wisdom, and more.

    Yours kindly,

    Shakir

    Like

  21. Congrats..

    Reg. the One regret? I’ve never gone back and read old items I’ve posted other then the few I’ve linked to here. I really should look back a bit more and see what life was like.

    Would you like a WordPress plugin which will allow you (the author) to review posts per tag and sequence them in terms of interestingness (What are your recommended ‘blogging’ posts?)

    To expand this, would you also prefer if the readers were able to sort according to their preferences.. ?

    This would result in every reader being able to see one’s own interesting posts and the community’s

    Yes? see http://www.namastenetizen.com/collatodo/wp-sortable/?tag=people

    Like

  22. Congrats..

    Reg. the One regret? I’ve never gone back and read old items I’ve posted other then the few I’ve linked to here. I really should look back a bit more and see what life was like.

    Would you like a WordPress plugin which will allow you (the author) to review posts per tag and sequence them in terms of interestingness (What are your recommended ‘blogging’ posts?)

    To expand this, would you also prefer if the readers were able to sort according to their preferences.. ?

    This would result in every reader being able to see one’s own interesting posts and the community’s

    Yes? see http://www.namastenetizen.com/collatodo/wp-sortable/?tag=people

    Like

  23. Many more than 200. More like 20,000+ about that time, which is when I also started.

    It’s just that the lists were hand edited in that time, and the sheet that Metafilter Matt maintained only listed a very small tree. The elite.

    Some things never change.

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  24. Many more than 200. More like 20,000+ about that time, which is when I also started.

    It’s just that the lists were hand edited in that time, and the sheet that Metafilter Matt maintained only listed a very small tree. The elite.

    Some things never change.

    Like

  25. Totally…! 🙂

    I started blogging in 2004 (Blogger) .. abandoned it.. coz I felt like I was talking to the walls..

    My “resurrection” was on WordPress.. and I came out stronger… Thankfully peoplw trickle in now! 😉

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  26. Totally…! 🙂

    I started blogging in 2004 (Blogger) .. abandoned it.. coz I felt like I was talking to the walls..

    My “resurrection” was on WordPress.. and I came out stronger… Thankfully peoplw trickle in now! 😉

    Like

  27. Congrats – and thanks from a blogger you continue to inspire.

    If there is one request I would like to make is a balance – a little less focus on cool new gadgets and widgets and more of what was your book focus…which is bringing more transparency in to our corporations, politicians etc. You have shared so much of your life with the world…and we persist with marketing and PR control freaks and outright liars in so many aspects of business, professional and political life…

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  28. Congrats – and thanks from a blogger you continue to inspire.

    If there is one request I would like to make is a balance – a little less focus on cool new gadgets and widgets and more of what was your book focus…which is bringing more transparency in to our corporations, politicians etc. You have shared so much of your life with the world…and we persist with marketing and PR control freaks and outright liars in so many aspects of business, professional and political life…

    Like

  31. I have been blogging for five years now. I started when I was laid off by Capgemini. Initially the blog was a log documenting my job search. It was during the last recession in 2002. I never found a job, but I started the first of two successful business, learned how to blog and transform myself into a web worker. My wife and I used to laugh that when I turned 50, I would loose my job, the kids would start college, and we would need a new car. That was exactly what happened! What a ride.

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  32. I have been blogging for five years now. I started when I was laid off by Capgemini. Initially the blog was a log documenting my job search. It was during the last recession in 2002. I never found a job, but I started the first of two successful business, learned how to blog and transform myself into a web worker. My wife and I used to laugh that when I turned 50, I would loose my job, the kids would start college, and we would need a new car. That was exactly what happened! What a ride.

    Like

  33. Pingback: that canadian girl » Blog Archive » Seven years of blogging

  34. What’s with all the lost posts? Your whole text output for seven years would fit on a buck’s worth of floppies. Images and videos need more space, but the material costs would still be in the decadollar range.

    Yet you didn’t made and keep local copies? I hope that lesson has been learned.

    I notice your disaster list does not include fire. Make that one local copy and one in the Safety Deposit Box.

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  35. What’s with all the lost posts? Your whole text output for seven years would fit on a buck’s worth of floppies. Images and videos need more space, but the material costs would still be in the decadollar range.

    Yet you didn’t made and keep local copies? I hope that lesson has been learned.

    I notice your disaster list does not include fire. Make that one local copy and one in the Safety Deposit Box.

    Like

  36. Pingback: Celebrating seven years of blogging | Library Stuff

  41. How time fly’s huh, and how hindsight can make you think “wow, so that’s how I got here” or in my case I just think what might have been.

    It’s only really in the last 3 years that I’ve tuned into the bloggersphere but turns out, I pretty much had my own blog running back in 98 but didn’t know what a blog was, I was just venting brain farts on a web page, jjlewis.tripod.co.uk if I remember rightly, long gone when they closed my free account but I know I have a backup on floppy because I packed a stack of them like antiques ready for a house move in January. I really wish I could remember my old ICQ number too..

    I wish I’d have connected with so many of the great folks around that are smart, entertaining and love sharing ideas, maybe I could have been one of you cool kids even.. If If If… ;-).. Kind of cool that Hugh over on http://gapingvoid.com has a similarly reflective post too, about how you have to give up on “one day”.

    Like

  42. How time fly’s huh, and how hindsight can make you think “wow, so that’s how I got here” or in my case I just think what might have been.

    It’s only really in the last 3 years that I’ve tuned into the bloggersphere but turns out, I pretty much had my own blog running back in 98 but didn’t know what a blog was, I was just venting brain farts on a web page, jjlewis.tripod.co.uk if I remember rightly, long gone when they closed my free account but I know I have a backup on floppy because I packed a stack of them like antiques ready for a house move in January. I really wish I could remember my old ICQ number too..

    I wish I’d have connected with so many of the great folks around that are smart, entertaining and love sharing ideas, maybe I could have been one of you cool kids even.. If If If… ;-).. Kind of cool that Hugh over on http://gapingvoid.com has a similarly reflective post too, about how you have to give up on “one day”.

    Like

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  54. Congratulations! Keep up the prolificness (new word?) Your information keeps so many people on the bleeding edge, we all appreciate it (no matter how often we don’t email you a thank you).

    Thank You (see, there’s one:)

    Like

  55. Congratulations! Keep up the prolificness (new word?) Your information keeps so many people on the bleeding edge, we all appreciate it (no matter how often we don’t email you a thank you).

    Thank You (see, there’s one:)

    Like

  56. Congratulations Robert!

    An idea: It would be interesting to make some predictions of what will happen in the coming years. Then, on December 2014, we’ll check how good we were on forecasting the future…

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  57. Congratulations Robert!

    An idea: It would be interesting to make some predictions of what will happen in the coming years. Then, on December 2014, we’ll check how good we were on forecasting the future…

    Like

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  64. Posted on this – and it was nice meeting you at LeWeb3 this week – good fortune on the new job – wherever it ends up being (I guess we’ll find out on January 15th, though I get TechCrunch and OmMalik will leak it earlier).

    Thanks again,
    marshall

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  65. Posted on this – and it was nice meeting you at LeWeb3 this week – good fortune on the new job – wherever it ends up being (I guess we’ll find out on January 15th, though I get TechCrunch and OmMalik will leak it earlier).

    Thanks again,
    marshall

    Like

  66. congratulations robert! it HAS been a great ride. the future seems so bright. thanks for all your great insights, and for the not great ones too. :>)

    it’s a process, and it’s fun.

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  67. congratulations robert! it HAS been a great ride. the future seems so bright. thanks for all your great insights, and for the not great ones too. :>)

    it’s a process, and it’s fun.

    Like

  68. Pingback: Sam Harrelson’s Blog » Blog Archive » Celebrating Five Years of Blogging: SkyHawkScience Still my Fav

  73. Congratulations, especially on the sheer quantity (and quality) of the interviews. There’s a lot of value in those alone. Isn’t it a blast to review a lengthy period of time and collectively see everything that you survived and went through just to be where you are today?

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  74. Congratulations, especially on the sheer quantity (and quality) of the interviews. There’s a lot of value in those alone. Isn’t it a blast to review a lengthy period of time and collectively see everything that you survived and went through just to be where you are today?

    Like

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  80. ” Seven Years of Blogging
    In the past seven years I’ve survived:

    …
    4. A divorce.”

    Mmmnn. Wonder if the two are related? 😉
    Very true what you say about regretting not going back and looking at old blogs. I did that with a hardcopy journal I used to keep and learned a lot; mostly about how the same themes kept cropping up.

    Like

  81. ” Seven Years of Blogging
    In the past seven years I’ve survived:

    …
    4. A divorce.”

    Mmmnn. Wonder if the two are related? 😉
    Very true what you say about regretting not going back and looking at old blogs. I did that with a hardcopy journal I used to keep and learned a lot; mostly about how the same themes kept cropping up.

    Like

  82. Kubla: they probably are related, actually. Blogging helps you learn yourself better. After 9/11 and my car wreck, though, I decided to live every day like it was my last. That accelerated everything a lot more.

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  83. Kubla: they probably are related, actually. Blogging helps you learn yourself better. After 9/11 and my car wreck, though, I decided to live every day like it was my last. That accelerated everything a lot more.

    Like

  90. Seven years is a pretty long time. And when did I just start blogging again? *scratches head* Those seven years of yours, as you have so deftly summarized, have seen a lot of action. It makes me think about how much we don’t know about our future. We can make lots of plans and some of them might push through… But we will never be certain of what really awaits us. Like being involved in two really big companies as you say… Being able to reflect on what has happened is a really grand way of appreciating life.

    Like

  91. Seven years is a pretty long time. And when did I just start blogging again? *scratches head* Those seven years of yours, as you have so deftly summarized, have seen a lot of action. It makes me think about how much we don’t know about our future. We can make lots of plans and some of them might push through… But we will never be certain of what really awaits us. Like being involved in two really big companies as you say… Being able to reflect on what has happened is a really grand way of appreciating life.

    Like

  92. What makes me thinking is that you survived a lot in 7 years of your life but your blog posts didn’t survive 7 years of technological updates. I think many people have this experience about their digital data. I use computers since the early 80’s and most of my stuff can’t be accessed anymore. As I wrote in my article http://www.indranet.org/technological-updates-and-the-right-to-silence/ my grandmom paper pictures are still there and will be there for a further long time, but I doubt my digital ones will be available to my grandchildren.

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  93. What makes me thinking is that you survived a lot in 7 years of your life but your blog posts didn’t survive 7 years of technological updates. I think many people have this experience about their digital data. I use computers since the early 80’s and most of my stuff can’t be accessed anymore. As I wrote in my article http://www.indranet.org/technological-updates-and-the-right-to-silence/ my grandmom paper pictures are still there and will be there for a further long time, but I doubt my digital ones will be available to my grandchildren.

    Like

  98. Well done and congratulations. Thank you for sharing. It would be interesting to find out what it will be like seven years from now. Where and far the internet progress. Blessings

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  99. Well done and congratulations. Thank you for sharing. It would be interesting to find out what it will be like seven years from now. Where and far the internet progress. Blessings

    Like

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  103. Hi Scobble, Congratulations man. I really the value of experience and a mentor. Could you please take some time out to look at my blog and provide some feedback, how i can improve PR etc. Would really appreciate it.
    HOT USA Trends Today TIA.

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  104. Hi Scobble, Congratulations man. I really the value of experience and a mentor. Could you please take some time out to look at my blog and provide some feedback, how i can improve PR etc. Would really appreciate it.
    HOT USA Trends Today TIA.

    Like

  105. Congratulations Robert! That is quite an accomplishment. I’m in my first year of blogging. Sharing all of those joyous/painful experiences with the world I’m sure has helped many people.

    On a funny/coincidental note, I just started a series of posts on my entrepreneurial journey (mixing past and present) and the post title is called The Entrepreneurial 7 Year Itch. http://www.entrepremusings.com/index.php/2007/12/16/the-entrepreneurial-7-year-itch/

    So how will you scratch your blogging 7 year itch? 🙂

    Like

  106. Congratulations Robert! That is quite an accomplishment. I’m in my first year of blogging. Sharing all of those joyous/painful experiences with the world I’m sure has helped many people.

    On a funny/coincidental note, I just started a series of posts on my entrepreneurial journey (mixing past and present) and the post title is called The Entrepreneurial 7 Year Itch. http://www.entrepremusings.com/index.php/2007/12/16/the-entrepreneurial-7-year-itch/

    So how will you scratch your blogging 7 year itch? 🙂

    Like

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  109. Congrats on 7 years of sharing your life and thoughts publicly. I am working with small business owners and professionals like lawyers and helping them use blogs, social media, and local search engines to narrowcast their expertise and build community locally. It will be interesting to see how video impacts social media and blogging in the next few years.

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  110. Congrats on 7 years of sharing your life and thoughts publicly. I am working with small business owners and professionals like lawyers and helping them use blogs, social media, and local search engines to narrowcast their expertise and build community locally. It will be interesting to see how video impacts social media and blogging in the next few years.

    Like

  113. That was very insightful into your last seven years and going back to the early days of blogging. I think I was just getting an email address sven years ago!

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  114. That was very insightful into your last seven years and going back to the early days of blogging. I think I was just getting an email address sven years ago!

    Like

  115. Hey Robert,
    That was very interesting post.. Congratulations on a new milestone. Just sitting and looking at past really changes how we do things currently and adds a new perspective..
    Thanks for the insight 🙂
    Pooran

    Like

  116. Hey Robert,
    That was very interesting post.. Congratulations on a new milestone. Just sitting and looking at past really changes how we do things currently and adds a new perspective..
    Thanks for the insight 🙂
    Pooran

    Like

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  118. You have really good experience in it. So tell me: aren’t you shy of telling the truth about your life to strange people around the web?

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  119. You have really good experience in it. So tell me: aren’t you shy of telling the truth about your life to strange people around the web?

    Like

  120. Pingback: Ozan's blog » Even the top bloggers had to start somewhere: 5 observations on blog infancy
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