One of the most exciting aspects of a tech startup is you find yourself working among some of the best and the brightest in the industry. I’ve found them to have more passion than anyone I’ve ever met and the nature of the Web provides fertile ground for their experimentation, entrepreneurship, failures and yes, rebirth.
I’ve been blessed to have had this experience a couple of times over. First at PubSub, where I was introduced to and began my professional relationship with Salim Ismail, and now here at Confabb (Salim is a co-founder of Confabb and several of our crew are Pubsub vets). It has also been along this path that I’ve been fortunate enough to be introduced to and work with two of the recognized fathers of Blogging: Cameron Barrett and Dave Winer. Confabb is Cameron’s baby–his idea; Dave is one of the first to believe in the idea enough to put his backing and faith where it counted. Without either of these talents we would not have witnessed Confabb’s promise in delivering real-life conference experiences using the Live Web like we recently saw at Take Back America 2007.
Today The Wall Street Journal celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the blog (story, titled “Happy Blogiversary” is here but might be protected by a firewall). Assistant Managing Editor Tunku Varadarajan clearly did his homework when he recognized Cameron (just Cam to us) and Dave along with Jorn Barger as the “advance guard” of blogging. Back then blogs were to Dave and Cam a way to express themselves online; to chart their daily existence and post their thoughts on the intersection of life and technology.
Although Cam and Dave were among the first to have recognized the promise of self publishing, it’s probably safe to say neither at that point could fathom how quickly and totally blogging and the Live Web would change the game for so many industries, people and institutions.
A quick excerpt from Mr. Varadarajan’s piece:
“The dating of the 10th anniversary of blogs, and the ascription of primacy to the first blogger, are imperfect exercises. Others, such as David Winer, who blogged with Scripting News, and Cameron Barrett, who started CamWorld, were alongside the polemical Mr. Barger in the advance guard. And before them there were “proto-blogs,” embryonic indications of the online profusion that was to follow. But by widespread consensus, 1997 is a reasonable point at which to mark the emergence of the blog as a distinct life-form.”
So it’s with the entire Confabb team’s thanks I get to write this piece lauding Cam and Dave’s accomplishments, dedication and vision. They literally set the world on a new path, opened up countless opportunities for millions of people and can say without being accused of hyperbole “I’ve helped change the course of history.”
Thanks guys. And congratulations. Here’s to ten more years!
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