John Naughton on Dave Winer
John Naughton, writing for The Guardian:
Once the use of RSS feeds had become common, someone had the idea
that audio files could be attached to them, and Dave implemented
the idea with a nice geeky touch — attaching a song by the
Grateful Dead. Initially the new technology was called audio
blogging, but eventually a British journalist came up with the
term “podcasting” and it stuck.
So Dave was present at the creation of some cool stuff, but it was
blogging that brought him to a wider public. “Some people were
born to play country music,” he wrote at one stage. “I was
born to blog. At the beginning of blogging I thought everyone
would be a blogger. I was wrong. Most people don’t have the
impulse to say what they think.” Dave was the exact opposite. He
was (and remains) articulate and forthright. His formidable record
as a tech innovator meant that he couldn’t be written off as a
crank. The fact that he was financially secure meant that he
didn’t have to suck up to anyone: he could speak his mind. And he
did. So from the moment he launched Scripting News in October 1994
he was a distinctive presence on the web.
One of Winer’s numerous aphorisms that resonates deeply with me: People return to places that send them away.
★
John Naughton, writing for The Guardian:
Once the use of RSS feeds had become common, someone had the idea
that audio files could be attached to them, and Dave implemented
the idea with a nice geeky touch — attaching a song by the
Grateful Dead. Initially the new technology was called audio
blogging, but eventually a British journalist came up with the
term “podcasting” and it stuck.
So Dave was present at the creation of some cool stuff, but it was
blogging that brought him to a wider public. “Some people were
born to play country music,” he wrote at one stage. “I was
born to blog. At the beginning of blogging I thought everyone
would be a blogger. I was wrong. Most people don’t have the
impulse to say what they think.” Dave was the exact opposite. He
was (and remains) articulate and forthright. His formidable record
as a tech innovator meant that he couldn’t be written off as a
crank. The fact that he was financially secure meant that he
didn’t have to suck up to anyone: he could speak his mind. And he
did. So from the moment he launched Scripting News in October 1994
he was a distinctive presence on the web.
One of Winer’s numerous aphorisms that resonates deeply with me: People return to places that send them away.