Why Blogging Still Matters

O’Reilly Radar interviews Anil Dash on the enduring power of blogs

… That was the promise we had when we all first discovered the web. Someday it would bring us all together and we’d be able to have these conversations. It’s not perfect. It’s not ideal. But in some small way here’s somebody like me — with no portfolio, I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, I didn’t have any fancy social connections when I started my blog — and it has opened the door to me having a conversation as a peer, as somebody taken seriously, in realms that I would have never otherwise had access to. That’s the greatest privilege in the world.

Ten or eleven years of blogging and I still don’t have any fancy social connections, just really tight ones, and sure hope no one takes me seriously unless I ask you to, but Anil Dash reminds me why some of us started doing this. Just to talk. And, maybe someone – a kindred spirit or worthy adversary – would hear us. Or not. Whatever.

For the first four years of this blog’s existence, it had no commenters. In the last six, I’ve made excellent friends, individually and in often-intersecting groups, online and in meatspace. (Apparently, the intersection of desi, geology/science and New Orleans is where it’s at. Two turn tables and a rock hammer.)

The blog is what it is. Most days, the posts write themselves. On others, I heave something up there to justify the hosting fees and to prove that I’m not gone. The conversation, the meaningful exchange, the smack talk, even the quiet diary, is always here to be had, though, and that’s what keeps this medium evergreen and attractive.

Communication. Opinion. Access. Exchange. Democracy. This is what blogging symbolizes to me and why Net Neutrality is more important than ever.