Sunday, September 02, 2012

My blog is 10 years old, today.


Who'd have thought it?

Here is the first of what have been (so far) more than 3200 posts.

I filed it while I was doodling with BLOGGER at home on the night of Monday September 2 2002:




I had been absent-mindedly exploring Blogger after reading John Quiggin's new blog, started in June, three months earlier. Quiggin was the pioneer, the Grandfather of Australian economics blogging.

As it turned out I was not far behind.

It happened by accident.

The odd thing was that as soon as I had made that post, people on other blogs started pointing to it as if something significant had happened. I hadn't thought so. I hadn't really realised I had started a 'publication'.

At first I used the blog to keep a weekly account of my 'Home Economics' talks with Geraldine Doogue on Radio National's Life Matters. As soon as I had spoken to her I would go into the empty ABC studio next door, open up Internet Explorer and type in the gist of what I had just said while it was still fresh.

Here's my second post:





You get the idea.

I had just returned from Tokyo where I had been the ABC correspondent after 15 years reporting economics for the ABC, most of it as economics correspondent. 9/11 was very fresh in my mind. I moved to SBS to work on the Business Show. Shortly after I started blogging I started writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, then New Matilda. Then I joined the staff of the Canberra Times as its economics editor, and later The Age. Amalgamations mean I now work for all three.

The timing (starting a blog before writing for newspapers) meant that every word I have written for a newspaper is in this blog. I am rather glad.

In his new book about blogging The Rise of the Fifth Estate Greg Jerico points out this makes me unusual - a mainstream journalist with an independent blog. He also has nice words to say about the respect I have accorded to people in the blogosphere. I recommend his book.

I am glad too for the two-way discussion engendered by the blog in comments and emails. It has helped me much more than it has hurt me.

(Although being a broadcaster, two-way conversations took a bit of getting used to.)

Of course the internet has changed in the ten years since 2002.

This fun graphic from Infographic Directory and Best Education Sites reminds of much it has changed. We have TWITTER now. I was a skeptic, at first.

Thanks for being part of the ride. It means more to me than most other things.






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