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Blogs are everywhere. They have exposed truths and
spread rumors. Made and lost fortunes. Brought couples
together and torn them apart. Toppled cabinet members
and sparked grassroots movements. Immediate, intimate,
and influential, they have put the power of personal
publishing into everyone’s hands. Regularly dismissed as
trivial and ephemeral, they have proved that they are
here to stay.
In Say Everything, Scott
Rosenberg chronicles blogging’s unplanned rise and
improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics,
business, the media, and our personal lives. He offers
close-ups of innovators such as Blogger founder Evan
Williams, investigative journalist Josh Marshall,
exhibitionist diarist Justin Hall, software visionary
Dave Winer, "mommyblogger" Heather Armstrong, and many
others.
These blogging pioneers were the first to
face new dilemmas that have become common in the era of
Google and Facebook, and their stories offer vital
insights and warnings as we navigate the future. How
much of our lives should we reveal on the Web? Is
anonymity a boon or a curse? Which voices can we trust?
What does authenticity look like on a stage where
millions are fighting for attention, yet most only write
for a handful? And what happens to our culture now that
everyone can say everything?
Before blogs, it was
easy to believe that the Web would grow up to be a
clickable TV–slick, passive, mass-market. Instead,
blogging brought the Web’s native character into
focus–convivial, expressive, democratic. Far from being
pajama-clad loners, bloggers have become the curators of
our collective experience, testing out their ideas in
front of a crowd and linking people in ways that
broadcasts can’t match. Blogs have created a new kind of
public sphere–one in which we can think out loud
together. And now that we have begun, Rosenberg writes,
it is impossible to imagine us stopping.
In his first
book, Dreaming in Code, Scott Rosenberg
brilliantly explored the art of creating software ("the
first true successor to The Soul of a New
Machine," wrote James Fallows in The
Atlantic). In Say Everything, Rosenberg
brings the same perceptive eye to the blogosphere,
capturing as no one else has the birth of a new
medium.
From the Hardcover edition.
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