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About the author

A picture named daveTiny.jpgDave Winer, 56, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and editor of the Scripting News weblog. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

"Dave was in a hurry. He had big ideas." -- Harvard.

"Dave Winer is one of the most important figures in the evolution of online media." -- Nieman Journalism Lab.

10 inventors of Internet technologies you may not have heard of. -- Royal Pingdom.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

8/2/11: Who I Am.

Contact me

scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

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Recent links

My 40 most-recent links, ranked by number of clicks.

My bike

People are always asking about my bike.

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Here's a picture.

Calendar

February 2011
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Jan   Mar

Warning!

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FYI: You're soaking in it. :-)


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Dave Winer's weblog, started in April 1997, bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Tech is ready to redefine news Permalink.

Technology on the march!

For a long time, the tech industry kept to itself -- only defining what it means to process data and program computers.

A picture named microserfs.gifBy the end of the 80s, things had changed. Laser printers and desktop publishing software, at first just toys -- were all of a sudden able to replace expensive typesetting equipment at a fraction of the cost. All of a sudden publishing was open to people with a lot less money.

Movies were being redefined by Pixar and other animation studios.

Then, in the mid-90s, came the web, and publishing became almost free.

Starting in the late 90s it was time for tech to redefine what it means to be a musician, with Napster and then iTunes.

We took our first step at redefining news with RSS, also in the late 90s.

Publishing was free by the mid-90s but it wasn't easy until blogging software matured.

By the mid part of the next decade we were ready to redefine radio, with podcasting.

BitTorrent is redefining the distribution of movies.

And now, finally -- it seems -- tech is ready to fully redefine news.

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What it will look like is still up for grabs. But the time is now. Just look around.

My Ode to Rackspace Permalink.

With all the development work I do here around Amazon's web services, I've been negligent in spreading the love for Rackspace.

A picture named web.gifI have a server in their cloud, which they've kindly provided at no charge, as a sandbox for me to play in. I've done more than play there. It's been a workhorse, tying together a small community of developers and users that I'm working with. It's absolutely trouble-free, which is why you don't hear a whole lot about it. That's a mistake.

I totally don't mind being influenced by service providers who give me access to their services at no charge. I will always tell you when I have been influenced in this way, but it's kind of a pain to have to pay for everything I review. It gets expensive!

Another thing I like about Rackspace is that they humor me when I have a strong opinion about products they should offer. I realize they're a big company and it's hard to get mobilized around a single idea, the way I, as an individual, can. But one of these days we will make a great product together, because our philosophies are a good match.

Anyway thanks to Rackspace. You guys are great.



© Copyright 1997-2011 Dave Winer. Last build: 12/12/2011; 1:34:10 PM. "It's even worse than it appears."

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