Blog Family Tree
Category: Navel Gazing...
Posted Monday, October 31, 2005 at 09:45 AM [GMT-6]

Julie at the Lone Prairie Blog clues us in on the 10-day-old Blog Family Tree project being spearheaded by The Politburo Diktat. If you're a blogger, you should consider participating in this fascinating attempt to trace the beginnings and evolution of the blogosphere. The Family Tree folks want to know which blog influenced you the most in the decision to begin blogging (it was James Lileks for me), and also if you know of any blogs that you directly influenced into existence (that's my awkward phrasing, not theirs).

My observation is that the family tree is thus far giving short shrift to the protobloggers...those who were doing it even before there was a name for it, generally for insanely geeky purposes. Thus far, blogospheric luminaries like Rebecca Blood aren't cited at all [Oops...she's there, after all, as pointed out by The Commissar his own self; my bad], and I find that very difficult to believe. It could be that that generation and its progeny aren't into these kinds of memes, and that's a shame, because it causes a signficant part of the historical record to be incomplete.

Thus far, only about 600 blogs are represented (out of how many millions?). However, those 600 may well be at the other end of the Long Tail in terms of posting volume, if not overall influence. Make sure your branch is represented.

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Comments

Thanks for the submission and the post. I'll probably uipdate this evening.

Rebecca Blood is there (over on the right-hand column), under Robot Wisdom, I think.

That being said, I DO want to make it more representative of (what I call) influential, significant, ur-bloggers. So, if I have missed others, let me know. For example, just today, someone cited Wil Wheaton. Yes, I have to add him.

Posted by: The Commissar at October 31, 2005 09:51 AM

Oh, darn...that's what I get for searching for "Blood" instead of "Pocket"! Thanks for pointing that out.

This is a very interesting thing you're doing, and I suspect it's consuming much of your time. Thanks for the hard work!

I don't know why I've never gotten around to blogrolling you. That will be rectified immediately.

Posted by: Eric at October 31, 2005 09:55 AM

Great ... now, Im listed there under "mostly Right Blogs" ... spank you very much, Eric!

Posted by: Jeff at November 1, 2005 10:54 AM

Well, it beats being listed under "Mostly Wrong Blogs," doesn't it? ;-)

I'm not responsible for how the guy categorizes the submitted blogs. But I do wonder who spelled your blog's name incorrectly...?

Posted by: Eric at November 1, 2005 11:29 AM
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