John Naughton on Dave Winer

John Naughton, writing for The Guardian:

Once the use of RSS feeds had become common, someone had the idea that audio files could be attached to them, and Dave implemented the idea with a nice geeky touch — attaching a song by the Grateful Dead. Initially the new technology was called audio blogging, but eventually a British journalist came up with the term “podcasting” and it stuck.

So Dave was present at the creation of some cool stuff, but it was blogging that brought him to a wider public. “Some people were born to play country music,” he wrote at one stage. “I was born to blog. At the beginning of blogging I thought everyone would be a blogger. I was wrong. Most people don’t have the impulse to say what they think.” Dave was the exact opposite. He was (and remains) articulate and forthright. His formidable record as a tech innovator meant that he couldn’t be written off as a crank. The fact that he was financially secure meant that he didn’t have to suck up to anyone: he could speak his mind. And he did. So from the moment he launched Scripting News in October 1994 he was a distinctive presence on the web.

One of Winer’s numerous aphorisms that resonates deeply with me: People return to places that send them away.

★ Monday, 7 October 2024