Blogs as pamphlets - take 3

Turns out I’m not the first to notice Prof. Bailyn’s comments about pamphlets being very similar to weblogs. Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc and founder of Trellix, remarked on the very same thing two years ago (almost to the day, oddly enough):

I think reading some of what Bailyn had to say back in 1967 about the 1700’s can help us better understand the role and peculiarities of today’s writers who use web sites (web logs or essays).

Reading something like this, as a person whose main job is to create software and help run a business while expressing himself on a public web site, gives me a wonderful sense of fitting into the flow of history. Hopefully our give and take, about liberty, empowerment, the role of government and big business, the joys and dangers of technology, etc., will lead to as meaningful result as theirs.

[Read the whole essay]

Thanks to Will Cox for pointing this out…