I’m Richard MacManus, a pioneering tech blogger and author. I founded ReadWriteWeb (2003-2012) and built it into one of the top ten blogs in the world. Originally from New Zealand, I’m now based in the UK.
My new book, launched in October 2023 as a serialized work in my newsletter, is Bubble Blog: From Outsider to Insider in Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 Revolution. It is a memoir of my experiences running ReadWriteWeb during the first decade of the 2000s.
ReadWriteWeb (RWW) was an influential tech news site from 2003-2012. It was ranked among the top ten blogs in the world by Technorati and was syndicated by The New York Times (2008-11). The company was sold to SAY Media in December 2011 and I left in October 2012.
From 2020, I have worked for The New Stack, leading its developer channel and writing articles about internet technology trends.
Social Media:
I’m active on Mastodon and LinkedIn. I tend to use Facebook mostly for family updates. I am also present on Bluesky and Threads, but I no longer post on X (formerly Twitter).
Books:
I’ve written three books since leaving ReadWriteWeb:
- My latest book, launched in October 2023, is Bubble Blog: From Outsider to Insider in Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 Revolution. It’s a personal memoir and cultural history of the Web 2.0 era. As per above, you can read it now on Cybercultural.
- My science fiction novel Presence, about the future of the metaverse, was published in September 2016.
- My debut book Trackers, about how technology is helping us monitor and improve our health, was published in December 2014.
Archive:
I’ve got an online archive of my writing going back to the early 2000s, with a particular focus on my work from 2003-2012 at ReadWriteWeb.
Media citations:
External media coverage, from RWW through to my current projects.