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. In 2019 I founded Cybercultural, an internet history website, which I continue to run today. Originally from New Zealand, I’m now based in the UK.
My latest book 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. You can purchase a copy at any of the following bookstores:
- Paperback, US$19.99: Amazon; Bookshop.org
- eBook, US$9.99: Amazon Kindle Store; Apple Books; Google Play
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, Bluesky and LinkedIn. I tend to use Facebook mostly for family updates. I am also present on Threads, but I no longer post on X (formerly Twitter).
Books:
I’ve written three books since leaving ReadWriteWeb:
- My latest book, Bubble Blog: From Outsider to Insider in Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 Revolution, was published in December 2024. It’s a personal memoir and cultural history of the Web 2.0 era.
- 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.