--- title: "One Year On: Part 2" date: 2004-04-25 author: "Richard MacManus" categories: - name: "ReadWriteWeb" url: "/category/readwriteweb.md" tags: - name: "2004" url: "/tag/2004.md" --- # One Year On: Part 2 In [my previous post](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/04/22.html#a225), I wrote about my early blogging efforts in March 2002 and the birth of Read/Write Web just over 1 year ago. In this post I review the past year and pick out some highlights. I’ll finish with some thoughts about what the next year may bring. Highlights of the past 12 months *April 2003:* My inaugural post was titled [The Read/Write Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/04/20.html#a1). It outlined the manifesto I’ve promoted ever since then: the Web should be read/write, not read-only. My third post, [RSS – Subscribing to Topics](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/04/28.html#a3), began my fascination with topic-mapping in blogging. *May 2003:* Web browsers were a hot topic for me during this month – [browser/editors](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/05/15.html#a10) (as Tim Berners-Lee originally wanted them to be) and [the future of IE](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/05/29.html#a42). *June 2003:* I wrote a series of articles on [The Universal Canvas](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/06/15.html#a50). *July 2003:* My first link from an A-List blogger, [Clay Shirky](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.corante.com/many/20030701.shtml#42653), came from this article: [Weblogs should be topic-first, not author-first](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/07/02.html#a74). Also in July, I coined the phrase [Web of Ideas](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/07/24.html#a84). It conveys a huge part of what the Web means to me – to “discover, create and share ideas”. I later used this as the title of, and modus operandi for, [my linkblog](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://ideas.readwriteweb.com/). I wrote a follow-up piece: [Web of Ideas II](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/07/31.html#a87). *August 2003:* Two of my favourite posts from the past year are art/technology mixes: [In XML did Kubla Khan – XML as Literature](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/07.html#a88) and [The Whiteness of the Whale – the Semantic Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/09.html#a96). I enjoyed writing these, as they’re a blend of my Arty background (I’m an English Lit major) and my techy bent. I must write more like this… Later in August, I wrote up an idea called [Microcontent Wiki](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/31.html#a106). It was about how to track a conversation that occurs in the comments on someone else’s weblog. *September 2003:* I converted to a [CSS-based layout](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/09/25.html#a121) using XHTML. On [30 September](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/09/30.html#a125) I got [my first link from Dave Winer](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://archive.scripting.com/2003/09/30#When:4:59:06AM), which was a big deal to me because he’s been a big influence on my read/write philosophy. *October 2003:* My post titled [Select Mode: Publisher](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/10/21.html#a134) best represents this month for me. There was a “broadcasting vs conversation” meme going around at the time and the point I was trying to make was that I use my weblog first and foremost as a *publishing medium*. *November 2003:* Inspired by [Erik Benson](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://erikbenson.com/), I [signed up for Nanowrimo](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/10/28.html#a138) – an annual contest where participants have to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I proceeded to bore my readers witless throughout November with updates from my novel. However, Nanowrimo was a fantastic experience for me. It was bloody hard work, but to actually [complete a novel](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/gems/nanowrimo_novel_nov03_0.91.pdf) was a big thrill. *December 2003:* Apart from recovering from Nanowrimo, I wrote a few posts on [weblog ontologies](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/12/13.html#a168) and taxonomies. *January 2004:* I came up with a concept called [The Fractal Blogosphere](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/01/18.html#a189). Inspired by Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s [Fractal Web theory](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/01/15.html#a188), it was a proposal for an alternative measurement of blogging to the [Power Law](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html). It got quite a bit of coverage in the blogosphere. *February 2004:* I got all excited by the possibilites of [Information Flow](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/02/21.html#a205) as a kind of bottom-up Knowledge Management. *March 2004:* My most successful post yet, an [interview with Marc Canter](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/03/29.html#a218). It got [ Slashdotted](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210170632/http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/30/2333258.shtml?tid=126&tid=185&tid=95), which caused a big spike in hits. But most importantly, it showed I have what it takes to be an ‘amateur journalist’. Now I’ve just got to work out how to get paid for doing it 😉 The Future Content-wise, I can’t predict what the future of Read/Write Web holds. That’s what makes blogging so exciting! But there may be changes in infrastructure. I’m working on a re-design, with a new CSS layout and possibly a new weblog authoring tool (Movable Type). Stay tuned. *Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001826.php))*