From that historical day in the year 1997, when Jorn Barger coined the term ‘blog’, it has been almost 9 years since then & blogging has not looked back. To say that its rise has been upwards would infact be a great understatement as indeed blogging has moved by leaps & bounds in this modern era. Sky is the limit as it is not restricted by boundaries, cultures, traditions etc. And so it is rather obvious that there should be a day dedicated to the next revolution in Internet publishing. Hence, today ,i.e, 31 August is officially celebrated around the world as blog day…

Besides the ‘blog’ day itself the ever escalating heights & growing popularity of the blog is evident from many facts with manuals on ‘how to write blogs’ starting as early as 2001. Moreover blogs have gained increasing notice & coverage for their role in breaking, shaping & spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum. The second Iraq war was the first “blog war” in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants; news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming.

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary declared “blog” as the word of the year in 2004.

And if all this was not enough the year 2006 has witnessed the most phenomenal impact of blogs with the launch of the first ever movie produced, directed & advertised on the internet as well by the bloggers themselves: “Snakes on The Plane”. The most outrageous thing about the movie is its most simplistic title itself as it only means snakes on the plane only & nothing more. Such has been the excitement created by this movie that even before its release there are talks of it being nominated for the ‘movie of the year’ award. And all this is possible only because of the widespread publicity done by a community of bloggers on the net without seeking any support from external sources & their more experienced counterparts. This movie has won worldwide acclaim even from the critics.

Believe me this is only the start, a mere glimpse of things to come from the repertoire of bloggers. Remember sachin batting in his teen years, Schumacher’s rip roaring driving on his arrival, all the hoopla surrounding the initial exploits of Sampras & Jordan. Well all of us knew that much more acts of greatness would follow. I assure you that same is the case with blogging.

For somebody once quoted-
“Ordinary persons discuss people,
Average persons discuss events,
Extraordinary people discuss ideas.”

I would like to add one more line in the end.
“Bloggers discuss everything.”

And me being one of them salutes the passion of blogging on this historical day…