Say Everything, Scott Rosenberg
Say Everything, Scott Rosenberg
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Say Everything
How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters

Author: Scott Rosenberg

Narrator: Lincoln Hoppe

Unabridged: 16 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2009


Synopsis

Blogs are everywhere. They have exposed truths and spread rumors. Made and lost fortunes. Brought couples together and torn them apart. Toppled cabinet members and sparked grassroots movements. Immediate, intimate, and influential, they have put the power of personal publishing into everyone’s hands. Regularly dismissed as trivial and ephemeral, they have proved that they are here to stay.

In Say Everything, Scott Rosenberg chronicles blogging’s unplanned rise and improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics, business, the media, and our personal lives. He offers close-ups of innovators such as Blogger founder Evan Williams, investigative journalist Josh Marshall, exhibitionist diarist Justin Hall, software visionary Dave Winer, "mommyblogger" Heather Armstrong, and many others.

These blogging pioneers were the first to face new dilemmas that have become common in the era of Google and Facebook, and their stories offer vital insights and warnings as we navigate the future. How much of our lives should we reveal on the Web? Is anonymity a boon or a curse? Which voices can we trust? What does authenticity look like on a stage where millions are fighting for attention, yet most only write for a handful? And what happens to our culture now that everyone can say everything?

Before blogs, it was easy to believe that the Web would grow up to be a clickable TV–slick, passive, mass-market. Instead, blogging brought the Web’s native character into focus–convivial, expressive, democratic. Far from being pajama-clad loners, bloggers have become the curators of our collective experience, testing out their ideas in front of a crowd and linking people in ways that broadcasts can’t match. Blogs have created a new kind of public sphere–one in which we can think out loud together. And now that we have begun, Rosenberg writes, it is impossible to imagine us stopping.

In his first book, Dreaming in Code, Scott Rosenberg brilliantly explored the art of creating software ("the first true successor to The Soul of a New Machine," wrote James Fallows in The Atlantic). In Say Everything, Rosenberg brings the same perceptive eye to the blogosphere, capturing as no one else has the birth of a new medium.

About The Author

Scott Rosenberg is a cofounder of Salon.com, where he long served as managing editor, and is the author of Dreaming in Code


Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven

Really well-reasearched and artfully presented history of blogging. Scott is very sensitive and perceptive, and doesn't merely hash over tired controversies, but brings sharp insight to the blogging saga.......more

Goodreads review by zan

Found this at work yesterday, picked it up to flip through, and haven't been able to put it down since. I'm dipping in and out of chapters (unwittingly playing the role of Carr's Flickering Man?), but from the three or so chapters I have read in their entirety, I can say that it's a really intellige......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Salon.com cofounder Rosenberg explores the history and consequences of blogging. He does a good job portraying the technical and business evolution of blogs, and just an okay job analyzing their literary development. But what I really like is his discussion of the social effects of blogging, and how......more

Goodreads review by Thomas

Fascinating reading. Unusually detailed look at the past 15 years of the Internet related to the concept of blogs. Lots of personalities. I was not not so pulled in by the exquisite detail about lineage of " important" bloggers. The chapter entitled "The Perils of Keeping It Real" was the best. That......more

Goodreads review by Tamera

Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters Paperback by Scott Rosenberg Say Everything is an excellent resource to educators,internet enthusiasts and students. Mr.Rosenberg takes on the task of giving us the story of the internet via the history of blogging according......more


Quotes

"This is a terrific history of blogging and a convincing case for its enduring significance. Rosenberg mixes the personal with the conceptual in the same wonderful way that the web does."
—Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe and CEO of the Aspen Institute

“Scott Rosenberg is the best defender blogging has ever had. He eludes hype. He comes with no motive to debunk. He knows the history cold, and tells his stories calmly. On what to credit blogging with, and how to delimit it, there is no one with finer judgment. And he is poetic on blogging as a democratic thing. Say Everything is where I'd tell you to start if you want to understand where blogging came from, and why it's important.
—Jay Rosen, creator of PressThink.org and professor of journalism at New York University

"Blogging gives everyone a printing press, unleashing a social force comparable to the printing press. Say Everything tells the story of the people, culture, and technology that made that happen and gives us an idea of where it's going, from a guy who saw it happen around him.”
—Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist

"Eminently readable and historically definitive...Rosenberg has made it clear why the blogging revolution matters. Certain to be a classic."
—Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs and Visiting Professor of Digital Journalism at Stanford

“The birth of newspapers, radio and television were fascinating events, filled with larger-than-life characters. The thing is, you didn't live through that, and the other thing is, there's not a lot you can do about it now. Blogging is now, it's real, it's fascinating and you're not just watching. Scott takes you on a guided tour of what got us to where we are today."
—Seth Godin, author of Tribes and Purple Cow

"Scott Rosenberg provides an excellent fifteen-year history of the voice of the person' on the Web, from Talking Points Memo to Twitter, and profiles both idealistic pioneers and scrappy entrepreneurs. He offers a cogent look at not only what's new, but also what's next."
—Greg Mitchell, Editor, Editor & Publisher

"The best history makes up for narrow focus with rich detail. Rosenberg’s book delivers exactly that plus his personal insider’s view of famous and familiar bloggerati–the technology, the fiefdoms, the whuffie, the money, and the love. I learned new things about people I’ve known and read for years."
—Lisa Stone, cofounder and CEO of BlogHer, Inc.