[Donaghe labs is currently working on an awesome image. For now imagine Dave Winer, Robert Scoble and Mike Arrington all wearing Viking helmets. Oh, and Winer has an eye patch]
In the beginning there was the internet. A few computers were able to talk to each other to help the military. Then pesky academics got involved and began communicating via email - a 1 to 1 communication at first, but one that spanned the globe as the internet grew.
Email begat Newsgroups which begat telnet bbses which begat the world wide web. Suddenly everyone was talking with everyone else. Finding folks to chat with was easy. Expressing yourself was easy. In the early days, this chattering and self-publishing flourished, but eventually grew out of its greenhouse. It became too big of a chore to track who was saying what, when, where and how. The Tower of Babylon fell and there was great confusion.
Out of this madness, Dave Winer said, “Let there be blog! Let my people blog and allow them to publish RSS feeds so they can may be fruitfull and multiply, but in a more manageable and more easy to follow manner.” And so it was.
For a while there was great rejoicing. Eventually, though, the masses yearned for more. The blogs, once separate, growing in walled gardens began to cross-pollinate. Trackbacks were born and the age of the Meta came to pass. Yea, as they talked about each other and began commenting on blog posts and comments in blog posts on other blog posts referring to blog posts about comments, the confusions began again.
Dave Winer sent forth the demi-gods known as Arrington and Scoble and others to educate the puny bloggers so that they might learn how to co-exist peacefully, but still the confusions grew greater.
Other Gods smiled down upon the bloggers and gave forth Disqus, to quell the grumblings. But then…
Loki, the trickster god birthed the Twitter and unleashed it upon the blogosphere. At once, the masses, unable to resist its sweet, sweet temptations became addicted to the Twitter, suckling at its teats. All the while, Loki chortled with glee. Loki playfully put the Twitter to sleep at random times depriving the bloggers of their new drug. “How can we talk about who’s talking about what’s being talked about?” they cried.
As sweet as it was, the Bloggers again yearned for more. “The Twitter is stupid and can only remember tiny messages at a time. It’s hard for us to know what other Bloggers are talking about all the time. Worst of all the Twitter sometimes refuses to respond to our pleas!” Conversations quickly grew unmanageable again.
Thor, hoping to score points with Dave Winer (who looks suspiciously Odinish), whipped his legion of gnomes and dwarves spurring them on to create a powerful weapon with which he could nullify the negative effects of the Twitter. After many days and nights slaving over powerful dragon-fired forges, the worker drones brought forth the new hammer.
“With this hammer, the Bloggers shall be able to see what each other is saying, when they say it, how they say it, where they say it, who liked it and what the other Bloggers have to say about it. With this weapon there shall be one essential manner in which all of the Bloggers may be able to talk with each other. Yea, verily they shall also be able to call upon the Twitter as well, in order to tame it. I shall call this mighty weapon FriendFeed!”
Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and Loki shrieked in terror. The Twitter dozed fitfully. The Bloggers gazed upon the FriendFeed and saw that it was good. They smiled and one another and dove right in.
And so it was, and so it is.
Whilst Thor’s attention was upon the happy Bloggers, Loki slinked away back into his lair, more disruptions upon his mind…