Editor’s note: this post is one of a series in which several bloggers weigh in on a given topic every couple of weeks. For more blog entries, click the button at right for a complete list of participating writers.

10 years this month.

I started my first blog in October of 2000. I’d been following the kids who wrote Blogger, & was reading their blogs & thought it looked fun, so I jumped in.

Back then, most blogs were basically personal diaries, & mine was no exception. They had anecdotes on everything from

• weekend hiking trips,
• the latest grilled fish dinner success,
• crafty projects,
• dog/cat/fish updates

At the time I was also trying to figure out how to apply blogging in a business setting.  It was such an immediate way to get information to many eyeballs without clogging up their inboxes. It was also a way to have multiple authors in a single format.

Inspiration Log

While it took  along time for the corporate blog to really take off (posting project updates without divulging industry secrets), other public applications seemed both more interesting and more useful. Mine became a mixture of design finds that inspired me:

to quirky sciencey projects:

Today, I blog about kitchen design (my business), and things related to kitchens, including responsible food sources, composting, recycling, & urban life.

Are blogs important? Influential?

To the authors? Always. To the readers? Sometimes. To the subscribers? More often than not (we all have ‘off’ days).

Do bloggers deserve to be credited? Yes, when credit is due. Nobody cares what someone had for dinner or about the hairball the cat yakked up this morning.

It’s really more about whether blog content is helpful, news breaking, or just plain entertaining. The unfortunate reality about web publishing is that it’s free (to anyone with an internet connection). Which means anyone can publish anything (largely noise), and anyone can read it (consumption) & apply as they see fit.

The cool thing about blogs is that the playing field is leveled for information sharing. Pretty amazing that I’m still doing it 10 years later. & I’m not even among the oldest bloggers: I know of at least 2 who started in the late ’80′s!

That being said, I shall close with a cat picture!