Comments about ‘Why We Blog: Mormon Internet origins’

I first gained access to the ARPAnet (ancestor of the Internet) in 1976 when I moved from Phoenix to Masschusetts with a new job. The company I worked for had an internal net similar to the Internet today but restricted to company employees, and about 1988 I created a Mormon notes file and discussed Mormonism with non-members until I left the company and moved to Utah in December 1992. In the Spring of 1993 I saw my first demo of a graphical interface interface for the Web. Later (I think it was 1994 or 1995) I compiled all of my postings from the Mormon notes file into book form and created a Mormon site as a home for the book. About six months ago, I transformed my Mormon site to blog format so I could get comments from visitors.

It's been interesting to watch the growth of the Internet. ARPAnet did not allow any commercial posts -- it was strictly for research. When the Internet first went commercial, there were big debates whether that should happen or not. The pro-commercial folks won, and we have our Internet today.