Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

... blog.

Well, of course the past 12 months were taken up with much, much more than blogging, but 2002 was certainly the year in which bloggers began to make an impact on the mainstream. Writing about the Trent Lott affair, The Economist, in its current "Special Christmas Issue", says:

"The mainstream media was initially blind to his remarks perhaps because it is used to such comments. But the "blogosphere" — websites of opinion and news, first known as weblogs — denounced the remarks vigorously, and would not let up, finally forcing others to take notice."

Bloggers are terribly prone to navel gazing so before we get carried away with notions of grandeur, I?d like to relate an experience from a pre-Christmas shopping session in Dublin. I was in one of the city's finest bookstores and went upstairs to browse the computer books, which happen to be located beside the volumes on medicine. In case I'd missed out on any recent publications I asked the young assistant if he had any books on blogging. "Is that a medical condition?" he enquired of me.

An ailment, perhaps? Trent Lott would certainly consider it an aberration. It's fun, though, and it's going to become much more important in 2003, a year in which history will be made.

I hope you will continue to visit Rainy Day next year. Meanwhile, thanks for your attention in 2002.