Weblogs@Harvard, as it was then known, was considered pioneering. Facebook didn’t yet exist. Social media was in its infancy. And starting a blog usually required some knowledge of code. Harvard’s blogging platform, now known as blogs.harvard.edu, made it easy.
Lindsay McKenzie discusses Harvard’s recent announcement that Harvard is closing down blogs.harvard.edu. This piece collects together a number of perspectives from academics. Mike Caulfield wonders about the temporal nature of institutional and self hosting. He discusses the multitude of sites that have now disappeared as they were either closed or corrupted. This is something he has discussed before. Tim Owens and Jim Groom use this as an opportunity to take a wider look at blogging and archiving.