Down to the Wire 1997: Nobody knows you're a dog

Alastair Thompson talks about the origins of Scoop.co.nz

Down to the Wire 1997: Nobody knows you're a dog

A dog sitting in front of a computer turns to another and says, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". Like the classic cartoon, 1997 sees the web finding a place for everyone online.

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Peter Mullet, operations manager for the non-profit ISP PlaNet, proclaimed hopefully in an interview in the mid-‘90s that, "People are judged by the quality of what they put on the Internet, not who they are, who they know or where they are from. It wipes out elitism". That optimistic prediction has never quite proven true – and today, when images, video and audio are much more simply transmitted online, it can be quite easily determined whether you are a dog or not.

1997 was the year the term ‘weblog’ was invented, shortened by lazy surfers to ‘blog’ within a couple of years. At first, weblogs were simply lists of recently unearthed ‘cool stuff’ found online by the author. Over time they would branch in a number of directions. From life-exposing online diaries to self-promotional journals to opinionated blogs. By the end of the millennium there was a sub-genre of "talking about yourself" for everyone.