From Weblogs to Twitter: How Did We Get Where We Are Today and What Are the Main Impacts To Date?

What are the most important milestones in the evolution of social media? What factors have shaped their successes and limitations? Although the dates of the earliest 'weblog' are a matter of some debate, the majority of their growth in popularity has arisen over the past ten years. What are the most important milestones in that process of evolution, and what are the factors that have shaped the successes and limitations of social media? Why (if at all) should we expect them to have an inherently democratising or egalitarian effect? Each speaker concludes by identifying the most significant ways in which they think that blogs and social media have had any social, political or economic impact.