This morning I was as usual reading Dave Winer‘s blog Scripting News on my way to work. And I was surprised, very surprised, to read that he plans to stop writing his blog. Dave has influenced me a lot, even though I have never met him in person.

For those of you who don’t know him or don’t regularly follow his weblog, Dave is a software and internet pioneer. He is one of the very first bloggers (he started in 1994 with his first semi-blog), he invented XML-RPC, RSS (that is finally taking off) and OPML. He was the founder of Userland, and he is one of the people who together invented and developed podcasting.

Because of reading his blog I decided to set up my first weblog about two years ago (Shanghaied Weblog is my third weblog, the first two have since ceased to exist). And without him the idea of podcasting would have never be born, so likely there would be no Toodou.com.

Dave wants to stop blogging because the goals he had when he started blogging are now fulfilled. Also, he has become a public figure because of blogging and he wants some more privacy. To be honest, I don’t think he can stop blogging anymore. It’s too much part of his life to share his thoughts and ideas with the outside world. I enjoyed following his travels all over the US, and developed many new ideas because of his posts. It’s a pity this might stop soon. Thanks for the inspiration you have given me over the past years Dave, and good luck with your new plans!