The president of the United States has a blog: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/. It's featured prominently on WhiteHouse.gov. I started blogging near the beginning, in 1997-99 or so. I couldn't have imagined then that we'd reach this point -- especially this quickly.I started covering the Internet in 1994-95, and I could not have imagined then that the Internet would play the role it has in presidential politics, and society in general.

That sounds ridiculous now, doesn't it -- a journalist "covering the Internet." But back then, the internet was small and contained enough that it fit nicely inside a single tech reporter's beat -- indeed, when I started covering it, it wasn't even all of my beat, or the main part.

Makes me wonder what freaky, cutting-edge technologies of today will be central to the presidency, and society, in 2019. Science-fiction writer Charles Stross predicted the near-future mainstreaming of online multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, virtual worlds, and augmented reality in his recent novel Halting State.

What do you think? What far-out technology of today will be mainstream in 2019? My first thought was Twitter, Facebook, and other social media; but those technologies are already mainstream, or nearly there; they're not as far-out and geeky as blogging was back in 1997-99, or the Internet as a whole in 1994-95.

A Twitter friend says Obama's blog isn't a real blog; she doesn't expand on that statement, but I think I know what she means. The Obama blog lacks the discursive element, feedback, and personal touch required to be a true blog; it's all about the Office of the President talking to the people, not Obama personally talking with his constituents. It's probably written by a staffer, not Obama himself. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; the President of the United States has a pretty full schedule without adding blogging to the mix.

I responded, "How can it be a real blog without LOLcats?"