Boing Boing

Boing Boing is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney and communism, and it twice won the Bloggies for Weblog of the Year, in 2004 and 2005. The editors are Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz, Xeni Jardin, and Rob Beschizza.

History

Boing Boing (originally bOING bOING) started as a zine in 1988 by Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair, his wife. Issues were subtitled "The World's Greatest Neurozine". Associate editors included Gareth Branwyn, Jon Lebkowsky, and Paco Nathan. Along with Mondo 2000, Boing Boing was an influence in the development of the cyberpunk subculture. It reached a maximum circulation of 17,500 copies. The last issue of the zine was #15.

Boing Boing became a Web site in 1995 and one year later was a web-only publication. While researching for an article about blogs in 1999, Frauenfelder became acquainted with the Blogger software, which led to the relaunch of Boing Boing as a weblog on 21 January 2000, described as a "directory of wonderful things." Over time, Frauenfelder was joined by four co-editors—Doctorow, Pescovitz, Jardin and Beschizza—who previously contributed to Wired magazine. Maggie Koerth-Baker, after a run as a guest blogger in 2009, joined the site as its Science Editor.