Justin Hall | |
|---|---|
 Justin Hall in 2008 | |
| Born | (1974-12-16)December 16, 1974 (age 50) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Francis W. Parker Swarthmore College University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | Recruiter, Director of Culture & Communications |
| Known for | Blogging,The Nethernet |
| Website | Links.net |
Justin Hall (born December 16, 1974, inChicago,Illinois) is anAmericanjournalist and entrepreneur, best known as a pioneerblogger.
Born inChicago, Hall graduatedFrancis W. Parker High School in 1993. In 1994, while a student atSwarthmore College, Justin started his web-based diaryJustin's Links from the Underground, which offered one of the earliest guided tours of theweb.[1] Over time, the site came to focus on Hall's life in intimate detail. In December 2004,The New York Times Magazine referred to him as "the founding father of personal blogging."[2]
In 1994, during a break from college Hall joinedHotWired, the first commercial web magazine started withinWired magazine.[3] There, he began a long-term working partnership with critic, writer and teacherHoward Rheingold.[4] Later Hall would become a freelance journalist covering video games, mobile technology and internet culture. He published analysis from game conferences such asE3 as well as theTokyo Game Show. He chronicled the firstIndie Game Jam in 2002. From late 2001 and 2003, Hall was based inJapan, mostlyTokyo andAkita, authoring a guidebook Just In Tokyo.[5]
In 2007, Hall graduated from the MFA program in theUSC Interactive Media Division. His thesis project was an attempt to make surfing the web into a multiplayer game: PMOG, the Passively Multiplayer Online Game. Hall went on to serve as CEO of GameLayers, which raised $2 million to turn PMOG intoThe Nethernet, aMMO in a Firefox toolbar.[6] The Nethernet failed to turn a profit, and GameLayers closed down as a company. The server and client software for the Nethernet was released as open source[7] and Hall went on to publishA Story of GameLayers, "open-sourcing our business process".[8]
At present, Hall lives inSan Francisco,California. He served as a Producer onngmoco:)'sTouch Pets series, and then became ngmoco:)'s Director of Culture & Communications.[9] After working for ngmoco:)'s parent companyDeNA as a Recruiter, Hall left the company in mid-2013. In 2015 he released a self-produced short documentaryOvershare: the Links.net Story exploring his "extremely personal blogging".[10] In September 2017, Hall began work as co-founder & Chief Technology Officer for bud.com, a California benefit corporation delivering recreationalcannabis, built on adomain name he registered in 1994.[11]
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