Justin Hall (born December 16, 1974, in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

) is an American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and entrepreneur, best known as a pioneer

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ger.

Biography

Born in

, Hall graduated Francis W. Parker High School in 1993. In 1994, while a student at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

, Justin started his web-based diary
Justin's Links from the Underground
', which offered one of the earliest guided tours of the

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

.Harmanci, Reyhan.
Time to get a life -- pioneer blogger Justin Hall bows out at 31
" ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

.'' February 20, 2005, retrieved on July 20, 2006. Over time, the site came to focus on Hall's life in intimate detail. In December 2004, ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'' referred to him as "the founding father of personal blogging."Rosen, Jeffrey.
Your Blog or Mine?
''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...

.'' December 14, 2004, retrieved on October 31, 2007. In 1994, during a break from college Hall joined ''

HotWired ''Hotwired'' (1994–1999) was the first commercial online magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of the print magazine Wired (magazine), ''Wired'', ''Hotwired'' carried original content. History Andrew Anker, Wired ...

'', the first commercial web magazine started within ''Wired'' magazine. There, he began a long-term working partnership with critic, writer and teacher

Howard Rheingold Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities. B ...

. Later Hall would become a freelance journalist covering video games, mobile technology and internet culture. He published analysis from game conferences such as E3 as well as the

Tokyo Game Show , commonly known as TGS, is a video game trade fair and convention held annually in September in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and Nikkei Business Publication ...

. He chronicled the first Indie Game Jam in 2002. From late 2001 and 2003, Hall was based in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, mostly

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and Akita, authoring a guidebook Just In Tokyo. In 2007, Hall graduated from the MFA program in the

USC Interactive Media Division The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media & Games Division first accepted M.F.A. students in 2002. The division currently offers both undergraduate (B.F.A.) and graduate (M.F.A. and M.S.) programs in int ...

. 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 into The Nethernet, a MMO in a Firefox toolbar. 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 and Hall went on to publish ''A Story of GameLayers'', "open-sourcing our business process". At present, Hall lives in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He served as a Producer on ngmoco:)'s Touch Pets series, and then became ngmoco:)'s Director of Culture & Communications. After working for ngmoco:)'s parent company

DeNA is a Japanese provider of mobile portal and e-commerce websites headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It owns the Mobage cell phone platform and also operates other services, including the e-commerce website DeNA Shopping (formerly: Bidders). H ...

as a Recruiter, Hall left the company in mid-2013. In 2015 he released a self-produced short documentary
Overshare: the Links.net Story
' exploring his "extremely personal blogging". In September 2017, Hall began work as co-founder & Chief Technology Officer for bud.com, a California benefit corporation delivering recreational

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

, built on a

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

he registered in 1994.

Selected works

Playing a Life Online - an audio recording
March 11, 2006 (speech at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas USA)

April 2003, ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

''
"Where the Geeks Are"
August 19, 1999, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''
"Today's Visions of the Science of Tomorrow"
January 4, 2003, ''New York Times''

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

"Hire This Boy To Play Your Video Games"
October 12, 2000, ''Rolling Stone'' * ''Just In Tokyo'', 2002, Garrett County Press.

Contributor

* J. Goldstein & J. Raessens, ''Handbook of Computer Game Studies'', MIT Press, 2005: Chapter on "Future of Games: Mobile Gaming" * T. Fullerton & C. Swain, ''Game Design Workshop'', CMP Books, 2004: Sidebar/chapter on "The Indie Game Jam." * V. Burnham, ''Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age'', MIT Press, 2001: Essays on the Apple ] Burger Time and Spy Hunter.

Films

* Hall was featured in the documentary ''Home Page (documentary), Home Page''. * He appeared nude as an actor in ''Blood''. * Hall appears in the science fiction film ''Radio Free Steve''. * Hall appeared in Famke Janssen, Famke Janssen's critically panned 2011 film Bringing Up Bobby (2011 film), ''Bringing Up Bobby''.

References

External links