The Atlas Society and its Objectivist Center have an article with a brief history of blogging (in their opinion), Atlas Mugged: How a Gang of Scrappy, Individual Bloggers Broke the Stranglehold of the Mainstream Media.

There is also discussion on the future of blogging with Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit.

Most likely, the Blogosphere will continue to consolidate. While plenty of new one-man sites will crop up, group blogs, many resembling small magazines, will continue to flourish and gain prominence—as will sites that blend blogs and discussion forums. Please overlook objectionable references in the article.
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Reynolds isn’t so sure that blogging is a smart idea for newspapers, however. “As I keep saying over and over again, the ‘killer app’ for Big Media is hard news, accurately reported. That seems like something that they resist. It’s almost like their position is that they didn’t go into the news business to report facts accurately,” he chuckles; “that’s boring!”

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a big objectivist, individualist, Ayn Rand follower. I did find some of her fiction quite fascinating, educational, entertaining, whatever, e.g. Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. Sometimes I do feel like going to hide in the mountains with a community of like-minded people.

All that aside, the blogosphere (and the Internet in general) is changing. From bulletin boards, to CompuServe, and now a huge variety of blogs. What will we see in two years? Five years? I can't imagine. Will it be taken over by blogbots like cable newsbots? I hope not.