Back on March 13th, I pondered:

When will we know that blogging has truly “arrived”?  1) Financially? Simply, when PC manufacturers start packaging blogging applets/access/software along with operating systems.  2) Culturally? Simply, when blogging becomes a commonplace offering in school curriculums.

Well, the ascension has begun:

One of the country's most respected training grounds for professional reporters has become the first school to offer a class on the 21st century symbol of do-it-yourself journalism.

Next fall, a handful of students at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism will convene weekly to learn about blogging from John Batelle, a co-founder of Wired magazine, and Paul Grabowicz, the school's new media program director.

 -- Blogging Goes Legit, Sort Of  by Noah Shachtman, June 6, 2002 PDT

Hey, Xanga's own john (John Hiler) adds his own eProps to this article--way to make some noise john! ...

The Berkeley class on blogging is the latest in a series of signs that the media establishment is starting to warm up to what was long seen as legitimate journalism's loud-mouthed kid sister.

MSNBC, for example, recently joined Fox News, Slate, the San Jose Mercury News and others by adding blogs to its website.

"This means that professional journalists aren't just poking at bloggers like creatures in a zoo cage -- they're in the cage themselves," said John Hiler, editor of Microcontent News, a site keeping tabs on the blogging world.

And I really wonder--if below--john has anyone of us here on Xanga in mind?? ...

The intellectual-property issues the Berkeley class will try to sift through are particularly important to the blogging community, because a weblog site's combination of liberally used links and off-the-cuff commentary make it a juicy target for corporate lawsuits.

"We're probably only six months away from seeing a blogger served with a libel lawsuit," Microcontent News' Hiler said.

Come on Xangaroos!  Let's make Xanga notoriously famous by having one of our very own be the first to break and make new law (with the possibility of going all the way to the Supreme Court, no doubt!).  After all, isn't it worth it?  In today's pop-culture market, notoriety is usually the quickest ticket to success!

Any volunteers?