The state of the – *yawn*
It seems like every month or so, one of these posts makes the rounds [that's five already; six if you count this. There's room for two more in my phrase. Who wants to step up?] of the blogosphere. Can the blogosphere survive yet another year?
So, really. Is the blogosphere stagnant? Can there be new blogs? Will there be new blogs? Who gives a rat’s ass? Oops, how did that get in there?
I mean, besides someone like Kevin O’Keefe of lexblog – who, you know, runs a business off of blogs – why do other bloggers care? Shouldn’t the question be: has readership stagnated? By all accounts: no. Readership has increased and will continue to do so as blogs become more “mainstream”. But why should I get all in a tizzy about whether the rate of new blogs has leveled out.
FTW.
Update (not a real one): This beast grows faster than I can keep up! More here, here and here! I need a new sentence up there. I’m not even going to try and send trackbacks to all of them.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Gideon on December 20, 2007 at 9:46 pm, and is filed under rants. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 4 years ago
You’re right about the beast growing faster than you can keep up. Maybe I should do one of these posts that draw attention like this. Maybe – ‘Does O’Keefe still beat his wife?’
about 4 years ago
Hah! Someone asked me that at work and I tried to wiggle out of answering it. She fake objected and tried to get the “judge” to force me to answer it. Then the conversation devolved into a re-enactment of the scene from My Cousin Vinny when Marissa Tomei is on the stand.
But seriously – I understand why you’d be interested in this. As for the rest, I have no clue. Or am I reading too much into it?
Btw: I think this might be your first visit here, so, welcome! I’m an avid reader
about 4 years ago
I think you’re just getting too jaded, Gid. Sometimes we chat about important stuff, and other times we just chat. If I wasn’t able to have the same convesation more than once, then I wouldn’t have been able to talk to my father since 1968.
about 4 years ago
I guess so. Although…I can understand law review articles getting discussion – they might have something of substance. But this? I guess if it’s entirely fluff and not to be taken seriously, but that’s belied by the number of posts and the thought put into it.
This is navel gazing at its worst.
Oh, and, “we”? You’re one of them now?
about 4 years ago
yes I am, and so are you. We are the walrus . . .
about 4 years ago
What if I refuse.
about 4 years ago
Actually, if you read my post (at Legal Blogwatch), you will see that it does not just discuss where blogging is going in 2008 but how it affects the practice of law. In my predictions, I wrote about lawyers using marketing to enhance their reputations, how law firms’ failure to understand the changing dynamic of blogs will cause PR problems and the prospects for live blogging trials and appellate arguments. I would think that a PD would be extremely interested in ways that blogging can and does impact the practice of law, because ultimately, that may have implicatons for your clients.
about 4 years ago
Carolyn, thanks for the comment. Unfortunately your blog is blocked for me here. I will have to wait until I return home to re-read it.
I have several points to make, but I will wait until later, when I have had the opportunity to refresh my recollection.
about 4 years ago
Interesting perspective. Whether the blogosphere grows for lawyers or not or is stagnant or not or impacts clients or not remains interesting questions and whether or not you are ‘yawning’ at the discussion, the discussion remains. What I see happening in the next year or so is the ‘shakeout.’ Who harnesses its power, who misuses its power, who tries and then quits. When the field was ‘light’ it was easy to be mediocre or half-hearted and have a reasonable audience of the curious and those who carefully observed and took notes. With many more entering the field, it is becoming harder and harder to differentiate yourself. And like all efforts, many will fall by the wayside. Others will persevere in a straight direction. And yet others will transform as needed. I’ve been watching all of this these past six months and it is quite fascinating and helps me to educate those who ask my opinion.
about 4 years ago
Susan: I guess I’m just confused at this notion of “power”. What power?
Frankly, the only “use” I’ve gotten out of blogs (aside from getting to know some interesting people) is reading about cases that I normally wouldn’t have heard about.
I’m more up on what’s happening in the legal field throughout the country, but only a small fraction of it actually affects my practice. Maybe it is because I am a public defender, working for an organization and a hierarchical structure, that it doesn’t impact me as much.
But I haven’t seen that reflected in posts on this topic.
So, I guess I still don’t get why I should care.
(I don’t mean this in a snarky way – I truly don’t)
about 4 years ago
Carolyn: I re-read your post.
Two points: How do you think blogging will impact the law and how will it impact my clients? Do you think that if there are more (and perhaps better) blogs, clients will be more informed about the law and lawyering itself and demand and expect more? (I’m really asking – not being a wiseass)
Second, I think your predictions should be more of a bloggers manifesto for the coming year. There are several things on your list that I think bloggers should do and frankly, should have done already.
Again, I think there’s a difference in perspective given our modes of profession, as it were. As someone who is a pd and wants to be a pd till I retire, the marketing bit doesn’t really mean anything to me and I don’t see blogs impacting the law itself any time soon (or at all).
about 4 years ago
Gideon,
Solove wrote an interesting book called ‘The Future of Reputation.’ The book discusses the ability of users (bloggers) to disseminate information, use, misuse, abuse information which impacts one’s reputation at the speed of light and the internets permanence. It is unregulated so your very reputation is at stake. There are those who use it to promote themselves, their services…and those who will seek to destroy others with it. Just because you don’t see how it impacts you doesn’t mean it doesn’t. Imagine someone goes after your ‘office’ in a way which impacts your ability to defend your client, or goes after your client to discredit them or prevent them from getting a fair trial. Because in seconds what they say can be heard around the world and compounded and never removed it can impact your ability to serve your clients. So, blogging and the almost 100 million bloggers out there chatting can profoundly affect your functioning as a public defender and your reputation as an attorney even if for you blogging is just ‘for fun.’ And in this way, it will impact the law, blogging trials, etc. I strongly recommend you read this book because it may impact your advice to clients who are into blogging and more. Unfortunately, no one is protected from this; best to be proactive and understand..forewarned is forearmed.
I’ll give you one unfortunate example: A friend of mine was offering professional services to another. The relationship was not going well although my friend was at all times business-like, professional and courteous even though she was being treated extraordinarily discourteously. When the relationship soured, she offered the customer a full refund even though she was nearly done; the customer threatened to blog about the entire experience if she did not complete her end of the arrangement. It resolved, but do you see what I mean about ‘power.’ Sure, there could have been a lawsuit but not before it was forever digitized and disseminated and the damage done. This is what I mean by power and why it impacts everyone.
about 4 years ago
Susan, all of the above are excellent points and I’m quite in agreement on the use of social networking in our representation of clients and the impact it has.
But I think we’ve digressed from the original points made on the posts that I linked to (bar Carolyn’s). Those posts were all about legal blogs and whether there will be more legal blogs and if the rich will get richer in terms of readership.
I think Carolyn was the only one that made the connection between the discussion as it existed and the impact on our profession as a whole in the future. And it is that original thought – “are enough people reading us” – that I take issue with as it is repeated over and over again. The self-importance of lawyers was shining through.