If You Haven't Given Legal Blogging a Second Thought, Think Again!
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If this tremendous article on legal blogging (and in particular ADR blogging) from this summer's ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine Only Connect the Impact of Blogging on the Field of ADR by Diane Levin doesn't make you want to immediately run to blogger.com and begin posting missives to the legal world, well . . . legal blogging isn't right for you. Excerpt below and full article at link above.
In his 2006 book Conversation: A History of a Declining Art, author Stephen Miller evoked a golden age of discourse that England enjoyed in the 18th century. The seat of that renaissance of conversation was the coffeehouse, where wit and aphorism flourished. Men gathered to warm themselves with a dish of coffee, transact business, gather news, enjoy the latest gossip, and of course converse.
Although the British coffeehouse has largely faded from public memory, a spiritual descendant has emerged possessing many of its ancestor's most distinctive attributes: the blog. Like its 18th century predecessor, the blog is simultaneously marketplace, library, and public square, with a wealth of views and ideas clamoring for consideration, attracting businesspeople, scholars, thinkers, writers, celebrities, and ordinary citizens.
ADR professionals and scholars perhaps would have felt at home in the 18th-century coffeehouse. We and the coffeehouse share similar virtues: ours is a field that promotes and pursues the exchange of ideas and information. It is fundamentally about conversation. And, like England in the 18th century, the ADR field is enjoying its own renaissance in discourse, one that flowers lushly online, thanks to the phenomenon of blogging, drawn to its capacity for bringing people and fresh thinking together.
For four years as a blogger, I have chronicled the impact that blogging has had on ADR. I began blogging at MediationChannel.com [FN1] when I was one of only a handful of men and women blogging about dispute resolution. During that time I have also served as the ADR blogosphere's taxonomist, tracking blogs worldwide at ADRblogs.com, [FN2] a blog catalog that today lists almost 200 blogs from 29 countries.
During those four years--a long time on the Internet, where change happens rapidly and yesterday is old news--I have witnessed firsthand the changes blogging has brought to our profession and to the work that many of us do. For ADR bloggers and our readers, the phenomenon of blogging has dramatically affected us and the way we practice in three key areas: the business of ADR, the dissemination and discussion of information and ideas, and professional networking. I invite you to explore them with me, following a brief introduction to blogs.
