What makes a good legal weblog?
There are a number of factors that define the best weblogs and make them stand out from the rest. After observing the weblog phenomenon for over a year, I can identify a few of those factors:
- Frequent updates -- The most widely read logs, whether law-related or those focused on current geopolitical events (the so-called "warbloggers"), are those which are updated frequently. As we have observed before, for some of the most prominent logs, several entries per day have come to be expected. What in the world will happen in Blawgland when Howard Bashman finally decides to take a vacation and gives in to his wife's insistence that he leave the laptop at home?
- Entertainment quality -- As with any other form of communication, a log which is well-written and interesting is a pleasure to read.
- Substantive outside information -- The key to weblogs is their links to outside sources of internet-available information contained in online periodicals and in offerings by other weblog commentators. This is the lifeblood of a good timely topical weblog. This is where the internet is feeding our collective heads, and we want to know about it as soon as possible.
- Focus -- The best, most widely-read, and most informative law-related logs are those which are focused on one area of interest. An author who has developed expertise in and indeed a passion for a particular area of practice and who expresses that passion through a detailed analysis of the happenings which reflect that area of interest can produce the most valuable information.
(In the spirit of self-criticism, I raise this last one in full recognition that this log itself fails to meet this particular criterion. Since I started this log in July of 2002, The LitiGator has been anything but focused. Rather than concentrating my efforts on one area, I have simply followed my interests and offered up commentary on whatever topic happens to have caught my eye. It does open me up for criticism -- after all, who am I to say that Frank Lloyd Wright was an architectural imbecile? I am only a lawyer. In part, the wandering that this log has done has been part of the experimentation with this new way of building web pages. But my recognition of the way that this weblog has unfolded helps to sharpen my appreciation for those whose contributions have been much more narrow and focused.)
10:19:11 PM 
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