"Within the next 12 months, every academic in an Australian law school should be blogging on a regular basis, or seriously considering their future in academia."
This strong statement begins "Blog or you won't be read" (via Blog Scholar). I do not know what the US stats are, but I imagine the following applies similarly here:
It is said that the average law review article in Australia is read from start to finish by three people. Months of intense scholarship is devoted to enriching the minds of three people - these inevitably being academics, students and the occasional practitioner. On top of that, you might get 50 to 100 people (at most) reading the article's abstract or introduction.
...Why not reallocate that funding towards law academics reaching out to the world through effective blogging? Blogs can be easily found through a simple Google search (unlike many Australian law reviews, which are still only available in hard copy via the library, and American law reviews, many of which are accessible only via Westlaw or Lexis), making them a handy source of research for students, practitioners and other academics.
...If Australian law academics really are serious about being progressive, relevant and dynamic, blogging cannot be resisted any longer.
Well, if blogging is required for legal scholars it should be for the rest of us as well! Seriously, I have been on a rather haphazard search for bloggers who are also family studies students, scholars, educators and other practitioners. If you fit this category and haven't already responded to my NCFR queries, please drop me a line/comment. I'll be revamping my blogroll to include the family scholarship blogs I find soon.
By the way, please check out my favorite legal blogs, Blackprof, Health Law Prof, and Family Law Prof.
********UPDATE**********
I just saw this over on Blackprof:
"Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship"Posted by perry032 at April 17, 2006 02:13 PM | TrackBackWeb logs ("blogs") are transforming much of American society, including government, politics, journalism, and business. In the past few years, blogs have begun to affect the delivery of legal education, the production and dissemination of legal scholarship, and the practice of law. We are delighted that over twenty of the nation’s leading law professor bloggers have agreed to join with us for the first scholarly conference on the impact of blogs on the legal academy. [At The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School]