Introduction Purpose:
The purpose of this pathfinder on Law Blogs (Blawgs)is to provide a starting point for law students and law faculty interested in identifying blogs they wish to monitor or to provide basic information for those interested in starting their own weblog.
Scope:
Only a selective number of Blawgs, blog hosting sites and blog tools are included in this pathfinder. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list but there are enough blogs and tools covered to provide an introduction to Blawgs. This material can lead the user deeper into the blogosphere to explore other possible weblogs not listed here by either following blawg links to other blogs or by using the blog search engines and blog directories listed below.
Not Included
The following topics are not addressed in the pathfinder at this time. Follow the linked terms to the Weblog Glossary for more information. - Differences between the syndicated feeds - XML, RSS and ATOM.
- Wiki technology.
Format:
Most of the entries in the pathfinder link to online resources and not materials in the Law Library. Therefore, one does not need to be in the Law Library to retrieve the materials cited.
Selection criteria for including Blawgs and blog tools in this pathfinder:
1. The blog was included if it was highly rated in blog rankings, by other bloggers or received awards.
2. Blawgs were included if they represented a variety of law related themes such as humor, law faculty, state or federal coverage, or highly rated law firm blogs.
3. Blawgs were also included if their purpose was to assist law students or have a legal research focus.
4. Law student blawgs were included if a group of students contributed to the blog. The blog would have a broader law school coverage and less of a personal diary focus.
5. The blog search engines and directories were included if they had additional blog tools such as blog rankings, blogger profiles, and link tracking features.
6. The blog hosting sites needed to be free.
Criteria for evaluating quality of blogs:
Use this list to determine if the blog is worth following.
1. Relevancy and usefulness of the blog to the information needs of the user.
2. What is the potential of bias?
3. How often is it updated?
4. How many contribute or submit content?
5. What is its intended audience?
6. High quality writing; highly rated by blog tools or by others (either listed on their blogroll or commented on in another’s blog) or any other special recognition (awards).
7. Socially interactive; comments left by others in the nature of conversational exchange; trackback links.
8. Credibility of the author. Review blogger’s biographical information. Is their real name given somewhere on the blog site? Listing their real name is not necessary but it does add to their credibility. Is the blogger a lawyer, law professor or are they a law student? If known this helps identifies their expertise.
(Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, and Wright. 2004. Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs. Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science HICSS-37. )
Blogging Terminology and Definitions
For definitions of basic blogging terms see:
List of Blogging Terms (from Wikipedia)
Blogossary.com
For more information about blogging terminiology, go here.
General Legal Weblogs (Blawgs) The descriptions of the weblogs below came from the blogger's own taglines or descriptions found elsewhere on the blog's web pages. Many listed below are award winning blogs.
American Lawyer Media's Law.com
"Law.com Practice Centers provide you with timely legal news, information and resources." Exactly what you need to stay current in Corporate Law, Employment Law, Intellectual Property Law, Litigation and Technology Law.
Anonymous Lawyer (humorous)
Stories from the trenches, by a fictional hiring partner at a large law firm in a major city. Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
Bag and Baggage
Maintained by an appellate and intellectual property lawyer with the firm Reed Smith. Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
beSpacific From LLRX.com
Accurate, focused law and technology news. Best overall legal blog of 2004.
Common Scold
" The Common Scold is named after a cause of action that originated in Pilgrim days, when meddlesome, argumentative, opinionated women who displeased the Puritan elders were punished by a brisk dunk in the local pond." Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
Ernie the Attorney
Searching for truth & justice (in an unjust world). Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
Instapundit.com Glenn Reynolds’ blog (University of Tennessee law professor).
Listed as the most influential blog based on blogrolls (by the Weblog Awards for 2004). Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
IP Blogs
A survey of selected IP blogs by Robert J. Ambrogi.
Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog
An Oklahoma-based weblog about law practice management, the Internet and technology as it applies both in law practice and in all of our lives.
Lawpundit
Covering law and law related topics. Comments and reports on all areas of law, life, humanity, politics and current events. Also has a great list to other blogs.
LawTech Guru Blog by Jeff Beard
"If you continue to do what you've always done, you deserve to get what you've always got." Received the 2005 TechnoLawyer @ Awards for "Favorite Practice Management Blog."
Legal Blog Watch from Law.com
Pulls in blog feeds from several well known legal blogs.
May It Please The Court
A weblog of legal news and observations. Blawg Review Awards 2006 winner.
Michael Arkfeld's Digital Practice of Law
A daily digest of cases, comments and practical references for applying technology to the practice of law and litigation support.
Netlawblog
Internet Tools for Lawyers.
Notes from the (Legal) Underground (humorous)
A weblog that asks the question-Why are lawyers so stuffy?
TechLawAdvisor
Where law and the ‘Net intersect
-> For lists to other Blawgs and law related news feeds try The Virtual Chase RSS News Feeds for Law, Taxonomy of Legal Blogs (from Law Blog Metrics), or use the blog search engines listed below.
topLaw Student and Law Faculty Blawgs Legal Research Blawgs Inter alia
An internet legal research weblog, among other things.
Law Journal Feeds
Washington and Lee University provides instructions for adding law journal feeds to a feed reader. There are currently almost 500 legal journals that provide information via feeds, such as RSS. See the journal list on this web site for feed links. Pick and choose which law journal you wish to monitor and then be notified when a new issue is published.
Legal Research & Writing Blog
Practical insight and commentary on legal research and writing. Published by Susan McDonald, Attorney.
Ohio Legal Research Blog
Listed as "Blawg of the Week" on January 16, 2005 by Inter-alia. This blawg is maintained by three Ohio law librarians who are revising the " Ohio Legal Research Guide" (1997). The weblog contributors are Kathy Hall, Melanie Putnam and Susan Schaefgen.
Out of the Jungle
Thoughts on the present and future of legal information, legal research, and legal education.
Robert Ambrogi's LawSites
Tracking new and intriguing web site for the legal profession.
The Virtual Chase (TVC Alert)
Teaching Legal Professionals How To Do Research .
top
Ohio Law Blawgs
The Briefcase (Cuyahoga County).
Cincinnati Law Library Association.
Cleveland Law Library Weblog.
Cleveland Personal Injury lawyer.
Election law @ Moritz (OSU).
Moritz Legal Information Blog (OSU).
Ohio Co-Counsel.com Blog.
Ohio Employer's Law Blog
Sentencing Law and Policy (OSU).
Sixth Circuit Blog.
Stark County Law Library Blog.
topSoftware to Monitor Weblogs- also called RSS Readers or Aggregators Use some of this software to help manage your favorite blawgs.
After selecting blawgs you wish to follow, you can visit the blawg site on a regular schedule to follow the postings. Some blog sites provide a notification e-mail whenever a blog message is posted (see Bot a Blog in the list below). However, you can quickly end up with quite a list of favorite blawgs and blogs. If they are update frequently, you will not want your e-mail inbox filled with posting notifications. Also, it can take time visiting each of your favorite blawgs using your browser’s Favorites or Bookmarks.
A better way to follow your favorite blogs is to use a RSS reader (also called an aggregator). An aggregator is a web service that you customize to monitor your favorite blogs. Since the RSS software is used by blogs and by news services, the aggregators can be used to monitor news feeds as well. The software checks your listed blogs on a regular basis displaying current headlines of RSS feeds or the first line of a recent blog posting. You only have to visit the aggregator web page to see if any of your listed blogs have any new postings. Clicking on the headline or sentence will take you to the full message on the blog site.
The RSS readers and Aggregators listed below are offered for free. Instructions for setting up your list of blogs can be found on each aggregator’s web site.
AmphetaDesk
"AmphetaDesk is a free, cross platform, open-sourced, syndicated news aggregator - it sits on your desktop, downloads the latest news that interests you, and displays them in a quick and easy to use (and customizable!) webpage."
Blogdigger
Bloggdigger is both a search engine for blogs and an online aggregator.
Bloglines
A comprehensive, integrated service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs, and rich Web content.
Bot A Blog
A free service where "bots" send you simple text e-mails when your favorite blogs are updated and new entries are added.
Feedreader
A free open-source aggregator. It reads and organizes RSS feeds and blogs.
Google Reader
Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.
NewsGator Online
Track news, topics or blogs across many different sites, all in one simple page that you create for free. NewsGator Outlook plugin available for purchase.
NewsIsFree
"NewIsFree is a web site designed to let you access thousands of news sources with a powerful and flexible portal for browsing, indexing and publishing news headlines. The site acts as a personal news portal by collecting headlines from a collection of news relevant web sites around the web and displays them on a number of custom pages that you create."
RSS Popper
RSS Popper is a news aggregator add-in for Outlook and Outlook Express.
-> For more lists of aggregators see hebig.org/blog (for a list maintained on a blog), allrss.com and blogspace.com. All About RSS has great instructions for using RSS feeds and other readers.
topBlog Search Engines and Blog Directories To locate additional blawgs or blogs:
1. use a blog search engine or a blog directory. See the list below.
2. use blogrolls on blog sites. Many bloggers keep a list of blogs they follow or believe to be interesting on their blog page.
3. use blogger networks or blog rings. These are similar to web rings. Blogs with similar topics link to each other.
Blawg.com
Directory of law and legal related blogs.
Blogdigger.com
Bloggdigger is both a search engine for blogs and an online aggregator.
BlogPulse.com
BlogPulse is an automated trend discovery system for blogs. In addition to searching for blogs, you can also track search terms, trends reflected through blogs, daily blog statistics, a conversation tracker that follows discussion that emanates and spreads from individual blogs. Blog Profiles allows you to find out more information about a specific blogger, who authors a blog, how active the blog is, how it ranks in comparison with other blogs. Find out what are the top blogs, the top videos and the top news stories.
Blog Search Engine.com
Fagan Finder.com: Weblogs, Journals, & RSS
All-in-one search page that lets you easily search a variety of blog/RSS search engines, plus provides related links on the subject.
Google Blog Search
Find blogs on your favorite topics.
Icerocket.com
Search blogs, find all the blogs that link to a web site, find the most blogged about videos, find blogs discussing a specific topic or view a list of the most discussed topics each day. The topic links take you to the blogs. There is also a Blog Trends tool where up to three terms may be tracked on blogs over time.
Justia.com
A search engine for law related web pages, law blogs and legal podcasts. The law blogs are by law professors, lawyers, judges, legal researchers and librarians. Browse the law blog directory. Justia.com includes a list of the most popular blawgcasts, a listing of podcasts by categories, and the most recent blawgcasts.
Law Blogs listed in Yahoo Search Directory
See this directory for a list of law related blogs.
Legally Inclined Weblogs Ring
A ring of attorneys, law students, and other legal professionals who maintain weblogs or personal websites. Links to hundreds of blogs and this site has a weblog search tool.
Technorati.com
"Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere- the world of weblogs."
Other features on this web site include the Search the Live Web allows users to search by keyword, the URL of any web page or the tag assigned by the blogger. The Popular News feature lists the top news stories bloggers are discussing right now.
Top 100 offers an a list of popular blogs based on links.
-> For lists of other Blog search engines see Finding Blogs, Blog Posts , RSS Feeds and RSS Entries and Big List of Blog Search Engines (maintained by Ari Paparo).
topFree Blog Hosting Web Sites and Other Tools If you are interested in creating your own blog, there are many blog hosting sites available. Some are free and some cost a small fee. The blog hosts listed below are free. There are other very reparable host sites available on the web that costs only a small fee. For fee sites see Typepad which hosts many blogs and Web Hosting Inspector for blog hosting site comparisons and prices.
The hosting site provides instructions for setting up your blog. Some of the sites walk you through a step-by-step wizard where you can be blogging in only a few minutes. Before creating a blog, take some time to read the articles listed in the bibliography section of this pathfinder.
www.blog.com (some features are free)
Blogeasy.com
Blogger.com (from Google)
Bloglines.com
Blogontheweb.com
BlogRolling.com
BlogRolling is a tool to use with your blog site. "BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal, helping you manage your ever-evolving linklist." To add a new site to your linklist, add the BlogRolling 1-click link to your browser’s links (also called a bookmarklet), and click the link whenever a blog site interests you. It is added instantly to your blogroll. BlogRolling.com was voted the Best Weblog Directory or Update Monitor by the Weblog Awards for 2004 . Other features of this site include the Search Blogrolls web page, which allows searches of users' linklist. This site also has the Blogrolling.com Top 100 page, which lists the top 100 links being displayed by Blogroling users. This page is updated daily.
Searching the UA Libraries Catalog for more material Articles about Blawgs
- BlogBib: An annotated bibliography on weblogs and blogging, Susan Herzog. Although this blog bibliography focuses on library and librarian blogs, it is still one of the best and most comprehensive online bibliographies on the subject that I have found up to now. It cites to materials on definitions, history, articles, blogging tools, books on blogging, studies on blogging and presentations on blogging.
- Bloggers Beware: Debunking eight copyright myths of the online world, Kathyl Biehl , 2004, (LLRX.com).
- Do you blog?, Sarah Kellogg, 19 Washington Lawyer (April 2005).
- Join the Blawg Bandwagon, Todd Chatman, 33 Student Lawyer Magazine, (Dec. 2004).
- Law Review Articles Citing Legal Blogs (Law Blog Metrics)
- Mining Information Gold in the Blogosphere: How to use web logs as reliable research tools, Paul J. Moorman, 9 AALL Spectrum 14 (Nov. 2004).
- 10 tips for better blogging (...for a nice lawyer blog), Jeremy Wright, (February 4, 2005).
- What are the most common mistakes a new legal blogger makes?, Dennis Kennedy, (February 7, 2005).
This Law Library Pathfinder is maintained by Lynn Lenart. |
