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Blawgs: From There to Where?

I'm not sure the blawgosphere would be what it is today if Bill Gratsch hadn't come along to help us make sense of it all. Early in the evolution of legal blogging, Gratsch launched his Web site blawg, providing the first comprehensive directory of law-related blogs organized by topic. Thanks to Gratsch, the legal profession had its first clear overview of the breadth and depth of legal blogs.

If Gratsch's directory helped us make sense of this blogging phenomenon, today he continues to help us make sense of it all, by hosting the 111th installment of Blawg Review. He subtitles it "From There, To Here, To Where?" as he weaves in his view of the past, present and future of law-related blogging.

Looking to the past, Gratsch can't say who was the first legal blogger, but he can say that when he completed his first directory of blawgs in January 2003, he found just 57 of them. Among the earliest blawgers he listed were Denise Howell, Ernest Svenson, Rick Klau, Howard Bashman, Carolyn Elefant, Kevin Heller, Rory Perry, Sabrina I. Pacifici, Glenn Reynolds, Tom Mighell, Dennis Kennedy, Martin Schwimmer and yours truly at my LawSites blog.

From there, we've come a long way, baby. Gratsch sums it up this way:

"Today, the blawgosphere includes close to 2000 blawgs (Justia has indexed over 1800, while Blawg has over 1600, and with new blawgs coming online everyday no doubt some are not yet discovered). Companies, old, new and as-yet-formed, are crafting business plans and formulating ideas, all seeking to participate in some way, shape or form.

"And, the members of the blawgosphere themselves continue to expand and deepen their writing and coverage of topics, large and small.  To this point, just take a look at some of the best recent posts out there."

Which he then does, arriving eventually at the point where he peers into the future of legal blogging. What will happen down the road? "I don't think anyone knows for sure," Gratsch concedes. But he offers this:

"I think the blawgosphere may ultimately be just one integral piece of an infinite legal discussion of which today's established companies may or may not be a part. A discussion which increasingly will be decentralized, yet interconnected, via the power of easy-to-use web-based systems and services."

Today's blawgers will provide shape to that discussion, perhaps not intentionally, he says, "but simply via the evolution of their own blawgs." Read more about the past, present and future of legal blogging at Blawg Review #111.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on June 4, 2007 at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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