Academic

To blog or not to blog...

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

As a first time blogger I realize that I am entering this debate quite late (see for example here, here and the series of terrific essays from 2006 (Volume 84-5) in the Washington University Law Review) for just a few of the many prior discussions about this issue), but yesterday I came across this interesting post by Brian Leiter on recent stats about the rising number of law professor who are now blogging.  Since entering the academy I have been fairly hesitant and somewhat scared to blog.  Now that I am guest blogging at the Conglomerate, I am glad to have entered the blogosphere at least for a short time.  Nevertheless, it is surprising how many people are blogging regularly and have started new blogs given how much time it takes.  While I certainly read some blogs and appreciate the dissemination of ideas that happens through blogs, I am still looking at the same blogs that I read two to three years ago and even then rarely do I have the time to consistently keep up with them.  Where is everyone getting these extra hours a day to devote to regular reading and writing of substantive blogs?  I do wonder (or worry) whether blogging is now de rigeur (as Brian put it) at many law schools.  For many junior faculty balancing scholarship, teaching, service and a personal life (especially if they have children) is more than a full time job.  What do you think readers, is blogging moving toward becoming required activity for faculty, even if informally?  Will/should tenure standards change to take into account informal blogging requirements (if you could even call it a requirement)? Of course, the answers are obviously tied to local standards at each school.  But I wonder about the extent of the shift in the academy as a whole.  As for me, I really appreciate the people who post blogs sharing their scholarly ideas and the people who have reached out to me this week both about my blog posts and my scholarship.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).