22 September 2008

I'm mostly there already -- I just need the "ter".

It always seems to me that Peter Black of the Freedom to Differ blog is a bit ahead of the curve. I like to think that it has something to do with the fact that he's located in Australia, where his day begins eighteen or so hours ahead of mine; sure that's a stretch, but it allows me to continue dismissing the mounting evidence that I'm just a little dim compared to him.

Today's Blawg Review #178 makes that self-deception a touch more difficult. In a Blawg Review first, Black published the entire thing piece-by-piece using Twitter, a microblogging platform which is being rapidly adopted by legal academics, students, and practitioners. Except me, of course. Yes, I know, if I try it, I'll get it and love it and wonder how on Earth I could've made it so this far without it. I'm still not going to do it, at least not yet. No one needs to know where I am and what I'm doing minute-by-minute. It just isn't that interesting, frankly. Weekdays, I'm at home, then in my car, then at the office, then in my car, then at home. Weekends, simply drop the office part and add another few iterations of "at home" and "in my car". There you go -- the past, present, and future whereabouts of the world's dullest man.

Notwithstanding my own Twitter ennui, I can certainly appreciate the enthusiasm of those Twitterers in the legal blogging community and the utility the platform offers them. Blawg Review #178 is a great example of what can be done with this new tool, but for those of us still wedded to "macroblogging", Black helpfully offers #178 in that format as well. In either medium, highlights include an abundance of perspectives on the American financial crisis, the legal implications of hacking Caribou Barbie's e-mail, and the irony that is the RIAA's complaint about a "vexatious" attorney.

The proprietors of the Securing Innovation blog host next week's Blawg Review, no doubt using a method which will make Twittering seem as quaint as calligraphy.

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