January 18, 2008 by Rob La Gatta

Eric Goldman, professor at Santa Clara University School of Law [LexBlog Q & A, part 2 of 2]

It's Friday afternoon, and before the LexBlog Q & A takes its weekend recess, we've got to wrap up what we started yesterday: our interview with Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman. (Before you continue, make sure to get up to speed by reading part 1).

Yesterday's post saw Eric talking about his initial exposure to blogs; today, the discussion wraps up with his take on how law professors view the blogosphere - and how they expect it to grow in the future.
1. Rob La Gatta: When speaking to other law professors around the country, have you gotten a sense of the general attitude toward blogs held by law profs? Do you think that, as is the case with lawyers, law professors are becoming more and more willing to venture into the blogosphere?

Eric Goldman: I think many law professors are aware of blogs now. Frankly, blogs are almost impossible to avoid in our community, especially blogs that discuss and gossip about the law professor business like Brian Leiter's Law School Reports, PrawfsBlawg, and Concurring Opinion. Given the prominence of these blogs catering to the specific informational needs of law professors, plus the rich content being generated by niche-y substantive legal blogs, I suspect that many professors now read at least one blog regularly.

Several hundred law professors are now affiliated as a co-blogger at one or more blogs, and I anticipate that number will continue to increase over time (but I'd be remiss if I didn't note the speculation that legal blogging has reached a plateau).

Eventually, in the next few years, it wouldn't surprise me if most law professors are affiliated with at least one blog, though many new bloggers will probably join existing blogs rather than start their own. I also expect blogging to follow a typical 80/20 rule, where 20% of the law professor bloggers will be responsible for 80% of the blogging. So many law professors will be bloggers in name only.

2. Rob La Gatta: Ultimately, where do you see blogs taking legal scholarship in the future? In 2008, what do you think will be some of the most significant developments to shape this medium, specifically with regards to legal publishing?

Eric Goldman: The law professor community is actively wrestling with (and perhaps obsessing over) these questions. At the most recent law professor annual conference (AALS in NYC), several panels broached this topic, and the topic arises perennially at that conference. Everyone wants to know the answer to these questions, but there do not appear to be easy and obvious answers.

Personally, I think blogs are an excellent complement to legal scholarship. As I mentioned, they expand our options to disseminate our ideas, and there are many bloggable ideas (what Eugene Volokh has labeled "micro-discoveries") that would not be worth publishing through other options.

I think the issue gets more complicated when discussing whether blogging can substitute for other types of scholarship. I could see blogging count as a partial substitute for some scholarship, but only a bit. In the end, I expect a law professor helping to shape the discourse will want to develop lengthy, complex and heavily sourced expositions for which blogging isn't the best communication choice.

From a technology standpoint, I think we are just at the beginning of exploring how to use online synchronous and asynchronous communications (using blogs or otherwise) to advance the scholarly dialogue. Some interesting early examples include:

I'm excited to see how else we as academics can engage each other in productive conversations using new technologies.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.
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January 17, 2008 by Rob La Gatta

Eric Goldman, professor at Santa Clara University School of Law [LexBlog Q & A, part 1 of 2]

Another two part LexBlog Q & A begins today, as we offer up part one of our e-mail interview with Eric Goldman.

Eric is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who focuses his teachings on legal issues surrounding technology. He writes two blogs - Goldman's Observations Blog and the Tech & Marketing Blog - and is well-known among law professors around the country for his active role in the blogosphere.
1. Rob La Gatta: When did you first start blogging, and what prompted you to do so?

Eric Goldman: I started blogging about 3 years ago, in February 2005. In Fall 2004, two particularly net-savvy students in my Cyberlaw course repeatedly encouraged me to blog, and they promised to regularly read my blog. Thus, I figured I would start with 3 readers — these two students, plus my mom.

Ironically, I don't think my mom has ever read my blog, and I'm not sure if my two students (who have since graduated and become lawyers) still do. Fortunately, in the interim, I've added some new readers.

2. Rob La Gatta: How do you think you've grown, both professionally and personally, as a result of your experience monitoring, reading and writing blogs?

Eric Goldman: Blogging has changed my life in a number of ways.

First, it has forced me to efficiently organize my data in-flows, which has made me a better researcher and a more informed community member. Not only do I have a carefully selected roster of RSS feeds that I monitor constantly, but I have set up alert systems in various databases that help me identify important new developments. If it wasn't for blogging, I would not have taken these steps.

Second, I like writing, and blogging has given me an outlet for my works. I was always writing before blogging — I wrote op-eds, articles for bar journals, even consumer reviews at Epinions — but I never had a natural home for my written work until I launched my blog. Now, I can write whenever I want and publish my works without having to seek out a publisher.

Third, blogging has definitely elevated my profile, especially among journalists. I remember that when I first became a law professor, I rarely got reporter calls. So when there would be a new development in my area of expertise, I would sit in my office thinking, "Hey reporters, call me, I have brilliant thoughts about this!" But the phone rang only occasionally.

In 2005, when I launched my blog, my media appearances roughly tripled from 2004. In 2007, my media appearances roughly tripled from 2005, meaning I'm now getting about 9x the number of reporter calls I got in 2004. Spending this much time with reporters creates other challenges, but it’s a good problem to have.

Finally, I've made some fantastic friends through blogging. There's an inherent kinship among bloggers, so I immediately became part of a special club just by blogging. Further, I frequently cross paths (both physically and virtually) with like-minded bloggers, which has allowed me to befriend some really interesting and nice people.

3. Rob La Gatta: Do you believe blogs have played a positive role in how law professors teach and articulate their ideas? Can blogging have any serious impact on a law professor's reputation?

Eric Goldman: Blogs are one of many channels that law professors can use to communicate their ideas. This makes blogs a useful new publication option; they allow us to join (or start) a dialogue quickly and informally, and to establish ongoing communications with an audience of non-academic readers. But blogs aren’t our only option for publishing, and we always still have to decide the best dissemination medium for what we want to say.

Blogging definitely can affect law professors' reputations. Typically, it has a significant positive effect, but as with any publication, there is always a downside risk. Fortunately, the blogging community is pretty fault-tolerant; an occasional mistake or misstatement by an otherwise credible blogger will not be fatal to the blogger's reputation. Even so, I always remain keenly aware of the effect that blogging could have on my reputation, especially as a pre-tenure faculty member.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.
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December 19, 2007 by Kevin O'Keefe

Lame

Disgruntled objects of blog posts often hire lawyers to send cease and desist (C & D) letters ordering the blog publisher to take down the subject post. In the spirit of the blogosphere, bloggers immediately post such C & D letters to their blog holding the lawyer and client up to public ridicule.

Maybe no more. Turns out at least one lawyer obtained copyright registration for their takedown letters. They then got a naive judge to enforce the copyright even though as Eric Goldman says '...[T]his letter is so completely pro forma that it should barely clear the copyrightability hurdle (if it does at all). Further, republication of demand letters is so strongly infused with public interest that it should be clearly covered by fair use.'

Lawyers get paid to be creative, even if their cause is contrary to the public's good.

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