Blog software is what is these days called “social software” – software “which enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities.”
Unlike other communities which exist in a particular space (like MySpace, a wiki etc), the blogosphere is a virtual space, created principally by the links to other blogs in blogrolls and within posts. New links, comments and posts are communicated almost immediately to other bloggers with the appropriate setup by what are called “pings“.
A few days ago I was pinged by Batgirl was a Librarian, a graduate trainee (law) librarian in London, when she added Binary law to her blogroll; I’m delighted to welcome her to the UK legal blogosphere.
This welcome addition causes lo-fi librarian to ponder why are there not more Law Librarian Bloggers?, since they “are extra good at sharing their knowledge and expertise via email lists”. I used to subscribe to the JISC LIS-LAW discussion list, but eventually left, unsatisfied by the value extracted/time spent ratio. In fact, there was not much discussion at all: plenty of requests to members for specific items (a missing article here, an elusive case there), but not much comment or debate; and answers to questions were usually given “off-list”, so were no use to the community. In 2006, wouldn’t a group LIS-LAW blog with all its associated benefits (comments, feeds etc) make perfect sense?
In defence of the list:
It is true that there are many requests for the loan of a certain book for the day or a case/article unobtainable elsewhere and that not all users post replies to the list as a whole, however, it is still a very useful place to go when you need some help. I think I was commenting more on the willingness to help/share/show off that the list embodies, rather than praising it as a forum of great discussion. Having said that when it is used properly it can be a very useful tool and does offer a degree of community.
Email lists are obviously not the best method of sharing with a group as a whole and I agree a LIS-LAW blog would be very interesting to monitor.
Yes, I can see that it is useful as a place to go for help – and it obviously does that. However, it IS billed as “a list for discussion” – and it doesn’t do that. Perhaps, as you suggest, it should not be either/or but both.