BLAWGING

For a while, I've been considering the idea of starting an Irish blawg which takes as its template the sort of sites which have evolved in the US blawgosphere in the last couple of years. While there are a number of excellent bloggers in Ireland with a legal background, (Simon and Fergal at Tuppenceworth, Fiona at Mental Meanderings, Damien Mulley, TJ McIntyre etc) and there is the very necessary Digital Rights movement, the blog o'sphere continues to lack a dedicated space aimed at the legal community, senior and, er, junior branches of the profession as well as academics and students. As a mere first year (I like to think of myself as a kind of 1L, yankstyle), I haven't really been confident about undertaking the project, but I've lately begun to think that it might be a really good way to get motivated and informed simultaneously. I mooted the idea in comments at the tuppenceworth blog, where it seemed to provoke some initial enthusiasm. Fergal Crehan suggested operating a tuppenceworth style site comprising a blawg and online law review as an outlet for contributers who want to explore substantive issues in a little more detail than a blog post typically allows, which strikes me as an excellent idea. I'd like to see a blawg aggregate and apprise its readers of the following: a) Current awareness; case law etc. b) Govt. legislative programme/progress of legislation c) Speaking events/sponsored lectures etc. d) Legal publishing/essay competitions e) Nature of practice for prospective entrants of various backgrounds as well as for current practitioners f) Changing face of the profession, competition etc. g) Legal education/CPD (continuing professional development) h) Significant legal developments and socio-legal issues i) Create an Irish law wiki I'd like to see the blawg become something important to the legal community in particular and, by extension the wider public, in which regard it would be very important to keep it professional in tone, and to avoid polarisation. It would be useful to attract postings in and develop separate categories for Criminal, Constitutional, Company, Family law, Torts etc. etc. My personal take on blogging is that it offers significant career development/showcasing potential and it can serve as an excellent adjunct to one's working life. Potential contributors might like to bear this in mind; it would be good to create something of a contributing community. The project requires its own domain and decent hosting. I want a dot IE for it, and have picked out what I believe is a good name, which is not yet taken. I'd like to call the venture (online review plus blawg) ***** ********* and create it at ***** dot IE - so what I want to know is what is a good "reseller" to go with and who is a good host. I think the domain is about 30 quid, so I can suck this up as well as initial monthly hosting costs. Hopefully, I will have enough information in the next few days to persuade me to unsheath my credit card. If anyone has any ideas on the above or thinks there is a niche for this project in the blogosphere and would like to get invovled let me know by email [theapothecaryguy AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk] or in the comments. Hopefully, I will actually have the gumption to follow all this through.