Friend and colleague Bob Ambrogi posted a critique of Technolawyer’s “BlawgWorld 2007” e-book, released earlier today. Bob’s comments are located at Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch. Click here to read his post. I won’t repeat them here – readers can click and view his thoughts.

The following are my thoughts in response to Bob’s observations – noting that my blog, Ross Ipsa Loquitur (www.rossipsa.com) is one of the blogs featured with a selected posting:

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Bob, I agree with your comments in part, and in part, beg to differ. I do agree that the layout of the BlawgWorld 2007 e-book is a visually impressive example of PDF capabilities. It is pleasant to view and navigate through and Neil and company deserve credit for this.

I do also agree that the vendor section is obviously advertising. But I’m not sure that any reasonable person could be misled into thinking it was anything but vendor-sponsored advertising. Nevertheless, with that perspective clearly in mind, I did find many of the “responses” to be more useful than actual adspots or brochures these vendors produce.

Personally, I chose not to participate in the vendor advertising section because I was concerned that it could deflate the perceived value of the post I chose from Ross Ipsa Loquitur.

But where I don’t agree is that I think you miss an important point – one that I think many bloggers get tripped up on. And that is that most lawyers out in the trenches practice in small firms – and while it is only anecdotal and not exactly scientific, I do speak in front of small firm audiences coast to coast multiple times per month. What I find is that the majority of lawyers still barely know what a blog is, no less subscribe to multiple blogs and actually learn from all the valuable content that’s out there. So the point I think you didn’t bring up is that the 77 essays – cherry-picked by their authors to represent self-perceived “best of” content – present a tremendous amount of useful information that thousands of lawyers and their staff will read and benefit from.

I still have the sense that some bloggers are still so caught up in the mechanism of blogging and being part of the blawging world that it’s easy to forget what I personally think is the only thing that matters: education. To blog for the sake of blogging makes zero sense to me, although people are obviously free to amuse themselves or market themselves any way they choose.

And no matter what, there’s a TON of incredibly valuable and interesting content contained in this compilation of blog posts. I read several that I hadn’t seen before and was fascinated with the depth of the information and its broad applicability.

So what I take away from this is that Technolawyer is providing something very valuable to the average lawyer in the trenches who may not ever subscribe to any of these blawgs, or perhaps to only a small number of them. If even a handful learn something that helps them improve their lot in law practice and extends to improvement of their service to clients, then it’s a success.

Does it have to be paid for somehow? Sure – of course it does. Could LTN exist without ads? Certainly not in the high-quality form that it appears in every month – and the great content is supported by the raft of ads that appears. How many top-notch bloggers take on sponsoring ads? Does the presence of ads in the sidebar of someone like Dennis Kennedy’s blog or Jim Calloway’s blog devalue the content they provide? Of course not. Readers see they are ads and also see how valuable this content is. Would BlawgWorld 2007 readers be so naive as to think that the 185 questions and answers are anything other than advertising for their sponsors. Well, I hope not, and think it’s unlikely. But I recognize the necessity and if it was a choice between useless ads and the content a presented, I’ll take the latter anyday.

My point ultimately is that the compiled blog materials represent VERY valuable content that has high educational value for anyone who is exposed to it. And that’s what should be most important here. I thank Neil Squillante and Technolawyer for the endeavor and frankly hope they made plenty of money doing it so they are incentivized to do it again in the future.

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