This week the good folks at Kluwer have launched a new blog, Kluwer Construction Blog. According to the press release,
Managing Editor of the blog, Sarah Thomas, partner and international projects expert at Pinsent Masons, will draw contributions from a panel of pre-eminent construction lawyers and barristers covering Europe, the United States, Canada, Africa, South America, Asia Pacific, India and the Gulf. The blog will have a discussion forum and an “Ask the Expert” feature that will give readers the chance to add their comments and raise questions.
Now truth to be told, construction is not my area, and I will not frequent that particular blog. But I love what it represents nonetheless. Kluwer is one of the most respected publishers in the world, and the fact that it has launched two blogs in 2009 means that it is betting big that this new media format is the wave of the future. As the managing editor of this blog, I know from first-hand experience how serious and professional they take this endeavor.
In the beginning blogs were marginal at best. Then young upstarts began posting new, fresh, and insightful content that quickly gathered a following. Two or three years ago law blogs moved from being marginal to acceptable. Now with the likes of Kluwer jumping into the arena, we can safely say that blogs are mainstream. There are still plenty of septuagenarians who just don’t get it and will never be converts. But for every one of those, I suspect there are a half dozen who are open and receptive to the new medium.
And why not? It is perfectly acceptable to spend hours on an airplane to attend one of a dozen international arbitration conferences and present your ideas to an audience of fifty. Why not spend one hour in the comfort of your home and reach an audience of several hundred? Blogs will never replace the human touch that one experiences at conferences. Blogs are horrible as a means of networking and making friends. A mile wide and an inch deep when it comes to building relationships. But as a medium for expressing ideas, blogs are a killer app, and Kluwer gets it.
Roger Alford
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