LAWTECH GURU BLOG by Jeff Beard

The EDDix 50: Another Great Resource for Legal Blogs

If there's one thing you've probably noticed about blogs and bloggers: we like useful lists with links. Thus you'll probably want to add the EDDix 50 to your collection.

This is a great resource, because the blawgs listed (and the blawgers behind them) are among the best resources for insightful, creative, savvy, and cutting edge information and discussions relating to the legal market. With all due respect to legal publishers, if you've ever watched "Men in Black", I consider blawgs to be the "Hot Sheets" of the legal world. To adapt Tommy Lee Jones' line: "Best damn legal practice commentary on the planet. But hey, go ahead, read the New York Times if you want. They get lucky sometimes." Per EDDix, "...the bLAWgs listed below -- the EDDix 50 -- are different."

The "value add" is EDDix 50's additional editorial features. Besides offering a savvy capsule review for each, it clearly indicates whether each blawg features an RSS feed, is listed on the Daily Whirl site (see below), and/or features an e-mail newsletter subscription. In addition, the EDDix 50 editors have coded select blawgs with a blue- or red-bordered box. It's marked blue if the "bLAWg being reviewed covers EDD topics", and red to signify that "regardless of focus, [EDDix] thinks this bLAWg or blog is MUST READING". Nice job.

You've also got to love an EDD site that doesn't take itself too seriously: "The EDDix 50 is dynamic because the world's dynamic and, quite frankly, we're fickle." Amen. If you haven't come across EDDix (Electronic Data Discovery Information eXchange) yet, that's because they're still in their site's beta launch. EDDix's niche is attempting to provide independent research, analysis and reporting on the EDD marketplace, and their mission is to make sense of EDD so you can make the right decisions.

Thus I'm truly honored to be included on the EDDix 50, and it's long been my goal to make this techie stuff more understandable and useful for others, as well as pointing out savvy ways to bake it into the practice and improving how we ultimately serve our clients. It also doesn't hurt to poke light fun at ourselves in the process. (I sometimes share with a wink that I'm a "recovering attorney" -- and it's a 47 step process.) Per EDDix: "We like people who make sense out of nonsense. In legal tech, JB's our man." Thanks. It's also important to point out that there are many other great blogs (legal and otherwise) available online, so these are not the end-all. They are, however, a good starting point to find information of interest and then finding others via their blogrolls and other links.

Other good legal tech lists and links that I HIGHLY recommend:

• Dennis Kennedy's "The Strongest Links" column on the ABA LPM's Law Practice TODAY e-zine.

  Each issue, the column provides a crème de la crème list of web links on a particular topic. While there's no separate link to his columns, they appear to be archived under the e-zine's "Technology Articles" category -- which is another great resource for legal tech info and tips. I recall reading that Tom Mighell (of Inter Alia, another EDDix 50 blawg) will also be contributing to the column, so it's in great hands.

• Ernie the Attorney's list of legal feeds.

  If you're new to reading RSS feeds, read his post first. Otherwise, all you really need is his list of blawgs in the standard OPML format, which you can easily import into your favorite news aggregator/RSS reader.

Finding other blawgs:

• My Detod
• Daily Whirl

On the subject of EDD, another good web resource is DiscoveryResources, which provides "up-to-date information, resources and news available about electronic discovery." There are a ton of free articles written by savvy experts on a variety of EDD, case law, and legal technology issues and developments.