August 06, 2007
Updates to the Law Professor Blogger Census
I have updated the law professor blogger census. Although I attempted to keep the same URL, since the updated post is in a new month, the URL got changed automatically and thus links to the earlier versions of the census will be broken. Please update your links to this new updated census URL, as the link to the old version will now lead to nowhere.
With the capable assistance of our intern, Sam Yospe, plus comments from readers, I have not only added new bloggers but have also attempted to purge the rolls of "deadwood" and retired bloggers -- those bloggers who have abandoned the blogosphere but whose names linger on. I eliminated all bloggers who hadn't blogged in the past four months -- since April 1.
The results were quite surprising -- there are a ton of deadwood and retired bloggers, so many that the numbers for the census actually dropped this time. As I explain in the census post, the number of law professor bloggers probably didn't drop, as the numbers of previous censuses were also inflated by deadwood and retired bloggers.
I'm off to London Monday afternoon, so unfortunately, I will not be able to do much else on the census for a few weeks. My posting will be very light to non-existent during this time. I'll be doing research on how little value the US dollar really has these days.
Posted by Daniel J. Solove at 12:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Law Professor Blogger Census (2007 Version)
NEW VERSION 2007
UPDATED VERSION: This is an updated version of the 2007 census. With feedback from readers plus the assistance of our intern, Sam Yospe, I have added a number of bloggers we missed. I also did something that has not been done on previous censuses – I deleted "deadwood" bloggers and retired bloggers – those on group or solo blogs who haven’t posted in the past 4 months (since April 1)
The culling from deadwood and retired bloggers from the census has resulted in a decrease in the number of bloggers since the last census. Because previous versions didn’t seek to eliminate deadwood bloggers, the chart of the blogosphere’s growth is potentially misleading. I believe that the legal blogosphere did grow since the last census, as I assume that there were many retired or deadwood bloggers on the rolls of previous censuses that inflated the numbers.
A quick plea to those running active group blogs – please update the names of your bloggers, as not doing so makes tallying the census quite difficult. I would be very thankful – and more so than me, our intern who painstakingly checked to see who was actively blogging and who was not.
I used to do the census bi-annually, but the law professor blogosphere has stabilized sufficiently to do this annually. This version of the census incorporates changes to the law professor blogosphere made after the last census was completed in October 2006.
I would like to thank our intern, Sam Yospe, who provided much-needed assistance with this project.
Earlier Versions of the Census:
2005 -- In June 2005, there were 130 bloggers (28 female, 102 male). By In November 2005, there were 202 bloggers (50 female, 152 male).
2006 -- In March 2006, there were 235 law professor bloggers (58 female, 177 male). By October 2006, the number had grown to 309 law professor bloggers (74 female, 235 male).
NEW 2007 STATS:
Number: There are 308 law professor bloggers.
Growth: Since the last census in October 2006, there are 76 new bloggers and 30 departed bloggers, increasing the blogosphere from 309 bloggers to 354 bloggers – an increase of about 15%. However, a search of the group blogs and individual blogs turned up 47 deadwood bloggers who have not posted since April 1. This decreases the total legal blogosphere to 308 bloggers.
Gender: Of the bloggers, 76 are female and 232 are male. Thus, about 25% are female and 75% are male. There has been a small increase in the percentage of female bloggers since the last census (24% were female and 76% were male in October 2006.)
Schools: Schools with the most bloggers include:
Chicago (8)
GW (8)
San Diego (8)
George Mason (6)
Georgetown (6)
Illinois (6)
Temple (6)
Temple (6)
William Mitchell (6)
Baylor (5)
UC Davis (5)
Cincinnati (5)
Pittsburgh (5)
St. Thomas (5)
Villanova (5)
Wayne State (5)
Schools making their first appearance on the census include: Arkansas-Little Rock, Connecticut, Baylor, Boston College, Charleston, Denver, Hawaii, Indiana-Indianapolis, New England, Oregon, and USC.
Schools in the U.S. News Top 25 rankings account for 75 bloggers
1. Yale (3)
2. Harvard (6)
2. Stanford (2)
4. NYU (1)
5. Columbia (1)
6. Chicago (8)
6. Pennsylvania (0)
8. Berkeley (2)
8. Michigan (2)
10. Duke (1)
10. Virginia (0)
12. Northwestern (3)
13. Cornell (2)
14. Georgetown (6)
15. UCLA (4)
16. USC (1)
16. Vanderbilt (0)
18. Texas (4)
19. Washington U.(2)
20. Boston U. (0)
20. Minnesota.(4)
22. Emory (2)
22. GW (8)
24. Iowa (3)
25. Fordham (3)
25. Illinois (6)
25. W&L (1)
The Top 25 schools have a disproportionately large representation in the blogosphere--24% of the total number of bloggers (308). Four schools in the Top 25 have no bloggers – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vanderbilt, and Boston University.
In the chart that follows, I indicate new bloggers with NEW. Since the chart has grown too large for a single blog post, I had to cut the chart in half. The chart below the fold consists of schools beginning with the letters A-M. For the second half of the chart, schools N-Z, click here.
For the second half of the chart, schools N-Z, click here.
Posted by Daniel J. Solove at 12:36 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
Law Professor Blogger Census Chart 2007: N-Z
The chart of schools N-Z in the census is below the fold.To see the first half of the chart, A-M, click here.
Posted by Daniel J. Solove at 12:35 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 31, 2007
Deadwood Bloggers
Having just compiled the census, I'm running into a difficulty. On several large group blogs, there are professors listed on the sidebar who have barely, if ever, made a post. This is especially true for large institutional blogs. The Georgetown Law Faculty Blog has only about 20 posts in all of 2007, mainly by Rebecca Tushnet and Randy Barnett, both of whom primarily blog elsewhere. However, there are 16 professors listed in the sidebar as authors. the University of Chicago Law School's Faculty Blog has much more activity, as it is regularly updated, but it has 20 professors on the sidebar with only a fraction posting with any degree of regularity. This makes it difficult to tally the census, because these names on the sidebar -- what I will call "deadwood bloggers" -- are distorting the statistics in the census. In some sense, it is false advertising -- the sidebar space is typically used for regular bloggers, but many blogs leave up names no matter how often a professor posts or no matter if a professor even posts at all.
I've asked Sam Yospe, our intern, to compile a list of deadwood bloggers. As a definition, I would list bloggers who haven't posted in the past two months (since May 31). Is two months a fair threshold? The difficulty with requiring a longer amount of time is that it makes it harder to tally, as under the definition I propose, it requires going through two months of a blog's postings. The problem with a shorter period of time is that it will eliminate a few professors who blog on very infrequent intervals -- the occasional bloggers. So I think that two months is a fair time period. What do readers think? If anyone can send me names of professors on the census who haven't blogged in the past two months, that would be very helpful. When the final version of the census comes out, they'll be purged from the rolls. Unlike law faculties, there is no tenure in the blogosphere . . . or at least, not in my census.
Posted by Daniel J. Solove at 02:54 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
October 05, 2006
Law Professor Blogger Census (Version 5.1)
NEW VERSION 5.1
UPDATED VERSION: Thanks to all who have sent in corrections and additions. The new tallies are below. There are now over 300 law professor bloggers!
It’s time again for the semi-annual census of law professor bloggers. A lot has happened in the blogosphere since the last census (Version 4.3) was completed in March 2006.
Earlier Versions of the Census: In Version 2.0 (June 2005), there were 130 bloggers (28 female, 102 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers included: San Diego (7), UCLA (5), George Mason (5), Cincinnati (4), Ohio State (4), GW (3), Georgetown (3), Stanford (3), St. Thomas (3), Chapman (3), Villanova (3).
In Version 3.1 (November 2005), there were 202 bloggers (50 female, 152 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers included: Chicago (14); UCLA (7); San Diego (7); GW (5); Cincinnati (5); George Mason (5); Stanford (4); Northwestern (4); Ohio State (4); U.C. Davis (4); American (4); Case Western (4); St. John's (4).
In Version 4.3 (March 2006), there were 235 law professor bloggers (58 female, 177 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers included: Chicago (15); San Diego (7); GW (6); Illinois (6); UCLA (6); George Mason (5); and William Mitchell (5)
NEW VERSION 5.0 STATS:
Number: There are 309 law professor bloggers.
Growth: Since the last census in March 2006, there are 80 new bloggers and 6 departed bloggers, increasing the blogosphere from 235 bloggers to 309 bloggers – an increase of about 30%.
Gender: Of the bloggers, 74 are female and 235 are male. Thus, about 24% are female and 76% are male. These are roughly the same percentages as in the last census.
Schools: Schools with the most bloggers include:
Chicago (16)
Georgetown (14)
San Diego (8)
Illinois (7)
GW (6)
George Mason (6)
Temple (6)
UCLA (6)
Michigan (5)
St. John’s (5)
William Mitchell (5)
Schools making their first appearance on the census include: Arkansas-Fayetteville, Arizona State, Berkeley Boalt Hall, Brooklyn, Drexel, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan State, Nebraska, Santa Clara, Seton Hall, Tulane, Tulsa, and Wake Forest.
Schools in the U.S. News Top 20 rankings account for 83 bloggers
1. Yale (2)
2. Stanford (3)
3. Harvard (4)
4. Columbia (1)
4. NYU (1)
6. Chicago (17)
7. Pennsylvania (0)
8. Berkeley (1)
8. Michigan (5)
8. Virginia (2)
11. Duke (2)
12. Northwestern (3)
13. Cornell (4)
14. Georgetown (14)
15. UCLA (6)
16. Texas (4)
17. USC (0)
17. Vanderbilt (1)
19. George Washington (6)
19. Minnesota (4)
19. Washington U. (4)
Bloggers from the Top 20 increased from 67 to 83, an increase of about 24%. The Top 20 schools have a disproportionately large representation in the blogosphere – a little under a third (29%) of the total number of bloggers (290). Only 2 schools in the Top 20 have no bloggers -- Pennsylvania and USC.
In the chart that follows, I indicate new bloggers with NEW. Since the chart has grown too large for a single blog post, I had to cut the chart in half. The chart below the fold consists of schools beginning with the letters A-M. For the second half of the chart, schools N-Z, click here.