Michael EburnANU College of Law and Fenner School of Environment and Society
Australian Emergency Law:A blog in progress
Australian Emergency Law
• Why blog?• Choice of platform.• Who's reading it and how often?• Sources of content.• My practice.• Reflections.
Why blog?
• To learn how.• To claim the territory.• University outreach.
Choice of platform
• Wordpress allowed:– easy setup;– sharing with and ;;– export to
(but that’s stopped working);– a statistics page;– allows readers to comment (subject to
approval).
Who's reading it and how often?
• What?– 147 posts.– 353 comments.
• Who?– 301 followers on– 140 on – 204 connections on– 645
Plus 40537 views on BestThinking.
Most views on 24 April 2012.
Sources of content
• ABC News;• Lexis/Nexis;• Readers questions.
My Practice
• Blog regularly, at least once a fortnight.• The blog is a site for discussion so I:
– Invite questions (and ask for permission to blog the answer);
– Respond to comments;– Edit the obvious errors;– Maintain nettiquette; but allow robust
discussion.
My Practice
• Link to sources.• Ask “do the names need to be there?”• Adhere to academic and legal honesty.
Reflections
• The readership is larger than I ever imagined;
• The feedback is (so far) all positive;• Of all the writing I do, I think this has the
widest reach and highest impact (but no DEST points);
• It's become my notebook.
Questions? Comments?
• Thank you for the opportunity to talk.
Michael EburnANU College of Law The Australian National UniversityCANBERRA ACT 0200P: 02 6125 6424E: [email protected]