James McConville thinks academics are mad if they don't blog. He thinks blogging is imperative and can no longer be dismissed as beneath academics.
But it is time to get real. Yes, books and articles are of some service and it is a credit to academics to complete a book or write an article which is accepted by a reputable journal, but we cannot any longer discount the value of blogging.Blogging is not a distraction from scholarship - instead it should be recognised as being one of the most effective mechanisms for scholarship. As University of Illinois law Professor Larry Ribstein recently commented on his blog, Ideoblog, “a blog that focuses on ideas can be no distraction at all, but rather part of what scholarship ought to be - the pursuit of knowledge”.
As I am not an academic I not well-placed to assess his argument, any academics reading this might like to have their say.