The Global Blogosphere

A sitemeter (on the left, available for free here) records useful information. For example, 96% of my visits are from the US, and 1% from the UK. No surprise there. But I have also received visits (1% each) from Japan, Australia, and an “Unknown Country.” 3LEpiphany, taking over the world one country at a time. Hopefully the reader in an unknown country is a law student, thinking, “Now that’s not a bad idea….”

But on a serious and meta-blogging note, this does reveal the global nature of the blogosphere. A lawyer, law professor, or law student who puts up a blog is potentially engaging with readers across the world. If just one Japanese blogger links to me, eventually this could be picked up by other bloggers in Japan, and then news of this blog may travel throughout Southeast Asia. I will try to keep track of where this blog "travels," and report my findings.

At this stage I can already draw an obvious but important conclusion: A blog will get you noticed in unlikely places, in a way that traditional forms of communication never can. That may not always be a good thing, depending on the content of a person's blog, although I have no worries about this one. (I'm not giving out legal advice or anything similarly problematic.) But if you think that this development is a benificial aspect of globalization, then blog away. 

Update: That's funny. Based on reading Sitemeter more closely, I have discovered that Canada is the "Unknown Country." Readers can feel free to comment about the international implications of this event below.