by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - January 20, 2009 - Uncategorized
On Monday, our technology holding company UspeakWEtype Technologies, LLC launched a highly customized Digg-style site devoted exclusively to legal information. OverflowLegal.com (you can register for OFL here and add your best blog posts to really narrow, and often irreverent, categories). You can read the press release which you can see here. And check out the the ~100 niche categories and 200 feeds available in OFL.
Like you, we are always looking for the best content within niche categories posted on blogs,videos, podcasts and legal articles. We have always been frustrated by the lack of a legal content aggregator which would help us identify the best legal content within narrow topics.
So we set out to design our own system for legal content aggregation, categorization and rating for quality. We always respected Wikipedia for its human editing. Isn't human editing and categorization of legal content by an community of legal thinkers essential to cut through the crap?
We appreciate law blog directories which providing listings of legal blogs. But what if the emphasis was on smaller snippets of content, like blog posts, rather than pulling in every post from every blog in the system.
I have my FeedReader and regularly add blogs which I think have valuable content. But I don't want patent blog posts, just the trademark and copyright information. Why do I have to wade through irrelevant information to get what I am REALLY looking for?
We like Digg, StumbleUpon and Twitter, but they lack adequate categorization of content. We are all drowning in chaff looking for the wheat!
RSS feeds are great, especially when you can subscribe to categories of information rather than an entire blog or directory. But wouldn't it be nice to only receive the highest rated blog posts within a narrow category?
That’s why we created OverflowLegal.com, to serve up the best content within the niche categories which you care about most.
Sure, we are aware of Kevin O”Keefe’s LexMonitor.com, the directory of blogs at Blawg.com, the USLaw.com law blog directory, the Justia blog search directory, and the law category for alltop.com. We have added these directories, and sometimes categories within the directories, to our RSS readers and have regularly been disappointed by the content which is pulled in. And the emphasis of other offerings is on blogs, not specific posts. And just how do you get listed in Kevin's LexMonitor anyway? I love Kevin, but I don't want one person deciding what information I receive in my inbox.
How is Overflow Legal different? First of all, we don’t pull in every blog post from a limited number of blogs and try and stuff those posts within a predetermined (and often inappropriate) category. Overflow Legal is an open platform. Any content, whether RSS enabled or not, can be added to the system. OFL does not pull blog posts in based on RSS feeds, which often miscategorize posts or include posts which are low value or irrelevant. Every blog post, article or media added into OFL is done so by a real human being.
OFL already has over 100 categories of information with more being added all the time. This allows us to break information down into narrow topic areas. Even more cool, we provide you with an RSS feed, by category and subcategory, so you can pull only the information that you want about the niche topic areas which are relevant to you. Check out our RSS feed page and you’ll instantly see OFL is different.
And while you’re there, notice how cool and irreverent many of the categories are.
Still wondering how we’re different? We have law students and lawyers acting as associate editors to review the content added to this system and edit it for title, description, keywords, summary, and category. Not only is all the content human added, but human edited as well. This means that titles will tell you what article is about as will the summary and description areas so you can make a choice as to which articles to click through to.
Still want more? The OFL community rates each category of information. So if you only want the best articles concerning practice management, you can subscribe to the feed which pulls in only the top rated articles in that category.
We issued a press release which you can see here. There are already over ~1,000 articles and blog posts entered into the system by category. We invite you to add your best blog posts by category as well. Essentially, this is a Digg site devoted exclusively to law, with a number of custom features that aren’t included on Digg. There is no better way to publicize your best articles than to add them to OFL.
If you are interested in becoming an associate editor (you will be able to say you are an associate editor within a practice areas or legal issue category as well as qualify for prizes, stipends and scholarships) by sending an email to us at contact (at) overflowlegal.com. We invite all of our friends at the Greatest American Lawyer blog to join the OFL community, add their content and watch for new developments over the next couple of months. Of course, we also welcome your feedback.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
