Change is good.

And change is coming to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, my online project tracking and cataloging blogs worldwide on mediation, negotiation, ADR, conflict resolution, negotiation, and people-focused innovations in the law.

Beginning on the first of the year, the World Directory of ADR Blogs will itself become a blog, with its own RSS feed so that visitors can subscribe easily for news and updates. This will make it easier for me to maintain and update the site as well. The site may be inaccessible during the conversion, which will be complete by January 1.

In the meantime, please check out the World Directory’s latest acquisitions:

The Conflict Resolution Toolbox
Cool tools and fun sundries from professional mediator and conflict resolution coach Tammy Lenski.

A Mediator’s Calling
An informal exploration of the process of becoming a mediator, consisting of one individual’s reflections on a variety of topics pertaining to the art of mediation, with some practical advice. Published by Toronto mediator Ken Bole.

Singapore Law Blog
This blawg provides its readers with news, comments and insight on legal matters in Singapore, including arbitration and dispute resolution.

Chinese Negotiation - Negotiating in China
Chinese Negotiation is a tool to assist international investors and managers enter the China market. Published by Andrew Hupert, a consultant based in Shanghai who has been working with the Greater China market since 1991. He specializes in helping new China entrants with sales management, marketing and negotiation.

Communication and Conflict Blog
The Communication and Conflict Blog discusses insights from the practice of mediation, including principles for effective communication based on the underlying philosophies of mediation. Author Alan Sharland shares observations and updates on communication and conflict in daily life.

Blawg Review, acknowledged recently by the American Bar Association as one of the top 100 law blogs, is unique among blogs. Hosted each week by a different legal blog, no better source exists for current trends, new ideas, highlights of top news stories, and stimulating repartee for the legal community. Serving as a central repository or hub, it provides opportunity for legal bloggers everywhere to participate, gain visibility, and speak out.

Blawg Review now seeks nominations for the best presentation of Blawg Review this year. Anyone who has hosted a presentation of Blawg Review (or is slated to host an upcoming one) can participate. The anonymous Editor made his own recommendations in a ceremony this week in Second Life — suggestions you can view at Virtually Blind, a blog covering legal issues in virtual worlds.

As someone who has served as Blawg Review host three times now (two in 2007, #94 and #130 co-hosted with Geoff Sharp in a double-hemisphere edition, which I was honored to discover among the Editor’s recommendations), I also know how much hard behind-the-scenes work goes into each presentation.

During the past year there were many excellent editions of Blawg Review (tough acts for any host to follow). A few, however, stand out. Well crafted, inventive, intelligently written, and informative, my nominations are:

Blawg Review #124, Labor Day Special Historical Edition. Hosted by the inimitable George Lenard, this presentation skillfully weaves together archival photographs and history with a week’s worth of links to high-quality legal blogging. “Epic” is the word that comes to mind.

Blawg Review #137. Colin Samuel achieves another poetic masterpiece with his third Dante-themed presentation of Blawg Review. Bravissimo, Colin!

Blawg Review #101. Diana Skaggs of Divorce Law Journal evokes images of bluegrass, mint juleps, and the Run for the Roses in this Derby-themed edition.

Blawg Review #102 and its prequel. This special presentation was delivered by host George M. Wallace at his two blogs, the all-business Declarations and Exclusions, and his personal and cultural web journal, a fool in the forest. Both presentations were constructed around illustrations from Stultifera Navis, the 1497 Latin translation of Sebastian Brant’s 1494 satirical German text, Das Narrenschiff, aka The Ship of Fools.

Blawg Review #134. Eric Turkewitz at New York Personal Injury Law Blog hosted this meticulously crafted marathon-themed presentation.

No matter who ultimately wins the title of best Blawg Review, Blawg Review makes a winner out of us all — its hosts and its readers alike. Congratulations to all who served as host this past year, and best wishes to those who will serve in future.

Memes are ideas or units of cultural information transmitted, as viruses are, from one individual to the next. Blogs provide a rich medium for memes to flourish in, as bloggers invite (or incite) each other to comment on and disseminate them.

Stephanie West Allen, who publishes Idealawg, a blog that honors the creative spirit within the practice of law, and Julie Fleming Brown of Life at the Bar, have announced the second annual celebration of Lawyers Appreciate…, a legal meme in which bloggers are invited to express appreciation for the things that matter most to them about the practice of law in a 10-day countdown to the start of the new year.

Stephanie invited me, together with bloggers Vickie Pynchon and Gini Nelson, to add our thoughts. Both of them have already weighed in, the former to praise end-of-the-year appreciation memes, the latter to honor justice.

As for me? Of all the images from 2007, among the most enduring are those of lawyers protesting in the streets of Pakistan. As I contemplated those images in November, I asked, “Is it time for a Nobel Prize in law?”

What do I appreciate about the law? You can find my answer there.