BlogHer: Reflections on Live Blogging and Tweeting
On October 13, 2008, I attended BlogHer DC: The Reach Out Tour. During that day, I tried my hand at live blogging and live tweeting (i.e. blogging and tweeting while the event happens). It was an interesting experience, and to help those who are considering live blogging or tweeting other events, I thought that I would share a few thoughts.
Live Blogging
Beth Kanter wrote that "live blogging takes a certain chutzpah and fearlessness." She's right. When you are live blogging, you can't stop to be concerned about every detail of grammar and spelling. Your typing and thoughts won't be perfect, but you've just got to get over it. You can always go back and clean your post up after the session. And for me, it's much easier to clean up a rough post than write a post from scratch. When I wait, there's a good chance I'll never write up the post.
I was a little worried that live blogging would be a distraction or that I'd miss parts of the presentation; however, instead of being distracted, I had to pay attention, synthesize the information, and explain it immediately. I was forced to stay engaged, which I hope will mean that I remember the key points better. And if I don't, I have better than normal notes that I can review. (I really wish that I would have taken up live blogging during college! )
Live Tweeting
Live tweeting is much easier than live blogging. It's a lot like taking notes, except that you are sharing them with other people. People can respond and ask you questions, whether they are at the conference or not. For people who are at the conference, this can be an amazing tool. Panelists are able to gauge the audience's interest level as well as take questions, and audience members can have their own backchannel conversations about the topic. (Beth Kanter and Jeremiah Owyang both have posts on how a backchannel can change a session.) Live tweeting is also a great way to include people who aren't at the conference. They are able to eavesdrop on the session and get answers to their questions. Participation and ideas aren't just limited to the select people who were chosen or could afford to attend in person.
I had a good experience live blogging and tweeting at BlogHer. It made me really wish that the legal aid and pro bono communities would integrate these communication streams into their conferences. The first step? Make Internet access available in the conference rooms. - K
I'm glad you shared this info. Your idea to have legal aid and pro bono communities integrate these communication streams into their conferences is certainly interesting. How exactly do you see this working? Would it be streamed to attorneys who, as you mentioned, are unable to afford to attend or for some other reason are unable to attend? Or do you see this more as a tool that can be used for Ask-A-Lawyer events - so that individuals in need of the information can directly contact the attorney for information? (Of course, privacy issues are a different story) I'm thinking more of IM info but maybe it could help people living in poverty if they could "virtually attend" an event. Thoughts?
I have several ideas about how we could use it with conference. I'll admit that these aren't my ideas. There are plenty of conferences out there that are already incorporating these ideas.
Live tweeting sessions - People in the audience would take their notes via Twitter. People who were able to attend would be able to follow what was happening and pose questions that people in attendance might be willing to ask for them. A moderator or panelist could pay attention to the conversations that were happening or take questions from the audience via Twitter.
Live blogging - People in the audience could live blog and put their notes up online. That way people who aren't in attendance could see what the panel was about. And conversations and ideas that were started during the session could move to online after the session had completed. (And I have to imagine that these posts would be a better legacy and more useful than simply making the slides available from the session without any speaker notes.)
GoToMeeting and Phones - People who can't attend in person could watch PPTs using GoToMeeting and "attend" the sessions by phone.
Webcasting - Sessions from conferences could be streamed out online for people not in attendance and recorded so that they could be viewed later.
Your ideas about using Twitter or IM for Ask-A-Lawyer events is interesting. Using it with clients would make me a little bit nervous, but it might work with some planning. I've attended a couple of sessions put on by NTEN, where they've had a chat room available while someone is speaking online. It might be interesting to see if this would work for either attorney CLEs or community presentations about legal issues that don't contain advice.
These approaches are fascinating.
I have lots of powerpoints and materials from prior conferences. I never get around to reviewing them. They just sit on my hard drive. I usually forward them on to a colleague.
Inviting others into the conversation and setting up the possibility for concurrent or later dialog are supremely wonderful ideas. The major thrust of a conference is to get attendees to go back to their offices and implement new projects. There's little support post-conference to help you implement and/or you go back to a pile of files that demand your attention and you lose momentum.
If you can keep the conversation going for even a brief period post-conference, you stand a better chance to keep your resolution to implement something you learned or to continue enrichment is a specific area of interest.
The sad thing is that most major conference hotels don't make internet access widely available. It's sad that you can get free internet at Quality Inn, Motel 6 or McDonalds, but a Westin or other similar high-end hotel offers it up as a luxury. It's the stuff of daily life now.
Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I tried multi-tasking - I love blog, tweet, and take photos posted with my mobile.
The Tweets: I usually tweet aha moments in the presentation - I listen for that major learning moment.
Live Blog: I can type fast, so I take verbaitem notes. It helps me process information and pay attention. I clean up as a go - adding the main points or translating verbatiems into bullet points.
I always try to snap photos of key slides and post with my cell phone.
Another thing I'll do is google or ask in Twitter for background links. After the session, I do a quick clean up - and I might wait to actually post - maybe an hour --I search for other people who might be blogging and links to their notes.
BTW, I gave up hotel internet and have an internal broadband sprint card .. love it.
Wow, Beth. You're doing a lot during presentations! I've got a conference coming up next week and I'm going to try to incorporate some of your strategies. Maybe Technola readers will get to see some photos.