I was looking for some info on liveblogging art this am because I never did a similar activity and was wondering if I am able to do it in the next confs I’m gonna taking.
Liveblogging means taking notes about a conference session you are listening and share the main concepts of the talk with people who are not present in the room.
I’ve found some tips on how to start a successful liveblogging session and tested a cool platform: http://www.coveritlive.com.
You know, liveblogging at a conference is very important for people who can’t attend it. It helps, among with pics and videos, to smell the great atmosphere you can breathe in a community event.
I think things are evolving well from this side.
If I am not mistaken, the most easy way to liveblogging is to create a short blog post during the speech and publish it at the conclusion of the talk. You can search for several mysql-related liveblogging examples on the Planet MySQL™. For instance, there you can find some liveblogging posts created during past editions of the MySQL™ Conference and Expo.
In my search, I’ve found a cool tool that can help guys who wants to liveblog during conferences (are you attending FOSDEM next weekend? eh, eh: why don’t you liveblog?)
In short, what you need is:
- create a free account at http://www.coveritlive.com
- login in that website and create a new liveblogging session
- create a post on your blog and embed the code from your account @ http://www.coveritlive.com
- inform users that they will find your liveblogging in that blog post (you can also send some invitations before the session starts using the coveritlive.com console; also users can subscribe from your blog post and get a reminder message few mins before the start of the presentation).
That’s it!
I did two quick tests: one test of the coveritlive.com console (without a real blog post, just to get familiar with the console itself) and another test with a real blog post in order to simulate a real scenario.
Below you can see two screenshots of the coveritlive.com console (read the text within the images for more info).
And here - http://www.honeysoftware.it/sleto/morpheus/2009/02/02/liveblogging-test/ - you can see the final result of test no. 2.
Here the key-word is interaction during the liveblogging. Rather than publish a blog post at the end of the presentation, you publish it the night before thus informing users on the web address where they can see your liveblogging. Furthermore, users not only see in real-time your notes, but can also send comments or questions to you, and thru you, to the speaker.
I’ve two problems with liveblogging, though: the first is the language, since I am not a native English speaker I am not sure I am able to write down speech as fast as it is required. The second is that I don’t have a light laptop but an old heavyweight and the third is that I think the battery of my laptop has just 1 min autonomy.
In a twitter tag: #ThatSWhyIWantToBuyANewDellLaptopASAP ;)
This excursus on liveblogging has been very useful for me.
But what about you? Will you liveblog in the next conference you are going to take?
If yes, have fun with your next liveblogging session!
Some resources:
