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Live blogging thoughts...from Blogher participants


In the untamed and free-spirited world of blogging, there are no hard, fast rules...that, in part is the beauty of democratized, self-publishing on the web. But there are times when good advice comes in handy. One such case is Nancy White's Lessons in Live Blogging. These are practical, well anchored in personal experience, and short on you-must-be-a-journalist-or-else dogma. Nancy references another post over at Flink Designs with a top-10 (minus 5) list of tongue-in-cheek Don'ts:

Top ten things NOT TO DO
  1. Don't tell anyone what the name of you session is or what conference you are at. Let them figure it out by clicking around, and, off your post.
  2. Waste time on innoucous details such as; I am wearing my favorite yellow argyle sweater to this session . The banana bread at this conference is great, moist and not to sweet. DO get to the important details of the session and do your best to be concise even if it's not second nature.
  3. Don't publish your post until the session is well-over. In fact spend about two hours after the session polishing off your language. Because "live" really means, when ther are no more spelling mistakes.
  4. Don't spend more time explaining your opinion of what is beng talked about then what is actually said by the other people in the room, including the presenters. I mean, it's your blog, why waste time on reportage? If the other participants want to be heard, let them blog about it themselves, right?
  5. Whatever you do don't summarzie and don't try to give an impression of what the session highlights were. Just write a huge post where the important parts are buried inside expository paragraphs about a nit-picking argument between two participants overheard during the smoke break.

From all this, I am NOT a good candidate for live blogging...my overdrive keyboard speed of some 30 words per minute, my tendancy to process (slowly) what I hear/read before posting, and the taboo that Flink lists regarding leaving out the minutia of sideline controversy just takes all the fun out of it. I shall be content to do as I have done here...recognize expertise, share their expertise with others, and be comfy in understanding my place in the frey...there is just something about good banana bread that deserves space in a blog! *grin*


Posted by Paul Chenoweth on August 8, 2005 07:55 AM |

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Comments

I thought you did a pretty good job of live blogging at that conference that shall no longer be named that was held at Belmont a few months back. :)

Easiest way to avoid live blogging: don't bring a lap top.

I think my problem with live blogging is how can the conference attendee/viewer really process what is being said when they are too busy typing it out. Even the best multi-taskers will miss something. But it's nice for those of us who aren't there to know what is going on.

Posted by: Pink Kitty | August 8, 2005 10:33 AM

PK,
I thought the Belmont event had been expunged from public memory...thanks for the pat on the back.

'Ever wonder how long it will be before 'live blogging' reaches the annoying, disrespectful, distracting point that cell phone interuptions cause?

Posted by: Paul | August 8, 2005 11:02 AM

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