Blogging Conferences - Just The Beginning
February 15th, 2005Richard Akerman comments on conferences:
“In my dream vision, you easily are able to get all of the info related to a conference: blogging about it, blogging of particular sessions, presentations from those sessions, photos, etc.”
“I think agreeing on a standard and unique tag for each conference will get most of the way there.”
I’m not too sure about this. By creating a standard for tagging conference posts, doesn’t this invite spammers - or those that aren’t blogging about the conference but want to have their blog show up? Also, if we all agree to tag our posts, where would it be displayed? Del.icio.us? Technorati? A collective blog? Last, how would we get the word out to everyone at the conference? Have it written up in the program? Announcements at the opening events? I’m not saying that it’s not a good idea. I just think we need to think it out a bit.
I outlined a procedure for conference blogging after Internet Librarian last year that, if implemented, could work. Or, maybe we can incorporate the tagging idea into this plan.
I think that the PLA Blog idea was very successful at ALA Midwinter. Let anyone who wants to blog become a part of the collective intelligence of the conference, thus eliminating the need to search for conference bloggers while there. That said, there will be some that just want to blog on their own.
We’re just beginning to figure out the best way for blogging conferences to work well. As an aside, I’ve created a subscription for the DEMO@15! conference which has been exhiliratng to watch. Have you seen the weblog/RSS tools coming out of there? Wowsa!
We should do a DEMO@15! style program at CIL or Internet Librarian. Provide 6 minutes of time for anyone to go up to the stage and brag/demo about a tool/technology program that they created for their library. No vendors aloud. Now THAT would be suweeeeet.