Way, way back in 2005 I started live blogging at conferences. Blog Business Summit was the first a) blogging related conference I attended and b) the first conference I live blogged. From that point on I got to be pretty well known as a live blogger. It even got me into conferences and my travel expenses paid so I could live blog and cover a conference for companies. I think, in fact, I got pretty damn good at live blogging. I had my own style as well, a mix of transcribing and commentary on the fly. Often my live blog posts were more stream of conference consciousness than “real” writing.
Then something changed. Shel Israel hits the nail on the head, that something was Twitter:
Then along came Twitter. Obviously, I considered this also important and revolutionary. I still do. But it has occurred to me that this, faster, easier, shorter way of reporting through “live tweets” has replaced the longer, deeper, more thoughtful social media form,at of live blogging. It has done so in a very short period of time and my sense is something is being lost.
Tweets by their nature are terse. An audience members usually says who is speakig & maybe the topic. A rave review is the that she or he “rocks.” But the coverage of what is actually being said is reduced. So are the questions and comments coming from outside the room.
I have noticed this year, that there were fewer live blog posts at conferences I was attending that there used to be. But I wondered if that was partly because my path has veered to some degree from the tech sector where live blogging had been so strong so recently.
[From In loving memory of live blogging - Global Neighbourhoods]
I think the switch for me was in 2007 (yes only two years later), when during Gnomedex the Twitter backchannel was much more interesting that the people on stage (for the most part). Because Twitter was becoming so compelling, it was hard to be a part of that conversation, listen to the speaker and write. Over time I found it much more enjoyable to watch the Twitter stream (assuming that Twitter was up) and listen to the speaker than to write. I know, how shocking, listening to a speaker at a conference.
As I’ve tried to live blog since Twitter (A.T.?) I’ve found that I really don’t enjoy, much less remember, the speakers. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d lose them, I’d write notes with pen and paper if there was a thought or idea I wanted to remember. Like Shel, I miss the commentary that we used to get from live blogs. I miss someone taking the time to thoughtfully work through presentations and maybe drawn a common thread among them. Maybe even take a contrary position to the speaker (in a respectful way of course) and help everyone learn a little more about the topic. Push the boundaries, challenge us, make us, God forbid, think.
Why don’t I do this? If I was so good at doing it, why don’t I take some notes during a talk and then write something up later?
Time, audience, effort, and money.
We seem to have less and less time at conferences to just sit and think (at least I don’t seem to) and that time is needed to sit and write something worthwhile while the topic is still relevant. Is analyzing a keynote two days later really have much of a point in our hyperspeed news world? I don’t think so. That time needed leads to the effort required. And time and effort both connect to money. Even if I’m not getting paid to live blog, I could be working on other things that help pay the bills.
And all of the above boils down to audience. The RSS-reading, Twitterpated, blog skimming audience seems less interested in live blogs now. If something that takes me a while to write generates some discussion and attention to my blog/site/books/classes then it’s worth it.
No, it’s not all about audience or attention. Nor is this all about money. I still write, and am writing more of late, because I love it. However, this doesn’t mean I’m naive to the fact that what I produce has inherent value. Maybe if a group of us social media smarty pantses, tried to work together at a conference…
As I’m writing this out, and thinking at the same time, I wonder if we’re heading toward some kind of content conundrum. While social media has earned its place as “media”, I think many bloggers have lost that edge we once had. I know that I have. With proliferation I think we’ve smacked into the quantity-quality problem. And this is a problem that, if the media barons are clever enough, could re-energize traditional media into a place where they can again have more mindshare and market share.
Huh, live blogging as a potential savior of media, writing and journalism. Not a bad premise. Good thing I’ve started writing for a paper, huh?
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