Dori has labeled the phenomenon "blogsturbation". Your description reminded me of that recurring scene in Real Genius which culminates in a tape recorder at the head of the classroom talking to seats full of tape recorders.

That's spooky, Dan. That scene came to my mind, too. Best part of the movie - that and "I drank what?"

Thanks for the link. And I agree with Dori.

Hear, hear.

But why not reverse the situation, and release your talk as a blog as you go along -- that audience would be most impressed ;-) Just shut down the comments.

Have you ever gotten so mad at a coworker that all you could do was send crisply formal emails whenever you had to interact with them, even if you were sitting across the hall from their office/cube?

This stuff reminds me of that.

-Dave

I think part of me gave up on conferences a long time ago. Conversations, yes. Interactions, absolutely. But conferences never seemed to provide either of these. At least the ones I was going to (being the Modern Language Association and other humanities-y ones as well as techy geeky conferences). The purpose of speaking seemed to have more to do with accumulating credibility points and star sprinkles rather than actually communicating. This seems less true at the conferences that Doc and Dave are always talking about, but I haven't been to one in so long I don't know. But yes, insofar as there is any communicating going on, I think you've named and tagged the nagging reluctance I've been experiencing about this whole unreflective, undigesting, ecstasy-of-immediacy realtime blogging phenomenon.

I think there might be a happy medium possible, based on my own experience taking meeting minutes on laptop. Designate a couple-three people "conference bloggers" and tell the rest to put their g--d--- laptops away.

Those who have to miss the con still get word; speaker still has audience. And if I am any indication, the kind of person who will volunteer to blog the con won't be anyone you give a darn about talking to anyway. :)

Now wait a sec, BB. Would you also forbid people to take notes with pencils and notepads? I would assume not - that'd be kinda silly, no?

Or would you draw the line at no recording devices? Is it the technology you object to? And if it's not the technology that you would object to, but instead the gulf that mindfulness of the tech rather than mindfulness of the speaker can create, aren't you just asking for *better tech*?

Also, it would seem to me that frequently someone taking notes (using whatever tool) while a speaker says their piece is actually paying more attention than the person sitting there on their ass, nodding off, unmindful. Certainly has been true in my techconference attendance, at least...

i think what shelley's saying here is that 'blogging' a conference or lecture can and does provide a constant clackety-clack disruption - rather than actual participation in that conference or lecture. can you really pay attention to what's being said/discussed while transcribing or dashing off your thoughts to your blog? and taking (hard copy) notes or actually recording a speaker is a much different beast. typing on a keyboard, and blogging, requires a much higher level of concentration on the device, rather than the speaker. my sister-in-law is a court stenographer: when you ask her, she'll tell you that she does not absorb the content of the case...it takes all her professional skill just to transcribe the words accurately.

Having just attended a major conference, I can simply say I'm glad I didn't rtb it. I've talked to people who are really into it, and they enjoy "being first" at getting their thoughts online. It seems to me that they tend to miss a lot of subtle nuance of presentations.

Think about it: When you are taking notes, you are simply recording key words/ideas/phrases in the interest of prodding your memory when you sit down to really review things. I take lots of notes at conferences. I doubt I wrote one complete sentence the whole week. I wrote quick little comments/terms/names/etc that would help me recall the details I had heard. If I'd been focusing on writing a readable blog entry, I'd have missed about 90% of the worthwhile conversations.

I want to thank you for helping me over my writers block. You should challenge your assumption that standards must take precedent over innovation.

Shelley Powers wants to be Center of the Universe

the head lemur

Well I just read your post, and then I went and read the Head Lemming - er sorry Lemur's post and I have to say the Lemur is a moron.

Mis-quoting and leaving out key, relevent information does not make for a good response.

I agree with you, and feel realtime blogging is an afront to the speaker. Do you want to hear what they are saying or do you want to be the first one with a presenation you didnt understand on your blog?

You cannot listen and blog at the same time. You might be hearing it, but you are not listening.

The pencil/paper analogy doesn't work for me; that's writing down whatever you need to trigger your own memory, which is much less than what's required for communicating the event to others. Plus, it's just plain less obtrusive; quieter, takes up less space, etc.

I think of rtb as more like someone relaying what's being said into a cellphone; they'll miss some of the content while they're composing, framing and regurgitating, they distract other people, and their primary concern is with their audience, not their own experience.

You're probably right, Steve, but I'm not completely convinced. Just because the tools are clumsy doesn't mean the idea is a bad one...

Pixelkitty says : "You cannot listen and blog at the same time. You might be hearing it, but you are not listening."

And I once again ask : Can you listen and *takes notes* at the same time? Mechanics aside, what's the real difference here? Or are mechanics the crux of the issue? In which case we are reduced to simply talking about improving the technology again, aren't we?

Mechanics have nothing to do with it. The tools aren't even that clumsy at this point; Radio (e.g.) is a powerful tool in the right hands.

The point is, even with perfect tools, what is the rtb-er doing but a one-way ICQ session? And while that can have some value if there are NO other records of the talk or lines of communication out of the hall, there are many other options that are just plain superior that would trump RTB if they were in use.

If people are that interested in what's being said, how about an audio stream of the event? Or video? Or why not have the conference spring for someone to create transcripts of each panel within an hour or two? Boom, there goes any point to the partial half-heard transcription by an intermediary trying to increase his own hit count with a stunt. RTB is a hammer and everyone's claiming this is a nail because it's what we can do now. If people could audio-stream from their laptops on a moment's notice, that's what people would be making noise about instead of this. It's just business; sell what you have.

What the blogger *can* provide, and what I value highly as a reader, is the immediate analysis and synthesis of what was said, written as coherent sentences with some sort of sense of the whole; that is, something s/he could produce immediately AFTER the event, possibly from notes taken during the event. There's a qualitative difference between 1) taking a few notes for yourself + then working them into a report on eveyrthing that really mattered in the talk (and nothing that didn't), and 2) the throwing together of as many semicoherent sentences as you can for a hungry peanut gallery because if you don't post something NOW they'll leave for some other RTB. I know which kind of report I'd rather read.

Steve, it seems pretty clear to me that you're more interested in setting up a strawman and then knocking him down while striking a heroic pose than making an attempt at discussion here. The hell with it. I can't be bothered arguing with you, and I don't even disagree with you, for chrissakes.

Appreciated your post although I do enjoy real time blogging. I can see and respect your points though. Real time does have its time and place but some reflection helps the process too.

I'm with Shelley here. There's something disruptive about the technology which can -- and has, in some examples -- struck me as frankly rude. I remember when dictaphones and laptops first started being used in lecture theatres, and it both proved a distraction, and of limited use: a tape recording of a lecture doesn't quite work, nor does trying to take notes of a lecture on a laptop. I suspect that it's something to do with the fact that the potential for absolute fidelity clashes with the classic form of slightly messy lecture note, which is more about creating Proustian prompts for memory than instantly relaying the stuff that you can. Think of it this way: restaurant reviews don't describe the real-time experience of eating in a restaurant, but are composed when the meal's been digested. And I want the smart people who attend these conferences to do a bit of digesting. Take a bloody step back.

I know that the blog-notes made by my friends at the ETCon struck me as less than useless for those who weren't there: sure, use them as an aide-memoire and write up *what you thought of the lecture* afterwards, but I'd rather you concentrated, absorbed what was said, and then respond. But yeah: it's like paying more attention to your cool digicam in Piazza San Marco than to the piazza.

And I can't help thinking that there's something just visceral about pen-and-paper notes, that won't go away until kids are taught to type first and write later. That's not quite a mechanical issue.

Thanks for the link, Dan.

The most interesting part (to me, at least) is that I'm at a conference this week with wireless access. And, just like SXSW, very little of the online tippy-tapping is just blogs updates.

So much of blogging is about feedback. So, people (1) blog the conference. And then they (2) check their email. And then they (3) check their blog to see if anyone commented. And then they (4) check other people's sites to see if anyone linked to their post about the conference.

Blogsturbation is #'s 2-4. Just taking notes doesn't require a net connection, so why bother turning wireless access on at all?