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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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The next step in live blogging

The kerfuffle over live blogging isn’t likely to subside any time soon, given the growing popularity of live online communication. Add audio and video to the mix and the people who hold live blogging in disdain are likely to go apopleptic.

To summarize, the foes of live blogging don’t like its instant nature—they’d rather bloggers took notes offline then pondered those notes for a while before writing an article (instead of instantly posting their notes). They also don’t like the fact that bloggers are tapping away at their keyboards—a distraction for the speaker.

If typing is a distraction, wait’ll people start showing up with video cameras aimed at them! Sites like Stickam and UStream let anybody with a camera and a Net connection broadcast live video. Initially, these services gained attention when a San Francisco tech guy named Justin began live-broadcasting just about everything he did, including sleep.

Of course, live webcams are hardly new, but the ability to house the stream on any page, a la YouTube, is just one of the features that makes these sites more compelling than the typical webcam broadcast.

Over at PodTech Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang took UStream for a spin at the recent Web 2.0 conference, using the live streaming capability to broadcast panel discussions and other activities. (Jeremiah wrote about it here.)

As if being broadcast live—every word you say—isn’t enough, you could also be recorded for posterity. It has long been one of Doug Kaye‘s goals to capture as many meetings, conferences, workshops, speeches and other activities as audio files and make them searchable and retrievable. Recently, Kaye launched Podcorps, “a corps of volunteer stringers who can show up at these events with their digital recorders, process the digital audio, and then publish it ??? typically at the Internet Archive,” according to Jon Udell’s report.

I suppose those who don’t like live blogging may have less of a problem with live video and recorded audio, since they present accurate accounts and cannot be spun by an author (Steve Crescenzo’s criticism of live blogging that took place during one of his talks). But again, the argument can be made that most TV reporters shoot video, then go back to the studio and edit it. Of course, that’s not the case for on-the-spot reporting, and access to services like UStream and Stickam will make just about any event on-the-spot, and the audio files uploaded to the Internet Archive will be of the “live to the hard drive” variety—recorded and uploaded without any post-production. And in terms of distraction, as Shel Israel (the target of Crescenzo’s ire) notes, “What happens when UStream gets popular and there are as many cameras in the room as there are clickers on keyboards?”

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It doesn’t really matter; it’s here and conference organizers and other institutions will have to figure out how to make the best of it. Certainly there are opportunities to do more than ban cameras, along with laptops, from conferences.

04/20/07 | 9 Comments | The next step in live blogging

Comments

  • 1.I think Stickam's implementation of multi-user video streams so you can see others in a live audio/video/keyboard chat has tons of potential, and already has gathered what seems to be a sizeable web 2.0ish community. I don't want to be limited to 2 or 3 people like on Apple iChat or Skype video chat, and not limited to only people I know. So Stickam makes that possible! :)

    djchuang | April 2007 | Washington, DC

  • 2.I'm one of those live bloggers and now live streamers, while I understand the concerns of those that don't like this live capture, I'm afraid the future will be disappointing.

    But not to worry, as you say, the live video will help things be less distracting.

    It's not going to stop, it's only going to increase. I'm asked more frequently to attend events as media, as well as other bloggers.

    The amount of thanks that we received for sharing the conference with those that could not attend was fantastic.

    If the 'market' was the indicator on if live streaming and live blogging should be allowed, then it will certainly increase over time.

    The challenge now, is to help conference organizers learn how to harness these tools, both logistically as well as to monetize them.

    Jeremiah Owyang | April 2007 | The blogopshere

  • 3.Shel:

    I'm all for live video feeds and streaming and all that!

    My only problem with "live blogging" was the accuracy issue. Sure, it's a tad bit distracting when you're speaking . . .but so is people fiddling with their dingleberries, whispering to a coworker about an idea you just presented to them that they want to use, and beautiful women with great cleavage . . . and I deal with all of those things routinely.

    It's not the distraction factor . . .it's the accuracy factor. It's really, really hard to report on something accurately if you're typing instead of listening.

    You'll say, "blogging isn't reporting," . . . but don't you realize that for the hundreds or thousands of people reading that blog it IS reporting?

    Do you think people fire up their computers and say, "Okay, I'm going to go to the mainstream media first, to get my reporting fix, and then to the blogosphere, to get whatever it is the blogosphere offers which Shel says isn't reporting?"

    Live video feeds will be terrific! With them, people won't be able to sit in the front row, barely pay attention, type the entire time the speaker is talking, and then post their world view.

    Steve C.

    Steve C. | April 2007

  • 4.But Steve!

    How is note-taking more accurate if you sit on it for an hour? You're still scribbling notes while the speaker is speaking. Can you go back and listen to a recording? Check a transcript? Do any reporters covering a talk or speech do that? I don't see how taking notes on a blog input screen is any different than taking notes on a reporter's notepad. Sure, one is turned into narrative and the other remains in note form, but ultimately it's the same source material.

    Shel Holtz | April 2007 | Toronto, ON, Canada

  • 5.Have you checked with conference organizers like Ragan Communications or Melcrum to see whether they believe that shooting video of a session in one of their conferences shouldn't be allowed? How did we morph so quickly from the old-media "this copyrighted event cannot be rebroadcast without the expressed written permission?" to "once you're in, record whatever you want for rebroadcast"?

    Tom Keefe | April 2007 | Gurnee, Ill

  • 6.I'm not sure we'll "morph," Tom; more like "evolve," which happens much more slowly. The tech conferences will embrace this, and gradually other conferences will figure out the benefits far outweigh the perceived downsides, that the models have changed.

    No, I haven't spoken to anybody at Ragan or Melcrum...yet.

    Shel Holtz | April 2007 | Toronto, ON, Canada

  • 7.Inevitably livebloggers will pick up followings of their own. Blogger A will be known for accuracy, Blogger B will be known for pithy comments, Blogger C for coolness, etc. etc. Eventually livebloggers will organize, establish their own blog, then their own code of conduct, one will establish a school for liveblogging, and a special line of clothing will evolve -- sort of a "fedora with a press pass in the hatband" kind of thing...

    Dennis McDonald | April 2007 | Alexandria, Virginia

  • 8.I'll be curious to find that out myself. One thing I have noticed is that my live blogging posts get a lot links. I've gotten comments with people saying "thanks" - people in the room who didn't take notes or didn't catch a detail.

    arizona seo | April 2008 | around

  • 9.i catch a detail and i always write comments before read all help and instruction :))

    video cionferencing | June 2008 | USA

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