Ethan Zuckerman Explains How to Liveblog a Conference

Tripod cofounder, Global Voices cofounder and stellar conference blogger Ethan Zuckerman explains how he manages to get such comprehensive presentation notes online so quickly.

The kit: I come to conferences with my beloved Mac, two charged batteries, a power strip, a digital camera and cables, granola bars and a lap desk. This last item is totally essential - I’ve turned my car around when driving to a conference to retrieve my lapdesk, knowing that burned knees and backpain await if I try to blog with the laptop directly on my lap.

The advantages of liveblogging, Ethan says, include having a detailed record of each conference he attends, getting corrections from other people, and getting more linkjuice. He also says it forces him to pay attention to what's going on and "not just to visit with my friends, chat in the hallways, enjoying the spectacle." That sounds like a disadvantage to me but he says that in a way that makes me think he really does prefer transcribing. At any rate, my hat's off to him for his assiduous notes from TED, Pop!Tech, and other conferences.

The 5-4-3 double play, or “The Art of Conference Blogging”

Photo of Ethan Zuckerman by David Weinberger