Live blogging rears its ugly head
17th May 2007 by Angelo Fernando
Kathy Sierra, at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX this year opened her session with a provocative question.
Why is it, she asked, that those who were responsible for making products that render it unnecessary for people to be at the event, were actually in the room? There is no logical reason for them to be here, she said! She even referred to live blogging.
The topic of live blogging has come up again. I first heard it on the Hobson and Holtz Report, and the controversy was well discussed by Shel Holtz.
If you’re not familiar with it, go there first, since it would be pointless to summarize it.
With our upcoming International conference in New Orleans in June, the topic is warming up. OK, sizzling!
IABC speaker and author Wilma Matthews (who’s incidentally blogging at the conference) had been asked if she agreed to her presentation being live blogged, and said she didn’t think it was a good idea. “Bloggers should get permission from the speaker and/or the conference organizer to do this,” she maintains. Doing so without a speaker’s approval and/or without the conference organizer’s blessing has legal ramifications, she says –for the blogger, the speaker and conference organizer.
But is it? Isn’t Live Blogging just another form of reporting? It’s just happening in real time –in keeping with everything else we now do in real time. I’m just posing this question, because I see both sides to the argument. (Again, do read Shel’s and Steve Crescenzo’s opposing pov about it being nothing more than note-taking in the always-on world, versus the stop-typing-and-listening approach).
So here’s the thing about live blogging.
Could anyone prevent it –considering you or I could do it via a smart phone, today.
Could an event organizer stand to lose by people potentially staying away from a conference, because they could get the feed, so to speak?
Or is it an ethical question that could be sorted out by the presenter?
If you’re a journalist who also blogs, what would you say?
That’s just text. How about live vlogging?
There’s the proverbial can of worms, with services such as UStream, and Kyte, which potentially lets someone do a live video stream from a laptop to a social media site. Or, even a camera phone.
Is this the reality, or should there be some guidelines conference organizers should set?
May 21st, 2007 at 9:35 pm
As one who has been a public speaker and opted to sell cd’s of my workshops, trainings, etc, I’m not a fan of live blogging.
From a revenue standpoint, why should my audience attend my workshop if they can listen to it as it happens from their living room? Still, why purchase a CD if it can be downloaded as a podcast for free?
Can it be considered reporting? Only if excerpts are used.
I’m assuming that the speakers taken issue with this are not speaking on CSPAN worthy issues which might potentially warrant live feeds. For those of us who make a living at speaking and subsequently selling our thoughts, ideas, etc, to have them disseminated for free, leaves a bitter taste. Shouldn’t we then stand to get a share of the site’s advertising dollars?
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:55 am
I’m having a bit of trouble understanding Wilma’s position.
Do all bloggers need to get permission from speakers, or just those who live blog?
What amount of time needs to pass before a blog isn’t considered “live blogging?”
What if someone takes crappy notes and posts them later in the day from their hotel room?
Should speakers have the right to review blog reports before they are posted?
What about audience members who take notes to write up, or give, a report back at the company/boss who sent them to the conference?
What about members of the working press?
IANAL but I can’t fathom the legel ramifications that would apply just for bloggers that wouldn’t also be valid for journalists or anyone else who takes notes and then shares them or their perceptions of the speech with others after the fact.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:36 am
There’s obviously a difference between Live Blogging and Event Blogging, and no one needs permission for the later.
My take is that an event organizer still needs to lay out some ground rules. Natasha?
May 24th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Craig,
My concern, and apparently Natasha’s as well, is that live blogging is akin to live transmission of audio or video. When IABC was audio taping sessions for sell, they had to get written approval from each speaker if s/he would agree to the taping.
There is no such approval/agreement process for live blogging.
Reporters registered at the conference attend sessions, take notes and later write their reports/stories on what they gathered. They don’t report on every session, nor do they report in an almost verbatim format. These are big differences from live blogging which can, depending on the blogger’s speed, provide almost verbatim, real time coverage of a session.
IABC’s response to this is a caution to conference speakers that live bloggers may be in the audience who “…may disseminate information about your presentation to their own sites, so please keep this in mind when preparing your session.”
I don’t know what that means.
I do think speakers should have some kind of protection of intellectual property as we have had with audio taping and the registration of legitimate reporters.
May 25th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Speakers already have the option of claiming copy-right and prohibiting the recording and subsequent re-broadcast of their speech/information without their specific concent. Theoretically, this could be expanded to include live blogging. Of course they would have to follow-up violations with, what?, a lawsuit?
First I don’t know if it would hold up in court. Second, it seems like it would be a lot of hassle and money and third, what would it do to the speaker’s reputation? (Not to mention, of course what would happen if the blogger decided to make an issue of it and created a firestorm revolving around the speaker and/or conference organizers.)
May 29th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Craig,
This is the slippery slope towards bloggers as reporters and vice versa. Ditto live reporting vs. live blogging.
I think this is a discussion that needs to include conference organizers, speakers, reporters, bloggers, if we’re to find a solution that meets reporters/bloggers needs and doesn’t disenfranchise speakers and/or conference attendees.