Due Dates for Fall 2009.
Discussed in class: November19
Proposal: Emailed to instructor November 20, 5:00pm (plain text email is fine; all should have subject line "Liveblogging Topic").
Due: Posted to your blog by December 3, 4:15pm.
Background
One classic blog post variety is liveblogging--sometimes spelled live blogging or as one word. Either way, we define liveblogging as posting to a blog in real time from or during a live event, game, show, meeting, etc. A post or series of posts at a live event such as a conference, TV broadcast, political rally, or concert.
When a blogger liveblogs, he or she may be at the event or watching coverage (radio, internet, TV) in real time. "Live blogging is basically taking notes, photos, or recordings at lectures, conferences, and presentations of what was said and posting it to your blog," Ruth Kanter writes in her post
"The Art of Live Blogging." "I ended up doing live blogging because I think through fingers anyway, so why not share it with others on my blog?"
Your assignment is to live blog an event that is at least one hour long. What live event? You will have to propose that to me. This event has to be something others could possible share experiencing--a television show, a live concert, a press conference, a meeting of some sort.
Specifications:
Produce at least 15-20 timestamped updates throughout a live event. This can either be on a single blog post or on 15-20 Twitter posts, provided it is hashtagged (see explanation below).
Parts of a single posts are updated often indicated by a dateline-style timestamp; see this
New York Times loveblog of a town meeting in Montana with President Obama. A typical liveblogging post will look like this:
A reader of this type of liveblogging post would hit the "refresh" or "reload" button on her browser, and read the most recent updates.
Microblogging services such as
Twitter allow for a form of liveblogging in multiple posts. Following agreed-upon conventions, Twitter users often include a hashtag, usually at the end of each Tweet or post. Like a tag or label in regular blogs, hashtags--which are key words or terms preceded by a # sign--allows other users to sort and search Tweets according to the indicating what he or she is liveblogging.
A Twitter liveblog post covering this Montana town hall meeting, for example, would read like this:
NRA man on the floor, asks Obama questions #MNtownhall
Followers of that person's Tweets will know that she is talking about the Montana Town Hall Meeting by the hashtag #MNtownhall; users of Twitter will have a live link from that hashtag to other posts/Tweets labeled the same way.
Your professor, for example, attemped to liveblog--or live Tweet--episodes of So You Think You Can Dance? To do this, he appended each of his post with what seemed to be the most popular hashtag, an abbreviation of the show's name, #sytycd. People are Tweeting about So You Think... even now;
click this link to see Tweets with the #sytycd tag.

Often what bloggers might do to accommodate liveblogging events is set up a feed of one's Twitter posts to appear inside their blog, often in a side column. This is one way to ensure there is dynamic (i.e., updated regularly) content (i.e., posts) on one's site.
Here's the website of Richard Eoin Nash, my old editor and publisher. He posts in many different ways--full-on blog posts, a Tumblr blog to share links, and also Twitter. Like many professionals, he has integrated his Tweets into the front page in his site. He did it all customized and pretty, which makes your instructor jealous!
The Twitter widget is in the red box to your left. The next image is the close-up.
Essential Reading
Read "Tips for Conference Bloggers," which offers advice on how (and what) to blog during a live event such as conference [
link] [
PDF]
Other Recommended Reading
"Live Blogging for Dummies: 4 Tips for a Successful Live Blog"
"Liveblogging Best Practives"
"Live Blogging Tips"
see Galleycat's
liveblog of the National Book Awards
see this
New York Times loveblog of a town meeting in Montana with President Obama