The 33rd Annual Conference on Washington, D.C. Historical Studies takes place this weekend. The schedule offers lots of good stuff. I’m particularly interested in one session, “Washington’s Not-So-Gilded Age.“ George Mason’s own James Garber is presenting “‘Foul, Repulsive, and Unsightly:’ Washington, DC’s Sewage Problems and Improvements, 1865-1880.” during the session, a topic very much in line with my own research interests in filth and cleanliness.
This upcoming conference, as well as the fast-approaching annual conference by the American Historical Association, has had me thinking about best strategies for blogging conference sessions. Blogging conferences is nothing new: Kottke recently blogged PopTech, Josh Greenberg blogged notes from South by Southwest last semester (as did scores of other bloggers), just to name a few examples. I plan to blog about the session this weekend, and the sessions I’ll attend at the AHA. With that in mind, I’d like to come up with a few good approaches to best blog conference sessions. So, good readers of ClioWeb, do you have suggestions? Links to resources?
Don’t count on Internet access being reliable (or freely available), so having some kind of offline blogging software is useful. Here’s a list of weblog clients: http://codex.wordpress.org/Weblog_Client.
Good point, John. I don’t expect internet access this weekend, and the AHA usually hasn’t had wireless available (though they have a room set aside for internet access.)
I tend to hand-code my blog posts in TextMate before I put them in WordPress. Very inefficient. I’ve been meaning to try MarsEdit and the blogging option in Flock, so this might be as good an opportunity to do so as any.
Snark: The only way to blog a panel. Even if you like one paper, you will hate others. Or you should. If you like all the papers on the panel, what is wrong with you?
Definitely don’t count on wireless access. But I like the idea of you blogging from the conference, since I will not be attending.
Actually, I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how we humanists lag woefully behind the geek folks in our technological conference practices. Not only have I never seen a decent backchannel going at any of the academic conferences I regularly attend, you can’t even count on wireless access (as noted above). Seems like there’s a deep failure in professional associations in understanding the potential of augmenting the conference space with an on-site virtual layer…not sure how to start fixing that…
You should try out the Performancing extension for Firefox. http://performancing.com/firefox
I don’t expect wireless internet access at the AHA this year, or in the next few years. I’ve always felt that the academic conference I’ve attended have a kind of “closed door” feel to them. I’m not even sure what the etiquette is for blogging an academic conference. Is it OK for me to take notes on someone’s paper and publish them, along with my thoughts?
This stands in STARK contrast to tech/web developments conferences and workshops. Stuff on them is out EVERYWHERE. And it’s fantastic stuff.