How to Blog a Conference

Welcome ODCE committee members and fellow bloggers.

This post an introduction to the blog and the beginning of a conversation about how to effectively guide the use of this and other blogs to maximize it's value to ODCE participants.

Getting started

Go to the Typepad log-in page and enter the name and password you received when you responded to the invitation to join. If you cannot locate your password or want to become an author, email or see me during the conference and I'll generate another invitation as time allows.

An overview of the blog

1. When you make a post, you will have an option to select a category for the post. Currently there are categories created for each conference track, keynote and general conference info. Categories are determined at an administrative level so please email me if you think we need a new one.
2. [UPDATE: Typepad does automatically assign your name as the author of the post (or at least I have not figured out how to make it). I adjusted the template to display the author name on the main page. Doing so for the archive pages was a bit daunting so I'll not mess with it for now. So please sign your name at the end of your post so we know whose words of wisdom we are reading! -- Rich]
3. Feed: At the top left you will see Feedburner subscription badges. Both link to an RSS feed for the blog, the blue one shows the number of subscribers.
4. Wiki: The next item displays recent changes made to the conferene wiki.
5. Tag Cloud: Below the feed is a tag cloud from Del.icio.us social bookmark service. This collection of bookmarks began with the 2006 conference. Anyone with a delicious account can bookmark web pages and tag them "for:odcecon" to forward them to the odcecon account where they will be queued for approval. Saved bookmarks should be relevant to the tracks and presentations at the 2007 conference. See the Del.icio.us web site to set up an account, install a bookmarklet in your web browser, and add "odcecon" to your network.
6. Who's Blogging? This is an aggregated feed of several blogs from our ODCE community. This includes the feeds from bloggers who blogged ODCE 2006 plus others who listed their blogs on the wiki. Add your blog info if you wish and you will be added to the feed.
7. Technorati: Next is space for a feed of posts tagged with the Technorati tag of "ODCE07." Anyone who registers their blog with Technorati and tags their post with"ODCE07" will contribute to this feed.  Some blogs may have Technorati tagging built in. If not paste the following code into the HTML view your blog post on your blog:
   
   <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/odce07" rel="tag">odce07</a>
   
   Alternatively, you can install a bookmarklet that will assist you. Try the Magical Sheep bookmarklet.

Using the Blog

Conference blogging has become more commonplace. Individuals report their experiences and some conference organizers create blogs for their conferences. The organizers of Building Learning Communities create posts and attendees can respond to them. Others take a team approach like we are doing.

I'll not be prescriptive here but, instead point to a few links I have found or have been shared with me about conference blogging. Please use the comments to offer your feedback or write to your own blog and trackback to this post.

Conference 2.0 by David Warlick
Three by Amy Gahran:
Videoblogging
Running a Group Conference Blog: What I'm Learning
10 Ideas: What To Post to a Conference Blog

Technorati Tags: ODCE07, OLN, Ohio, conferenceblogging

Comments

[Amy Gahran]

Hi. Glad my conference blogging resources are useful to you.

Just wondering -- when is the ODCE conference? I'm wondering how far in advance you're starting this blogging project.

Also, how are you coordinating the efforts of your conference bloggers?

I always like to see how people manage these projects.

Thanks!

- Amy Gahran

[Rich James]

The ODCE conference is March 4-6. See http://oln.org/conferences/ODCE2007/ODCE2007.php
I'll get the info added to this blog soon.

Our blogging begins now! Other authors will be added soon. As for coordination, we are figuring it out as we go. I hope other authors will use this thread to iron out best practices.

Last year we had core group of 6 or so blog during the conference. This year we plan o having more participate with contributions related to the conference tracks.

With a lot of contributors this could become unweildy. But that would be a good problem to have.