Blogger coverage of scientific conferences
Anna Kushnir
Tuesday, 26 August 2008 17:36 UTC
The upcoming Democratic and Republican conventions in the US have embraced bloggers as never before, as described in this article in the NY Times. Politicians and convention organizers have come to understand the importance of blogs as new and emerging media outlets. Both have decided to offer special blogger privileges and access to a record number of bloggers. Convention details will be broadcast almost real time, not only on television and in newspapers, but also on the blogosphere.
Are scientists slower to progress toward new media than politicians? [No shaming in that question is intended.] It seems as though scientific conferences still remain largely closed to bloggers and the public. There are many reasons for this, including the presentation of sensitive and unpublished data as well as the high registration costs for most conferences. However, would there be an audience for blogger coverage of scientific conferences, if the opportunity was presented? Is that something that the scientific and general communities would benefit from? If so, why is it not happening?
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Well I’ll step aside to let others join the thread as I have probably contributed too much already, but I just have to say you are certainly not an idiot, Barbara, far from it!
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A few things. First, although I can’t think off the top of my head as to where the links are, I have read many a post from regular bloggers discussing their intention to liveblog a conference. The perception may be that liveblogging does not occur, but remember that the most-read science blogs do not exactly homogeneously blanket the world of science. Many, many fields are not represented in even the semi-prominent blogosphere, let alone amongst the most well-read blogs. That is a key point. One has to have a blog to liveblog. So the ubiquity of liveblogging is contingent on whether those attending a particular sub-specialty meeting are in fact actually interested in blogging. I’ll return to this more later…
I don’t think that the presentation of sensitive, unpublished data is a major factor in whether or not scientists are receptive to liveblogging. Once an investigator makes a choice to present, they are giving information anyway. It is likely that the competitors the scientist is most worried about are already in the room at the conference, and not those out in the blogosphere just trying to gauge the current state of a particular field. Therefore, the data presented in talks/posters and during idle chatter after sessions are very much measured and calculated according to the researcher’s own level of paranoia. Liveblogging will not change anything here. For more discussion on this particular aspect, see this.
Attendance at conferences will not suffer because of liveblogging. 2/3 (or more!) of the reason to attend a conference is not to see the talks as much as it is learning the dynamics of the field (such as watching the interesting interactions during the question/answer period) and rubbing elbows with the other participants. I have always learned much more from talking to people and engaging them about their data than from simply watching a talk. People make a name for themselves at conferences, trying to catch the eye of faculty search committee members, or line up their next post-doc. None of this can effectively be done remotely and requires attendance. Personal interaction is here to stay and thus, conference attendance lists will remain filled.
Having said all that, I am a big fan of liveblogging a conference, if one has the desire to do so. And that is exactly the threshold for me: does (should?) one desire to do so. I think that liveblogging will catch on only if a researcher/blogger feels so inclined to take time away from the “rubbing elbows” part of the conference in order to liveblog. But then, if one is not chatting up other investigators, then one of the main purposes of conference attendance is not being fulfilled! So returning to my first point above, a dedicated, efficient blogger can easily liveblog and take full advantage of the access opportunities presented at a conference. Liveblogging conferences will become widely adopted in science when a critical mass of regular blogger/scientists is reached.
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I do see conferences as perfect places for science blogging. This could be in various formats, from liveblogging to daily summaries. Like many others I’m still in the learning stage, but liveblogging in a microblog format such as FriendFeed could be a strategy that would leave enough time to interact in the session breaks and evenings. My recent experience as a conference blogger was posiitve and is something I want to repeat.
Blogging about unpublished work is something also very relevant to the traditional media, as the recent incident at the Genetics conference in Berlin (Stem cells and journalism in Germany) demonstrates. Maybe we should differentiate two types of conference: 1) the more informal smaller meetings (exemplified by Gordon conferences) where a lot of unpublished work is discussed and where that information should not be made public, and 2) larger conferences where the main goal would be to dissiminate the information to those that were unable to attend.
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Surely there’s no way to stop a live-blogger reporting on a “closed session” where unpublished data is getting discussed. Particularly with all the discrete recording devices/handhelds around these days. Could we end up with (censored) official conference blogs and “bootleg” versions?
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Noah makes a really good point. Fear of competitors should not stop bloggers, since the content is already being made available to most close competitors anyway at the conference! I didn’t think of that.
So as I see it, the impediments to blogging scientific conferences remain the publication issues mentioned before:
Blog postings describing certain findings could jeopardize the subsequent publication of a paper on the subject.
Lack of recognition by the conference organizers that bloggers are actually good for them, and not subversive or destructive. Good blogging facilities would do wonders for blogging (live and otherwise) of scientific conferences. To ease conferences into blogging, perhaps there can be closed blogs, viewable only by conference attendees, to be opened to the general blogosphere later on?
Not many scientists are bloggers, simply put. There are not that many people attending scientific conferences who are in a position and disposition to blog about them. Although I do hope that as more junior investigators and grad students enter the scientific sphere, that will change (assuming, of course, that these people will be more open to the wonders of the blogosphere).
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I agree there are lots of interesting issues here. I rather expect that it will gradually become more common.
Just to address one of Anna’s questions – why does it happen at political conventions and not at scientific conferences?
I think it is not to with slowness to adopt new media but all to do with the very different aims of politics and science. Political conventions are (mostly) theatrical affairs designed to impress the world out there – hence any and all publicity exposure is good. Scientific conferences are places for scientists to exchange information and views. (Of course as has been noted there are also many varieties of conference from very large to small, from quite open to closed). Publicity for scientific conferences is often not a priority.
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I’m liveblogging the International Ethological Conference in Rennes, France – Aug 19-24, 2009
I’ll be posting updates from #IEC2009 conference on my blog later today. So far, I’m the only science blogger attending this scientific conference. Could I be wrong? If not, could my fellow science bloggers not attending this conference pass the word around, RT?
also on twitter.com/fetesociety and friendfeed.com/dnlee -
Two recent developments in conference blogging being reported in the blogs:
A very interesting post about conference blogging currently on Heather Etchevers’ blog
She had received permission to blog a conference, but that was later revoked by the organizers, who asked her to take everything down.Meanwhile, Martin Fenner gave some blog space to the official blogger of the Annual Meeting of the German Geentics Society (link goes to interview, but Alex was blogging on Martin’s blog during the entire conference)
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