The following is a slightly altered version of a post I made on the AEA Technology Forum.  The original post was a reply in a thread about whether AEA should consider writing guidelines for bloggers at the AEA conference, and if so, what kind of guidelines they should be.

I haven’t seen any good guidelines for conference blogging, but I’ll admit that I haven’t really looked for any either. Thinking as a presenter, I wouldn’t want the blogging activities of audience members to interfere with my ability to present my ideas. For example, if anyone were to attempt to do a live vlog post during my presentation, I would find it distracting, annoying, and simply rude. Also, I wouldn’t want my presentation recorded in an audio or video format without my consent.  However, I think it would be fair to expect that many audience members will prefer to take notes in a digital format and I think they have the right to take written notes for their personal use during any conference session they attend.

Public blogging differs from simple note-taking. If I am thinking as a researcher, my main concern with blogging during conference sessions is the proper attribution of ideas.  If a researcher presents research at a confernce she has consented to share those ideas, at least with other conference attendees.   Is she also consenting to share those ideas with the public at large? I believe that she is, or at least should, but others may not agree. No matter how widely I share my ideas, I still want credit for them and I believe that most researchers feel similarly.

As a blogger, I want the freedom to write about what interests me.  I want to be able to post my reflections as I synthesize ideas from various sources.   I hope that others will provide feedback on my ideas, helping me to sharpen my thinking and clarify my languange.  I want as few barriers to this reflective process as possible.

Synthesizing these three perspectives, I think that a good set of standards for conference blogging would address at least the following:

• Possible disruptions to on-going presentations
• Assumptions about consent to disseminate ideas
• Procedures or policies on attributing sources

What else should be included?

On March 16, 2008, I clicked “Publish” for the first time and declared myself “(No Longer) Alone in a Library”.  Though my posts make no reference to it, a year ago, I was just out of the hospital, sad and scared, and needed not to be alone.  The first comments, kind and encouraging, appeared within two weeks; I am forever grateful.

One year, 100 posts, 152 comments, and approximately 5,695 visits later, I find it convenient to pause and reflect.  The graph below captures some of the story behind these posts, comments and visits.  I posted most actively when I participated in the comment challenge that took place in May of last year.  I made an effort to connect to other participants in the challenge through commenting and my fellow participants repaid me handsomely with their comments.   The frequency of my posts fell off dramatically after the challenge, but began to rise again in September, as I attempted to document my participation in two courses that I was auditing.   I believe that my participation in these courses triggered the second comment spike seen on the graph.  Near the end of November, I nearly disappeared from blogging, reemerging only last month.

A year in the life of (No Longer) Alone in a Library

There are stories that the graph can’t tell.  Through blogging, particularly the comment challenge, I “met” some interesting and intelligent people that I’m sure I never would have met otherwise.  Most notable among these are two of my most frequent commenters, Sarah and Ines.  Who would have thought I’d correspond with an English midwife living “down under” or a multilingual teacher of Portuguese in Lisbon?  Both of these women provide me with additional lenses to examine my work.

Since starting this blog, I’ve moved across two mountain ranges, countless rivers and approximately 2,000 miles.  Still, I’ve been able to keep in touch with friends, colleagues and classmates through this blog and other technologies.  Two valued friends/colleagues/classmates (they both fit in all three categories) are Andrea and SaraJoy.  I don’t get to talk with them nearly as often as I’d like, but I appreciate that they take time to read and comment on my ideas.

Recently, (No Longer) Alone in a Library has brought me an unexpected opportunity.  Because I took the time to post a reflection on the 2008 American Evaluation Association Conference in Denver, I have been invited to participate with other AEA members in an discussion about emerging technologies, particularly blogging.    Several opportunities have been dropped in my lap in the past year and I believe that while this is the first that can be directly traced to my blog, I’m certain that what I’ve learned through blogging is a big reason so many opportunities have come my way.

One final observation, before I close for the night . . . I haven’t empirically tested the data, but I feel fairly safe in concluding that the non-spam comments left on my blog are made by people who have established some sort of a connection with me.  Some of these connections go back to real-world relationships, some to common organizational ties, and some of the connections are made when something I wrote resonates with something inside the reader.  Without the connection, nothing special ever happens.