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Musings about online cons...
...the 'convention' kind, not the 'scam' kind.
This is the text of an email I sent out to the staff list of ConDFW, to get some ideas. I figured I'd post it here, too, as my f-list often contains people with useful ideas and speculation. :D It concerns creating online aspects of the convention, to run simultaneously as the physical con. Not as fancy as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flycon, by any means! We'd want to start small, and there are technological limitations (mostly the spotty net access at the hotel, rather than off-site stuff...), but ... it's intriguing.
(And as a web services librarian, this is the sort of thing I'm seeing already in place at the computer- and internet-oriented library conferences.)
There's a bit of discussion online this week about virtual
conventions, arising from the success of the online con Flycon, which
I posted about a couple of weekends ago. And I've got some vague ideas
about these technologies and how we might be able to use them to our
advantage, and I'd like to open some discussion about that.
1) http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=4163
This post muses on the limitations of the current Worldcon system and
how incorporating a virtual component might increase membership. The
comments are full of good speculation and advice on how to do it, and
examples of conventions already trying it. Corflu has run an Online
Consuite - basically an open IRC channel - for 2008 and 2009, and
plans one for 2010.
2) http://fandom2.ning.com/forum/topics/where-this-started
This one comes from a discussion on another post where the poster
pointed out that those who have their head down, focused on their
computers or iPhones, might be just as involved in the panel as those
who are looking directly at the panelists, because they may be
recording the events as they happen. Apparently she got shouted down
by people who insisted that such technologies should just be banned.
(As a veteran of library conferences full of bloggers, Twitterers,
Facebookers, and other such technologies, I'm of the firm opinion that
they're here to stay and they're only getting more prevalent in the
years to come, so we might as well start figuring out how we can use
them to our advantage during the con.)
3) http://sartorias.livejournal.com/335237.html
This is the post where I got the previous two links. It's Sherwood
Smith's Livejournal, and she was the person who started Flycon and is
a previous guest of ours. :) Linking it here because she tends to
gather a lot of good discussion from writers and SF fans in her
comments, even though there's only one response at the time I am
typing this. Her topic is the idea that some of the old hardcore
SMOFs have, that face-to-face con attending is the "real" fandom, and
that adding virtual or online components will keep people from
attending the con. Smith doubts that, because face-to-face
interaction is so much more than online interaction, and that virtual
attendance might produce more physical attendance later.
I tend to agree with her - and it's an interesting idea that perhaps
adding an online component to our con will make it that much more
known, and eventually result in more people attending physically.
---
So. Anyone interested in trying to organize an online component,
starting small? Webspace and bandwidth not an issue - I've got a
metric ton of both in my hosting account, and we can call on some of
the cepheid.org webspace as well (although we don't want to overly
impinge upon our gracious hosts, at least not without kicking back a
little more money for bandwidth).
We could start small, like Corflu, with an online consuite via IRC or
group chat for those who can't make it to the con to hang out on -
which would be made more desirable if we could convince some of the
guests and panelists to drop by for a little bit. If that's
successful, expanding to the occasional online panel - a chat with a
guest, perhaps?
Other ideas? Providing an extra table with a power strip in the back
of a panel room for those who are blogging the con? (The Computers in
Libraries conference I go to does that, since so many participants
blog the conference.) Setting up a Twitter scraper that scrapes all
Tweets that have #condfw in them and posting them to the website?
Asking specific people to the con and giving them free memberships in
exchange for liveblogging throughout the day? Setting up a special
area of the ConDFW website's Wordpress install, giving logins to
bloggers, and having them blog (or crosspost) there?
(Liveblog = blogging as something as happening, as in you're typing up
the panel summary and notes during the panel itself, instead of
afterwards.)
Early on in ConDFW's history, we did try a version of Blogging the Con
for the 2nd or 3rd con, because several of the con staff and
volunteers at that time were fans of gonzo journalism and wanted to do
it. I set up a blog with multiple logins, and the first day we had
several entries, and they petered out as the participants lost
interest and gravitated towards the bar.
However, I think if we invite a few people who would be coming anyway,
and who are avid bloggers and good writers anyway, and set it up that
way, it could work. Might also help solve our perennial
too-many-guests-for-the-panels problem: ask panelists to blog instead
of being on so many panels.
Considering our spotty net connection issues this year, however, live
chats involving people at the con itself might not be a great idea,
but blogging and running an offsite IRC channel shouldn't be as much
of a problem - we'd just need a couple of staff to pop in and act as
moderators every so often (maybe even ask someone who's not attending
the con to be a backup mod in case hotel access breaks down).
--S, who realizes that as webmaster she's probably in charge of any
online initiatives, and thus would require *actual staff* during the
con to help moderate and keep things running smoothly. XD
This is the text of an email I sent out to the staff list of ConDFW, to get some ideas. I figured I'd post it here, too, as my f-list often contains people with useful ideas and speculation. :D It concerns creating online aspects of the convention, to run simultaneously as the physical con. Not as fancy as
flycon, by any means! We'd want to start small, and there are technological limitations (mostly the spotty net access at the hotel, rather than off-site stuff...), but ... it's intriguing.(And as a web services librarian, this is the sort of thing I'm seeing already in place at the computer- and internet-oriented library conferences.)
There's a bit of discussion online this week about virtual
conventions, arising from the success of the online con Flycon, which
I posted about a couple of weekends ago. And I've got some vague ideas
about these technologies and how we might be able to use them to our
advantage, and I'd like to open some discussion about that.
1) http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=4163
This post muses on the limitations of the current Worldcon system and
how incorporating a virtual component might increase membership. The
comments are full of good speculation and advice on how to do it, and
examples of conventions already trying it. Corflu has run an Online
Consuite - basically an open IRC channel - for 2008 and 2009, and
plans one for 2010.
2) http://fandom2.ning.com/forum/topics/where-this-started
This one comes from a discussion on another post where the poster
pointed out that those who have their head down, focused on their
computers or iPhones, might be just as involved in the panel as those
who are looking directly at the panelists, because they may be
recording the events as they happen. Apparently she got shouted down
by people who insisted that such technologies should just be banned.
(As a veteran of library conferences full of bloggers, Twitterers,
Facebookers, and other such technologies, I'm of the firm opinion that
they're here to stay and they're only getting more prevalent in the
years to come, so we might as well start figuring out how we can use
them to our advantage during the con.)
3) http://sartorias.livejournal.com/335237.html
This is the post where I got the previous two links. It's Sherwood
Smith's Livejournal, and she was the person who started Flycon and is
a previous guest of ours. :) Linking it here because she tends to
gather a lot of good discussion from writers and SF fans in her
comments, even though there's only one response at the time I am
typing this. Her topic is the idea that some of the old hardcore
SMOFs have, that face-to-face con attending is the "real" fandom, and
that adding virtual or online components will keep people from
attending the con. Smith doubts that, because face-to-face
interaction is so much more than online interaction, and that virtual
attendance might produce more physical attendance later.
I tend to agree with her - and it's an interesting idea that perhaps
adding an online component to our con will make it that much more
known, and eventually result in more people attending physically.
---
So. Anyone interested in trying to organize an online component,
starting small? Webspace and bandwidth not an issue - I've got a
metric ton of both in my hosting account, and we can call on some of
the cepheid.org webspace as well (although we don't want to overly
impinge upon our gracious hosts, at least not without kicking back a
little more money for bandwidth).
We could start small, like Corflu, with an online consuite via IRC or
group chat for those who can't make it to the con to hang out on -
which would be made more desirable if we could convince some of the
guests and panelists to drop by for a little bit. If that's
successful, expanding to the occasional online panel - a chat with a
guest, perhaps?
Other ideas? Providing an extra table with a power strip in the back
of a panel room for those who are blogging the con? (The Computers in
Libraries conference I go to does that, since so many participants
blog the conference.) Setting up a Twitter scraper that scrapes all
Tweets that have #condfw in them and posting them to the website?
Asking specific people to the con and giving them free memberships in
exchange for liveblogging throughout the day? Setting up a special
area of the ConDFW website's Wordpress install, giving logins to
bloggers, and having them blog (or crosspost) there?
(Liveblog = blogging as something as happening, as in you're typing up
the panel summary and notes during the panel itself, instead of
afterwards.)
Early on in ConDFW's history, we did try a version of Blogging the Con
for the 2nd or 3rd con, because several of the con staff and
volunteers at that time were fans of gonzo journalism and wanted to do
it. I set up a blog with multiple logins, and the first day we had
several entries, and they petered out as the participants lost
interest and gravitated towards the bar.
However, I think if we invite a few people who would be coming anyway,
and who are avid bloggers and good writers anyway, and set it up that
way, it could work. Might also help solve our perennial
too-many-guests-for-the-panels problem: ask panelists to blog instead
of being on so many panels.
Considering our spotty net connection issues this year, however, live
chats involving people at the con itself might not be a great idea,
but blogging and running an offsite IRC channel shouldn't be as much
of a problem - we'd just need a couple of staff to pop in and act as
moderators every so often (maybe even ask someone who's not attending
the con to be a backup mod in case hotel access breaks down).
--S, who realizes that as webmaster she's probably in charge of any
online initiatives, and thus would require *actual staff* during the
con to help moderate and keep things running smoothly. XD
no subject
I've no experience with conventions, but from skimming that email it sounds like what you might want is a portal for the conference. A site that aggregated Flickr photos, Tweets, blog posts, and chat logs (?) automatically so con workers and attendees alike could update without needing any provided connectivity beyond what they could get from their phones, motel rooms, or Starbucks.
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I'm also thinking of tapping panelists specifically to live-blog the con instead of or in addition to sitting on panels, to combat the usual waning of interest or procrastination as time wears on - maybe even assign them to blog specific events or panels. Hmmm. *thinks*
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EDIT: Also, if I can help with the site any, I'll happily do so (though, I doubt you need any help). I've been mulling over an aggregation portal for a while, but never had a topic/reason to do it.
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(The scavenger hunt thing is a nifty idea, too! Thanks!)
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Last we promoted our Twitter hash tag and got a lot of attendees using it. We put the search results on big screens during lunch, so everyone was aware of what was going on. (SxSW did this a few years ago, just as Twitter was getting started, with big screens in the hallways.) Attendees with great tweets started getting recognized when they sat down in sessions (either from their avatars or because their Twitter handles were a variation on their names), which startled them a bit. It took most of the first day to get going, but by the second day everyone was having a lot of fun with it. It was great for getting some of the more introverted attendees to open up a bit.
For the committee, it was helpful to see some live feedback on the sessions before we got around to tabulating the evaluation forms. We were also able to fix immediate problems ("this room is freezing!") without interrupting the programming. Attendees who were sitting in sessions that displeased them somehow were able to see what other people were enjoying (and were generally good about leaving the room quietly).
That was also the first year we recorded all the sessions, and we got the presenters to sign releases so we could podcast them later. We were already posting the slides, and we'd been podcasting only the best-of winners. Dunno if the added online availability will translate into more attendees; ask me in October.
We've also had a Flickr tag for ages, and we've been able to use some of those photos in the conference website's slideshow.
Another higher-ed site asked some attendees to liveblog some of the sessions. That worked pretty well, but I think they key was that each blogger had just one or two sessions to cover, chosen because they had a particular interest or some expertise in the topic. If they'd been trying to type furiously for four sessions straight on unfamiliar speakers or topics, there would have been tears and recriminations. Doing one panel out of your entire day is not too hard. This is something the attendees might be planning to do on their own, and doing it under the con's aegis might give them a nice credibility boost (or just an ego one). It might be possible to gauge their interest through a registration question. In our case, though, the site owner hand-picked people.
The extra table with the power strip is a great idea, and I'm going to pester our people to see if we have some spare cash to pick up some strips this year.
I like the IRC idea, but would you want to try to restrict it to attendees... and how would you do that? For guests with a big fan following, you'd have to be prepared for the channel to get flooded with people who have nothing to do with the con. Which might be fine, if just getting those people to recognize that the con is sponsoring the chat is all you want to get out of the deal.
I also really like the idea of getting guests to blog, especially if you can do it before the con. Drum up interest in the con's site, and maybe let them start a conversation on a subject that will be continued on a panel.
no subject
Good advice on the bloggers, there. If we do that, I'll make sure they're not over-booked. XD
Computers in Libraries had the bloggers' tables right up front, which I felt distracted a little bit as the lighting tended to be lowered for speakers with slides, and the screens up front glaring at us dragged attention away from the speaker. OTOH, I'm also ADHD and easily distracted - others may not have such a problem. I think at the back or off to the side would solve that problem.
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I forgot to respond to the IRC concern - I think for a formal IRC/chat panel, the way to do it would be to moderate it the way I've seen such things done before. The mod and the panel member/s would be able to post without moderation, but the attendees would have their comments/questions queued and sent through the moderator, who'd release them as needed. If people wanted some free chat, a second IRC channel/chat session could be set up at the same time.
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It would definitely be a problem to limit online attendance, although publishing a hashtag or password on the daily con schedule would help a bit - sure, it'd get out beyond the con, but it would have a limited time to do so. Anyone using that hashtag could have their question/comment prioritized.
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I have a couple of thoughts about this. One, during the panels, I can google about what the presenter is saying. Are they using good facts? Who else talks about issue XYZ? I can also take notes, investigate questions, record the session in my blog, and so on. I know that other people do the same thing (yes, I peek at other people's screens. Bad VM, no biscuit!). I think it makes me a better listener, a better asker of questions. Sometimes I pose questions that come up to my f-list or friends, or chat with a friend, and expand the conversation. I think that's great.
The second thing is this: I think a LOT of presenters take advantage of a trapped audience and present junky stuff. I'm sure they'd be deeply offended to know that since their presentation is boring and pointless, I am checking my email and writing porn, but tough noogies. It's my time. I may be obligated to sit there so as not to disturb other audience members by storming out, but I don't have to listen, slack-jawed and adoring, just because I showed up. I wonder if some of the outlawing of tech ideas comes from the fear that if I could be checking my email instead of listening to them blather, I would. I don't think the answer is to take away my email, I think it's to make the panel worth listening to. Er, possibly an unkind thing to say but there you have it.
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