Liveblogging Conferences and the LIS Profession

As I’ve liveblogged here at CAIS 2008, typing away at the back of the room, no one has asked me what I was doing (although my fast-running fingers did cause a few fellow members of the audience to glance my way, mid-presentation). Today, after one of the presentations, that changed when someone noticed the screen on the laptop I had been typing on was displaying a blog post.

One of the professors in attendance at the conference asked me if I was blogging the conference, and after I answered yes, wondered aloud whether there were any ethical implications to the practice of immediately sharing online the content of conference presentations (which has become, in the last few years, a common information-sharing practice in both technology and libtech conference circles).

Her question, and the concern behind it, made me wonder whether any changes may be coming to the way information science and LIS researchers communicate with one another, as the phenomenon of liveblogging spreads from technology/libtech conferences to the more theoretical reaches of our profession.

How does liveblogging a conference presentation differ from publishing articles and letters about LIS (or in) LIS publications? If you are a presenter at LIS conferences, what do you think about an LIS student’s notes on your conference presentation being published via an LIS-related blog? If you are an LIS student or scholar, do you think this gives you more access, or faster access, to current theoretical discussions? What effect might this have on the profession as a whole, and on LIS theory in particular? Please feel free to share any thoughts you have about this topic by commenting on this post.