Dr Isis discusses conference blogging

Readers who haven't seen it already may be interested in the post and subsequent discussion on conference blogging taking place on Dr Isis' blog.

I feel that Dr Isis' post misrepresents my position in several ways (see this clarifying comment from me), but she does provide an interesting argument against the notion that "open tweeting" should be the default position unless the presenter explicitly states otherwise.The discussion has given me an opportunity to clarify my thoughts on a few issues. Below the fold I've pasted some snippets from my comments on Dr Isis' post summing up some points I don't think I've ever fully spelled out here on my blog.
On my new personal policy regarding conference blogging:

If no official conference policy exists, I will seek advance permission from speakers where possible (and if the conference is small and feels private, in every case), and if this isn't possible I will restrict my coverage to (1) material already available in press releases or online abstract books; and (2) broad conclusions (as opposed to specific details) that will be of interest to my readers but highly unlikely to be seen by anyone as violating the presenter's sacred data.

And two interesting exchanges (Isis in italics):

*If I put an icon on my poster, and then talk to a colleague who I don't know is going to tweet my s**t, do I have to worry that everything I say is tweetable?*No, of course not. A presentation icon would cover everything presented; a poster icon would cover everything on the poster. The icons wouldn't extend to conversations outside those defined areas unless permission was explicitly granted. This is common sense to most of us, but it should also be incorporated into a set of guidelines for conference bloggers associated with the icon.

If something is going to be blog safe, then it should be media safe. If the print media have to disclose their presence, then so should bloggers. They're both reporting stuff to the public.

I have no problem with conference registration including a question on whether you intend to blog/tweet the conference, with a section to include the URLs of your blog and/or your Twitter ID. Then conference organisers can monitor these URLs for breaches of conference policy and attendee name-tags could potentially include a small icon indicating blogger status.

More on this later...