Just a quick word about two pastoral blogging issues.
First, You Tube has a new feature that will allow people to surf “related videos” on You Tube on your embedded screen. Of course, you know that folks can find all manner of things you don’t want hosted on your site through the surf connections.
You can disable this feature by adding &rel=0 to the end of the code.
By the way, this feature is retroactive, so frequent posters of video, have to live with all their old posts having this feature, or they will have to retroactively edit the code as well.
Other than that, I always wanted to add one more post (at least) to my pastoral blogging series. This one is about live blogging.
For pastors attending various meetings or conference, they have a couple of options. Obviously, their laptop would be great, but you will need a few things with that. You need a strong shoulder to carry it all over the place, which is the biggest downside. Also, you need an extended life battery, which is expensive, or you need a power source. In my carry bag, I usually bring a power strip. At the Baptist Identity Conference I had bloggers from everywhere sitting at my table, because I had a strip. Good to be prepared.
Also, if you are at a table top, it helps. The SBC last year, I had my laptop perched precariously on my knees in arena seating and running off the battery. That’s kind of rough.
The other option is blogging with a smart phone. I have a Treo, which is a Palm Pilot with a phone and internet/email access. There are various other smart phones out there, that are able to surf the net, access email and phone, but I am unsure if they have the other program abilities that my Treo has. Blackberry is the original smart phone, and the Pearl from them is their latest & greatest.
The benefits of the smart phone, obviously, is that the battery is intended to last a lot longer. It is not a big burden to bear and I intend to blog the SBC, for the most part, with my Treo. Also, it is always connected to the internet through your cell phone signal. Of course, this is a package that you must purchase at about $35-$45 per month.
The laptop can usually connect wirelessly, if their is an access point. At Union, they provided one for free. At the convention last year, you had to purchase a temporary access in the coliseum, unless you sat in one certain section that had a free access point. Word made it through the bloggers and we all ended up live blogging from there.
The only other option for internet access with a laptop is to purchase a card and plan from a cell phone provider that will plug into your laptop.
Finally, you must deal with the speed issue. With live blogging, speed in typing is key. If you are unable to type quickly, the smart phone is clearly the best option as you will not be faster with it than the laptop. I happen to type pretty fast and correct myself with some speed as well, so the laptop provides me excellent advantage in producing in depth coverage. Of course, the smart phone has small keys that are much harder to work with. I notice that I misspell horribly when I live blog with the smart phone. On the other hand, I can stick it in the case on my belt and walk off without carrying a big bag, power strip, etc.
You have to pick. I split time with the Treo and the laptop last year, but have gotten faster with the Treo. I much prefer the laptop if I can spread out, but in a convention hall, I’ll probably stick to the phone. Especially as there is not likely to be a free access section in San Antonio as there was in Greensboro.
See you next week.
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Nick P
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 10:51 am:
Art,
If you have a data plan on your phone, check and see if your laptop and phone both have Bluetooth. You might be able to type on your laptop and post it to the web via your phone – at no additional cost.
Dorcas Hawker
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 12:33 pm:
Art -
Thank you so much for the information about YouTube links. I noticed the related option show up the other day and started deleting some of my YouTube links because I didn’t want people to access unintended bad stuff from my blog. Too risky. I’m glad I don’t have to give up those links altogether. Thanks for being on top of things.
Dorcas
Bowden McElroy
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 3:22 pm:
Re: Live Blogging.
Please don’t. Live Blogging is by definition the blogger’s notes and ideas of what he/she just heard. Notes make sense to the one who took them, not necessarily to the rest of us. I would rather read thoughtful entries posted a few hours later that are coherent summaries using whole sentences than reading over your notes typed literally during the presentation.
Alan Cross
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 5:07 pm:
I tend to agree with you, Bowden, as far as my own blogging goes. Your suggestion what I plan to do at various points during the day from the computers set up in the convention hall. I will use more of an editorial approach than a reporting approach. But, I will say that when Marty and Art live blog, I go to those posts to cross check my facts and fill in anything that I might have missed. So, while there is no way I will do it, I appreciate the work that they put in for the rest of us to help us be more accurate.
But, we really only need 2-3 people doing this. Anything else and it is a waste of time. At that point, we should all reference these guys and build upon what they are doing instead of replicating it.
Kevin Bussey
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 5:18 pm:
I love my Treo.
I will miss all of you next week. I won’t miss the politics but I will miss my friends.
Bowden McElroy
on Jun 8th, 2007
@ 7:47 pm:
Alan,
I won’t be there… looking forward to everyone’s reports!
Art Rogers
on Jun 9th, 2007
@ 5:34 am:
Nick,
I actually did try that. Of course, Toshiba preloaded it’s own software that began to compete with windows as well as the bluetooth adapter’s driver and it was just a major headache. I removed the Toshiba software, but still have a lot of conflict now. If you get a laptop with bluetooth ability built in, I’m sure things will go better. This is the part where Marty says something about a Mac… It does remind me of the Mac commercial where PC comes in with all that preloaded software.
Dorcas,
Glad to be of service.
Bowden,
Thanks for the encouragement. :)
Alan,
Thanks for the encouragement! :)
Nick P
on Jun 9th, 2007
@ 6:43 am:
yeah – on a Mac it would probably “just work”. :-)
Alan Cross
on Jun 9th, 2007
@ 9:04 pm:
Kevin,
We’ll miss you as well. Who will I sit with this year?