One of the interesting blogs I have recently started reading is Talking Philosophy: The Philosopher's Magazine Blog. Aimed more at scholars and practitioners alike who are interested in applied philosophy (with articles that are readable by and for a wider audience of laypeople), some of the editors have been presenting at a camp associated with The Center for Inquiry, and I posted a question and have been participating in a discussion there about liveblogging the experience.

As liveblogging conferences (particularly academic ones) have recently captured my interests, I asked if they have considered doing so. In the process, I found myself reflecting on the differences between getting a transcript / recording of a presentation (like the news or a dvd) vs. studying the internal learning and change process while attending the sessions themselves (liveblogging) vs. the writing or posting that can be done after enough processing of the information (traditional journalism and academic writing).

I find myself finally beginning to articulate why I am interested in liveblogging as a learning experience in itself, and in this capacity just posted a response on their blog about this that I want to recount here (in part so I can then readily index them later for this ongoing research and reflection):

I am not so interested in recordings or the transcripts, since I personally have trouble reading / paying attention to them without being involved in the tone and setting of the experience.

My interests are more about how learning occurs and how information and experiences are processed during the attending of the sessions themselves . . . I am interested in seeing how ideas develop from a comment here and a feeling over there with some content from this one and a paper I may read from that one–all of which happens simultaneously at times. When we write things later about how we have come to understand something, it takes all of the initial work and shows us the results. My interest in this is in the initial work and process itself.

My theory is that the more we learn about the process, the more we can take that into account while we are presenting our work to help our attendees and learners see what we are trying to communicate.

So, as I am developing my work in liveblogging, it seems it is oriented toward understanding the personal and reflective learning process to better be able to communicate. Ahh, this is an exciting development . . .

Technorati Tags: Talking Philosophy, The Philosopher's Magazine, liveblogging, The Center for Inquiry