SLA blog and wifi?

UPDATE 2005-06-09: Everything following this update is from January 2005, so the info is a bit dated.  The summary is that eventually an SLA 2005 Conference Blog was created.  I was selected to be one of the contributors.  Read more in my blog in local category SLA2005 to get up-to-date info.  ENDUPDATE

The PLA blog is good, they're currently reporting on ALA Midwinter.

So I'm wondering, is there a plan for blogging and wifi at the SLA conference coming up in Toronto?
Since it's nearby, I'm hoping to go.

UPDATE: Am trying to sort my way through this.
Shifted Librarian has a post PLA Blog Living Up to Expectations which talks about conference blogging in very enthusiastic terms.

That posting reminds me I did want to briefly, without getting into flamewar, mention my thoughts on conf blogging and WiFi.  I have read comments to the effect of "Why blog? or Don't blog during my presentation, pay attention or Why do you need connectivity?"

Here's the thing.  A conference presentation is different from a university course.  You are not pouring knowledge into undergrads.  You are communicating with your already well-informed, educated peers.  Those peers are both busy and smart.  Now obviously, people in your presentation should be sensible (not playing videogames, hammering on the keyboard etc.).  For me:

- I blog during the sessions because, quite frankly, I rarely manage to write a full-blown retrospective conference report afterwards, and I have a lot better things to do than transcribe paper notes into electronic after the fact too
- To me wireless is self-evident.  You mention something that interests me, I can check it out right away.  You're covering an area I'm already familiar with, I can be doing something else during that time rather than staring bored into space.

I found a blog from the News Division of SLA

NewsliBlog

SLA has an "information portal" for members about Blogging and RSS, it is basically just a list of links to articles, blogs, etc.

UPDATE 2005-01-18: Christina has posted to the SLA-PAM (Special Libraries Association - Physics, Astronomy, Math division) mailing list

For Toronto -- How about a PAM group conference blog?

via EngLib

Also a comment about pre-arranged tagging for conf postings.  I had this discussion earlier - what's the best way to find all the blog postings on the net about a particular conference.  Based on an idea from Shifted Librarian, how about we agree on tags in advance?  Then you can just search for all postings with a particular tag.  I propose SLA2005.  (I tagged all my Internet Librarian postings with IL2004.)

If your blog software doesn't support tags, you can still techno-tag your postings by adding a link
<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sla2005" rel="tag">sla2005</a>


UPDATE 2005-01-22:
Directly referencing this post

• LibraryTechtonics
• diy librarian

Check Bloglines Citations, Technorati Cosmos, Feedster Links,

Referencing this topic

• Library Stuff
• j's scratchpad

Check Technorati tag SLA2005.

Comments

[Christina Pikas]

I'm trying to organize a PAM blog. I need help of all sorts -- just let me know what you can do...

[Andrea]

Christina - What is the PAM blog?

[Richard]

SLA has a bunch of different divisions.
Christina is referring to the PAM division - Physics, Astronomy, Math

http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/

[Christina Pikas]

It doesn't exist yet! I'll link to it on my blog and we'll announce it on the PAM listserv when it's up, what the policies will be, and how to get involved. Anyone can join the PAM listservs... feel free!

[Brian Dear]

We've tagged the SLA 2005 conference as "sla2005" at EVDB. Here's the conference link as it appears at EVDB: http://www.evdb.com/E0-001-000219690-2