E-Media Tidbits

Barbara Iverson, via Flickr The CoverItLive console window. (Click to enlarge.)

I've liveblogged for the official WeMedia blog using WordPress, which is fine, I've used it before. In WordPress, you can't just write during the entire session and post once. So you develop a sense of when you can press "publish" and take a breath, before the next post.

Beyond the WeMedia blog, today I've been trying out an embedded liveblogging tool from Coveritlive.com. Here's an example of my coverage. (More on my blog CurrentBuzz.)

So far, my experience is positive. The application opens up "console window" (see image above) where you work during the session. You get code to embed an "iframe" into your blog post space. As you write in the console, your words appear in your blog if you have embedded the code.

Any reader can send you a question or comment and it will appear in the console. You also can add media files -- however, so far I've just been doing text. I experimented with adding a poll during a session, and that looks useful, but I didn't have a large audience.

You can drop in video, images, and links while using coveritlive.com's application. This is an AJAX-coded tool, in case your IT department asks. I like the "iframe" command and have used it to embed slideshows in Chicagotalks.org, a community and citizen news site I publish.

Speaking of audience, you can view reader stats while liveblogging and send invitations to readers to alert them to the session if you like. After your session ends, the post looks a bit like a video, and offers readers a "Replay this" button if they want to view the entries posted during any live blog section.

You can try this tool out before embedding it in your page. You can be up and running in minutes. The terms of services addresses how the application works, not the content of the blogs, so copyright doesn't seem to be an issue.

Anyone else trying Coveritlive? What do you think? Please comment below.