This year, ISMB will auto-generate posts for each talk around 10 minutes before the start of the talk, so that the live-blogs can be linked to the ISMB homepage. I hope we'll have lots of coverage! - Michael Kuhn

ISMB will also advertise this on their homepage and in the conference newsletter, so hopefully we'll get many new contributors. - Michael Kuhn

Only 4 days to go! Would love to be there and catch up/meet new faces, but vicarious participation via copious microblogging will be the next best thing :-) - Neil Saunders

Will we be able to micro-blog the SIGs from this room as well? - Allyson Lister

Yes, no problem. We will generate posts for each SIG meeting. - Bettina

@Bettina - thanks :) - Allyson Lister

This doesn't look like a room - it's actually a "friend", even though it's a conference "friend". Is this because you don't want people starting topics there? As it stands, we'll only be able to comment on existing topics, and not post interesting links etc EXCEPT as they relate to an already-started topic. Perhaps this is deliberate to keep things on-topic. Is this what you were going for? Just curious... :) - Allyson Lister

you're right, I didn't realize this. I brought it to the attn of the admins. It might be deliberate (because of the integration with the ISMB website), but then one should probably create another room to coordinate meet-ups etc. - Michael Kuhn

Thanks, Michael. Yes, the idea was to keep it more organized. We will create another room for the "ismbeccb2009-talk" where everyone is welcome to post but please use the official "ismbeccb2009" conference room for all discussions regarding the presentations (Highlights, Proceedings Track, Technology Track, SIGs and Keynotes). - Bettina

@Bettina - thanks for the reply. While I'm not 100% sure that splitting things up like this will work (people might not switch that much between the two), I can see the reasoning and hope it works well. Perhaps these reasons should be added to the taglines of the ISMB "friend" and the ISMB talk group you mentioned, so that when people go to one, they see both what it's for and how to get to the other one... Thanks! :) - Allyson Lister

Ok, its true, switching between groups might not work. I talked with my supervisor and we decided now to change the settings. So now everyone of you should be able to post in the ismbeccb2009 room. - Bettina

@Bettina - thanks, looks good. Looking forward to the start of the conference on Saturday! :) - Allyson Lister