We always say: don't say it in an online forum if you wouldn't say it face-to-face in a crowded room. Perhaps we should add "and vice-versa" :-) - Neil Saunders

I meant us microbloggers recording what the speakers are saying and the speakers not necessarily aware that their every word could be broadcast to the entire world - Shirley Wu

I'd imagine most people are fine with the first point. Online blogging is just more immediate - people might just as well report your words in public at a later date, rather than in real-time. Second point: it's usually clear to me when a blogger is unsure on a point; so long as they highlight the possibility of error, no problem. - Neil Saunders

And FF rooms can be private too, for those cases where participants don't want public notes. But where's the fun in that :-) - Neil Saunders

Thanks Neil. Though I suppose I'm going to get a biased sample by asking through FF! The people who potentially might have issues are probably those who don't use these types of services - Shirley Wu

But this is a matter of (some) concern, particular for smaller meetings. Note that the Cold Spring Harbor meetings have a press section that explicitly forbid coverage in the media to ensure that the presentations can be labeled as scientific communication and do not collide with embargo policies. https://meetings.cshl.edu/meeting... - Roland Krause

Probably gonna write an entire blog post around this, but the core idea I'm coming up with is this: Its a game of trust. - Paul J. Davis

My suspicion it that the big concern is being "misquoted" and having no why to validate or substantiate what was really said. Puts a lot of responsibility on the microbloggers shoulders to be accurate. - Jim Hardy

We were explicitly asked not to take pictures of slides - also why I haven't broadcast video for the rest of the meeting. I guess I could have broadcast but not recorded - Cameron Neylon

I think we might hear more about this soon when more people realize that there are people doing live coverage and/or blogging about the meetings. It feels like an extension of the cultural problems of the digital world as detailed by Lessig. It is increasingly easy to cover live events. It is obviously useful but not everyone is aware that this is happening. It also poses additional problems for cases where the events are profitable and live coverage might lower demand. - Pedro Beltrao

I think that's an important point Pedro - awareness. I think Russ Altman mentioned in an intro that it was happening but I don't know that the audience necessarily would get the implications of that. - Cameron Neylon

Perhaps until this becomes more mainstream it would be a good idea for those hoping to provide live coverage to get explicit permission to do so - just to avoid any kerfuffles that might turn people off from this kind of thing. It's too late for this meeting and I didn't think about it until now but in the future... - Shirley Wu

But how would we get the permission ? Send an email to the organizers? They would probably refuse just to be on the safe side. Maybe once there are a few more conferences with associated online notes and maybe with corresponding conference reports it would be easier to point to these and ask for permission. Otherwise maybe people would not take it seriously. - Pedro Beltrao

ISMB is already a great example - and it's a prestigious enough conference that other conferences in the field would take notice. I'm still ambivalent about the permission issue.. will think about it more - Shirley Wu

I would argue that the conferences should have a clearly articulated policy. Cold Spring Harbour are very clear for instance (in the wrong direction IMO) but other conferences could hopefully adopt different but equally clear policies and communicate this to attendees - Cameron Neylon

@Pedro, Live coverage actually increases demand by drawing attention to the event. The TV cameras at the Superbowl don't make people any less interested in attending ;) - Mike Chelen