News flash: Blogging conference attendee doodles on paper with an ink-filled device!Notes and drawings from Northern Voice 2009

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Got to the Saturday session of Northern Voice just in time to hear Rob's ridiculously funny nerd stand-up routine. I had to get out my sketchbook and pen and start doodling...

Rob Cottingham at Northern Voice 2009 Maybe it's because I'm kind of old (39) and a pretty late adopter of technology (email 1998, blogging 2006), but I'm more likely to put ink on paper than fingers to laptop when I'm trying to focus on presentations. It seemed like everyone around me, except for Nancy White with her freeform graphic interpretation at the front of the room, was tweeting or liveblogging. I was trying out the term "paper blogging" to see if it sounded cool but i didn't get a lot of uptake.
After Rob's talk I headed over to hear Nate Elliot on The Future of Influence. He talked about how there is a glut of user reviews online-- of books, restaurants, running shoes-- you name it. The problem facing the user is how to sort through the reviews and figure out which ones to trust. In general, people tend to trust reviews that are written by their friends. Bunny wonders what her friends think of a book she is considering buying online
I then drew a series of bunnies like these ones who are online friends. Because what else could I do?
Bunny's friend said she liked the book Bunny's other friend likes it too
And in the afternoon I went to Dealing with Angry Comments, Trolls, Spammers, and Sock Puppets with the excellent Rebecca Bolwitt and David Eaves. It can be hard to know who those troublemaking trolls are. Here are a couple of the trolls I conjured up while listening.
Troll madly typingTroll misunderstood

I'll leave you with a doodle from the workshop Help! I'm Sick and Tired of Blogs, which was amended by the presenters to "I'm Sick and Tired of my blog.

Keep your blog interesting

Comments

Tzaddi says

February 27, 2009 - 9:59pm

Awesome :-) I think you might be onto something with this paper blogging!

I don't know how the live-bloggers do it... I feel like I'm missing something if I spend too much time looking at the laptop during presentations.

Sarah Leavitt says

February 27, 2009 - 10:08pm

Thanks, Tzaddi, and thanks for using the term "paper blogging"-- spread the word :). I did find the term used on Classroom 2.0, referring to an exercise that uses pieces of paper to introduce people to the concept of what a blog is. I find it easy to listen and draw, but not as easy to listen and type. Perhaps I will get better at it!

terrable says

March 3, 2009 - 5:09pm

i think paper blogging is the new way. laptops are so 2008.

terrable says

March 3, 2009 - 5:10pm

also, these drawings just made my whole year.

Sarah Leavitt says

March 3, 2009 - 10:43pm

Thanks terrable! i am thinking about carrier pigeons; I'm sure there is some twitter joke there somewhere.

Rob Cottingham says

March 4, 2009 - 3:46am

OK, it's settled. Social Signal is buying a carrier pigeon. And we're naming her "WiFi."

Tara says

May 25, 2009 - 4:34pm

i love these! they have way more impact (and are way more fun) than looking at someone's PowerPoint slides post-presentation. i love how you've distilled bits of the talks down to these amazing drawings. paper blogging!