Multiblogs are an extremely sophisticated form of the popular weblog format. Weblogs are a kind of online diary or journal wildly popular with individuals as an outlet for personal expression. Multiblogs merge the weblog format with the latest in mobile and wireless technology and with mainstream editorial standards and a professional publishing workflow to produce a serious news-reporting vehicle.
Mobile journalists on site at the event, such as our WKU content team, work with a variety of tools including laptop computers, high-end mobile phones with image and video recording capabilities, digital audio recorders for podcasting, and the latest in digital still and video cameras. This equipment allows them to not just record the conference’s goings-on but to do it in whatever medium is most appropriate to each piece of content and then to post that content online within moments.
Each entry in the multiblog documents a single aspect of the conference – an attendee's comment, a speaker’s summary, an exhibitor’s explanation, busy aisles, quiet corners, people energized, tired, talking, planning, confused, informed. Each entry stands alone as a piece of micro-journalism. Collectively, however, the entries accumulate to eventually form an elaborate mosaic revealing the larger trends and tones of what is an intricately multifaceted occasion.
Supporting those mobile multimedia journalists are newsflow editors and storybuilders, based at the event and working remotely from around the world, who manage the overall process, directing the journalists toward the ultimate goal of providing a distinctively comprehensive and engaging presentation of this event. Some of our journalists-in-training will function in support of the newsflow editors and storybuilders as they update and enhance entries with contextual information through a process called incremental editing, whereby individual posts are expanded over time to include more detailed and related information as well as collaborative contributions.
Both on-site and remote visitors can interact with the multiblog by browsing it online, downloading the pictures, adding their own comments and even submitting their own entries via mobile or email. Media worldwide also use the multiblog as a source for high-resolution print-quality photos and broadcast- or webcast-quality video for their own reports on the event. While the event is in progress, the multiblog presents content in last-in-first-out order so that frequent visitors see the very latest content and most immediate developments. After the event, the multiblog switches to present visitors with highlights and chronologically ordered content so that the event can be re-experienced in rich fullness from start to finish.
Overall, the multiblog process melds some of the best attributes of in-depth, wide-ranging, detail-oriented newspaper reporting and real-time, putting-you-at-the-scene, visually engaging television coverage, leveraging the interactivity and reach of online with the latest advances in mobile and wireless. It is a thoroughly convergent media experience.
