IWMW blogs

We used a blog for the first time to support the IWMW 2009 event and felt that it would be worth continuing to provide a blog at this year’s event.  We also decided to use an in-house blog which enabled us to make use of various WordPress features which are not available on WordPress.com, in particular the BuddyPress social networking environment.

We used the blog to:

• Provide information about the event and the various sessions in advance.
• Provide summaries of the plenary talks which were published shortly after the talks had been given.
• Host interviews (in text and video formats) with workshop participants.
• Provide an online social networking environment which enabled participants to create groups and discuss topics of interest.
• Provide an easy means of publishing last minute information.
• Provide easy access to information for those who make use of RSS readers.

We now wish to evaluate the effectiveness of the blog in order to identify whether it is worth investing effort in providing a blog environment for future events.  We also welcome comments on ways in which the blog can be improved if it is felt worth providing in the future.

Please give your comments below.