Liveblogging on the Campaign Trail

Here are a few notes and tips I sent out to my small but enterprising political team at LAist (the liveblogging is NOW, from Hollywood and Highland right here).

Here are some keys that I hope will optimize our full coverage of today's Dem debate for readers and simplify the process for writers/reporters:

1) Tag all entries election08 (in addition to any other tags). Readers can then quick link to our latest election coverage posts by going to/refreshing the aggregated election08 page.

2) One person on scene liveblogging; one person remotely coordinating to match photos, produce any audio/video from the scene, communicate w/ liveblogger via phone/text/IM in case of poor connectivity/net access.

3) Liveblog in one post, continually saving/publishing live, in reverse chronological order. Now readers can keep the post open and refresh as they wish, without needing to scroll down for the latest. After the event you can edit the post to chronological for more fluid, static reading.

4) Begin soon after you settle in at event using obvious, broad title like Liveblogging: Obama & Clinton Hollywood Debate

5) Update often -- even one to two sentence observations -- each on top of the previous, within the same post.

6) Remote staffer/editor can pull pertinent segments of liveblog and repost w/ news updates throughout the day, so news updates with links to liveblog appear as the top story on the site, when necessary -- even as the liveblog itself slowly falls off the front page as other, unrelated posts are published (alternatively, the timestamp can be continually updated on the liveblog to keep it up to date -- the important point is keeping the slug the same, so readers can continue refreshing the liveblog while staying at the same URL throughout the event.

What Will it Look Like & Samples

5:05 pm: Obama -- "There comes a time in every generation..."

5:00 pm: Wolf Blitzer is on live, the audience of a few hundred has gone eerily silent.

10:42 am: - Shoppers at Hollywood & Highland look very confused. Babies are crying. Chewbacca is reportedly picking fights in front of the Kodak.

10:30: - they already ran out of bagels but there is no shortage of cream cheese. A group of high school kids in blazers just asked me if this is where the John Edwards event is. I felt the blood to my head as I broke it to them. Edwards dropped out yesterday, although it already seems like weeks ago.

9:55: - I'm seventh in line to get into the press room at Hollywood and Highland. Everybody is bitching about the weather and drinking cold coffee. Chris Matthews looks like he's gonna cry.

Recent examples of quality liveblogging

* Kevin Drum -- SOTU Liveblog: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_01/012990...

* Engadget - Jobs' MacWorld keynote: (was reverse-chron and later flipped)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/live-from-macworld-2008-steve-jo...

* Wired - Jobs' MacWorld keynote:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/countdown-to-th.html

* Ana Marie Cox's Twitter feed from the campaign trail. It's an alternative liveblog at 140 chars per entry -- the original Wonkette in the raw. See also Andy Carvin's Twitter. Can't count on Twitter today, however, as it's been on the fritz all week.