CES, the biggest gadget show on the planet, goes down in Las Vegas this week, and we’re at gizmo ground zero bringing you all the latest news with our realtime liveblogs.
It’s easy to liveblog yourself too, and break the headlines as they happen. Read our guide and we’ll let you in on the secrets behind powering Electricpig’s liveblogs. We’ll show you exactly how we do it, and how you can too. Get set to morph yourself into a true citizen journo!
To get started right now, you will need…
- A mobile broadband dongle (with a cracking unlimited data tariff)
- A laptop
- A digital camera
- A blog (we recommend Wordpress or Blogger)
- An event to cover (how about a football game, fashion show or even the finale of a TV series?)
- Dedication, and the will to succeed! Go get ‘em tiger! Read our instructions below and we’ll show you how!
Set up a blog
Electricpig is powered by Wordpress. Our site sits on our own servers, with a ton of customisation behind the scenes, but you can get your own Wordpress blog set up for free at Wordpress.com. It’s a free and easy way to set up your own blog, and while you’ll want to add your own domain name and hosting at extra cost, you can tackle these later, once you’re up and running.
Once your blog is ready, you’ll want to add a liveblogging platform into the mix. We use the fantastic ScribbleLive for liveblogging, since it lets us post text updates at speed, ad well as pulling in any images we upload to Flickr automatically. To make that last bit happen, we use Apple Automator on a Mac, with a bit of custom jiggery pokery pulling pictures direct from a digital camera to our laptops, before flinging them to the photo sharing service.
Setting up Automator will vary depending on the make and model of camera you have, so we recommend Flickr’s photo uploader, and manually dragging photos to it for the most reliable results.
If you don’t want to use Wordpress, you can use a host of other blogging platforms with ScribbleLive, including the Google-owned Blogger.
Pack your kit bag
To type quickly you’ll want to use a laptop to liveblog, and a mobile broadband dongle. Vodafone’s mobile broadband sticks are a bargain: you can nab one now on a £15 per month contract with a 3GB data allowance and anti-virus thrown in free.
Once your laptop is sorted you’ll want to make sure you’re producing top notch pictures. We use a digital SLR for snaps, with telephoto lenses to get up close, even in a room full of jostling tech hacks.
When taking photos for a liveblog, we dial the resolution down to three megapixels to keep file sizes small while maintaining image quality from the SLR. It keeps publishing delay close to zero, as Vodafone’s fast 3G network makes short work of images, even though they still weigh in at several megabytes each.
Connect the software
We use ScribbleLive as it’s the fastest way to pump out eye witness news and updates instantly. You can sign in with an existing Facebook or Twitter ID, making set-up a cinch.
Once you’re logged in, you’ll want to create a new event. Once that’s done, you can slap the embed code into a post on your blog, or even auto publish it as a new Wordpress post automatically under the “Add to Your Site” section on the right hand side of the screen.
Connect your Flickr account under the “Post To This Event” section, and any pictures you upload will land on the liveblog within 20 seconds of them landing on Flickr’s servers.
Lastly, keep an eye on your connection speed with Vodafone’s Mobile Connect software, bundled free with mobile broadband dongles: faster speeds mean quicker uploads, so use it to hunt down a blazing 3G HSDPA signal.
Get your readers involved
Once your ScribbleLive event is set up, assuming you’ve allowed comments, your readers will be able to interact with events as they happen. It’s a great way of making sure everyone has their say. You’ll see them appear under “Comments in Moderation” on the right hand side of your ScribbleLive event. Just approve them, and all your readers will see them too.
If you’re feeling the pressure, get your friends to help you liveblog too. Hit the Invite tab and send them the code to become a writer. They’ll be able to log into the event too, and help you report the news without treading on your toes.
When everything’s wrapped, close the event to stop any more comments or posts from your friends appearing. Once the event is finished, you can grab a copy of it in HTML to save as a regular post on your site. With Vodafone’s 3G network making liveblogging anywhere possible, all you have to do is concentrate on getting the word out there on what’s happening.
Buy a Vodafone mobile broadband dongle now and get started right away!
Related posts:
- How to run a liveblog on a budget
- How to liveblog with mobile broadband
- Liveblog with Nokia N900: The best handset, and the best deals
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