I don’t know about you, but there is a limit on the number of conferences I can attend. I have a limited budget, I live a long way from most places, and I have other obligations in terms of time. I value the opportunity to access conference content from my desktop. Pocasts from the 2006 CUE conference make a great example. I would not make the trip to California for such an event, but I welcome the opportunity to listen and watch.
I started to think about this situation from the perspective of the presenter. The individuals I have in mind are those professional presenters who seem to move from conference to conference as invited presenters or keynotes. I do see some of these individuals often enough to recognize that some of them have one or two interesting ideas and others think more broadly and tend to consistently have new things to say. It is the individuals with a specific focus I wonder about. They become less interesting when I have listened to the same idea a couple of times. Do you think they object to the recording and dissemination of their “canned” presentation? Perhaps if you accept a fee, expectations change.
What about those presenters who pay a conference registration fee and present for free? Some of the podcast advocates I listened to by way of the CUE link noted the increasing frequency with which they see individuals with ipods and mikes recording sessions. Under what situations might this be inappropriate? I would think that podcasting a presentation without consent would be inappropriate. While often the presenter would probaby not object, if you intend to share a recording, I would think the proper thing to do would be to ask.
