I used to attend NANOG on a regular basis. Its a conference for engineers who operate internet backbone networks. Everyone always has their laptops out. They are all on IRC. At least one speaker will comment on it every time. Its sort of a litmus test there. If you are a speaker and you comment on the laptops you are probably a bit out of place at that conference.

Speakers tend to be annoyed that laptop users aren’t paying attention to them, but they are. Having a laptop allows me to dig into deeper information about your talk. I can look up websites you mention, back check facts you reference, and get more details, and I can do it now and not after the conference is over when I might forget something that I wanted to investigate. I can IM other people in the room and share observations about what is being discussed and plan good questions. I can take an urgent IM message so I don’t have to walk out of the room and take a cellphone call. All of this improves the utility of your talk rather then distracting me from it.

When Dave Winer talked about his Archos Pocket Media Assistant during the podcasting session I was able to pull up it’s webpage and learn about it directly while he was discussing it. To me, thats powerful.

Rather then fighting this, I suggest working with it. Although Blogger cons are more discussions then talks, most conferences involve prepared notes. Make them available on the web in a web friendly format (not ppt) with hyperlinks that allow people to dig more deeply into the subject matter. Don’t be so bothered if you hear people feverishly typing away. You probably inspired them to go do something.

Also, that cover story came out today, with a couple of quotes from you included: http://nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=This_Week:News:Cover_Story

Thanks for the interview!

Whether I look at the blogosphere as an academic or as a participant, it’s the network of conversations that I find most intriguing and, ultimately, at the core of its attraction and value.

Seriously, I do take notes (on a notepad) at conference sessions, because it helps me to listen attentively, and I don’t see why typing about what you’re hearing, whether for your own purposes or for your blog, is any more distracting.

At times when people were not actually in sessions, and free to talk, that seemed to be what most of them were doing.

– Linda Seebach, Rocky Mountain News

The trick is for the rest of us to gather and start talking about how we can work together to build public attention for our work — so that the public learns that it is has better alternative than the ideologues for its news and information.

Mark, great to hear the training sessions went well. I agree that the convention had a very congenial feel to it, and people across the political spectrum got along well. I’m sure that was the real idea behind the “Respectful Disagreement” session, and maybe the problems there just highlight that not everyone will get along…