Participating in a Bloginar? Whatever that is?

It is one thing to read about technology and another thing to actually experience it. I was recently invited to participate in a FamilySearch Bloginar. Of course, I had never heard of the word before, but realized exactly what they were talking about. They wanted to do an online interactive presentation with my participation. They did not coin the word. in the Urban Dictionary, a bloginar is defined as follows:

A bloginar is a webinar hosted specifically for bloggers, and may include promotion of specific social media tools designed for bloggers, such as online graphics, widgets, or online video. Bloginars provide a way for bloggers to get accurate, credible information to write blogs about current topics of interest. (CDC)

The agenda is already in the FamilySearch.org Wiki under "FamilySearch Bloginar Presentation."  This page gives an outline of the presentation and states, "Bloginar presentation and recording will be made available following the bloginar." (Emphasis in the original). As a side note, if you want to know what is going on in the Wiki world, search on "webinar."

At the time of the Webinar/Bloginar I was just getting back to my office and was a few minutes late loggin on. I also left the address and instructions home, so I had to call home to get the information and then logon. The format allows written questions that appear online in a sidebar to the main presentation. It was very helpful to see the questions and comments made during the session. The audio portion of the session was by telephone and it would help to have a speaker phone so you could type and listen at the same time. It took me a couple of minutes to get setup but then the whole thing worked perfectly.

I was familiar with the whole process because I get most of my Continuing Education requirements by listening to online or telephonic seminars. They save travel time and other expenses. The process is also very similar to Podcasts. But mostly those are one-way watch and/or listen experiences.

The Webinar/Bloginar format or program came from Adobe Connect. If you would like to see a video explaining how this all works, go to AdobeTV for "What is Adobe Connect 8?"

For a summary of what went on in the Bloginar see the following:

Details from the FamilySearch Bloginar by Amy Coffin