Live Blogging: The Experience

I’m really glad to have been led to get through my first blogging experience as an assignment for a class. I think it’s a great way to share information with people who for any reason were unable to attend. I know that, had it not been assigned, it would have taken me some time to gather the courage to do it.


Overall, I thought it was an interesting and different experience. I feel that live blogging during an event certainly takes away from your experience as a member of the audience: it is difficult to participate while typing what is going on.  It is likely that you will miss some details as you struggle to record the previous comment and you have less time to observe the protagonist(s) which could cause the experience to feel less personal.


On the other hand, the ability to live blog an event is an empowering tool for a journalist (professional or citizen). For instance, the event that I blogged about was held in a small room and thus only the first 25 people to sign up were allowed to attend. I know that a lot more people would have wanted to be there, so it was motivating to think that in future events, I can actually let people know that I will be live blogging and they won’t have to miss out completely. It also makes the event accessible for people who couldn’t attend for geographical reasons or because the schedule didn’t work for them.

Getting through my first live blogging experience taught me a lot and made me realize that if this is a tool I want to start using, I need to practice lot. I’m sure I’ll continue to discover how to improve my live blogging skills, however in this first time I did learn several lessons that I will try to apply in the future:

Lesson # 1 – Aid yourself with a Specialized Software for Live Blogging

On the days prior to the event, several classmates had commented on Wordpress’ tools for live blogging. However, I use Blogger and couldn’t find anything on it meant to facilitate live blogging. I was a little nervous about having enough time to submit blog entries and start new ones as the event was going on. So I decided to give Coveritlive.com a chance. I don’t know whether it is the best live blogging software out there, but it certainly made the experience much easier than if I hadn’t used it. I look forward to future occasions when I actually have an online audience and can use the tools for interacting that it has.

Lesson # 2 – Get familiar with the Software before hand

Another thing I’m glad I did was to play around with Coveritlive.com before going to the event. This helped me save time and make use of more of its tools and features. For instance, I probably wouldn’t have had time to learn how to add links, if I hadn’t taken the time to figure it out before hand.

Lesson # 3 – Always Bring a Charger

Not much to say about this, except that I wish I had done it. My laptop is on the heavy side, so I try to avoid carrying any additional weight (the charger, in this case).

Unfortunately, the battery ran out and I had to switch to paper towards the end of the event. Had I had an online audience, they probably wouldn’t have been very happy with me.

Lesson # 4 – When possible, Live Blog in the language of the event.

I was unable to find an event to blog about that was in English, so I asked if I could go to one in Spanish. Although I was given the option to blog in Spanish, I decided to challenge myself and write in English. The problem is, each comment requires extra mental steps. If it’s in the same language, you only have to:

1. Listen
2. Analyze (optional)
3. Write

When you are translating you must:

1. Listen
2. Analyze/understand (not optional)
3. Translate
4. Write

Lesson # 5 – Let the Speaker know that you will be Live Blogging

This lesson might not be necessary if the audience is large enough for you to go unnoticed by the speaker. However, in the one I attended there were only 25 of us and the speaker. It was a U-shaped set up and I was sitting across from the speaker, which meant he saw me type non-stop as he was speaking. It made me uncomfortable because he probably thought I wasn’t paying attention. I regret not letting him know before he started speaking. He was an online journalist, so I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded at all.

Lesson # 6- Establish your purpose for Live Blogging that particular event.

Any reason to live blog can be valid, but knowing what you hope to achieve with the activity can lead to better results. Important things to consider are:

• Who your audience is?
• Do you want to interact with the audience?
• Do you want to inform?
• Do you want to entertain?
• Do you want to promote something?
• Are you trying to persuade?
• Do you want to simply narrate to your audience what is going on? Or do you want to include your opinion?

Answering these questions before hand will help make the style of the blog more consistent. As I went back to revise what I had written, I realized that my blog had a little bit of everything: some observations, some commentary, and even a couple of jokes.

I plan on seeking future opportunities to live blog, hopefully feeling confident enough to invite people to follow it online. I will make sure to apply the lessons learned and be on the lookout, for I’m sure that I have many more to learn.

Live Blog: Writer's Workhop with Rodrigo Baires

Get Involved Section

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If you want to help Ale collect more bottles or if you want to support the Carmelite Missionaries in any other way, please send an email to ale.boza@creo.org.sv.

The email should include your name, age, and how you wish to help.

Thank you!

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Carmelite Missionaries in El Salvador

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Ale explained that the Carmelite Missionaries are a Catholic religious congregation that originated in Spain in the early 1860s. Today they have Chapters in many countries around the world through which their nuns do great act of kindness. Read more about their history at the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Web Page.

Almost 60 years ago, the Carmelite Missionaries first arrived in El Salvador from Spain to do charity for the country’s poor. When they first arrived they helped out in the San Salvador General Hospital. Later on, they moved to they settled in Soyapango in northern San Salvador and started building what is now known as Obra Social El Carmelo.

Obra Social El Carmelo is a charity complex where the nuns offer services to the less fortunate for a very low cost (or for free if the person is unable to pay). Today, the complex includes:

• Complejo Educativo Católico El Carmelo – a elementary, middle, and high school, with 1,210 students from the area. On dicember 2010, they will be graduating their first senior class. Browse through pictures of the school on their Facebook profile.
• A clinic
• A church
• An adult education centers for:
• Bakery
• Hair styling
• Cloth making
• A nutrition program
• A thrift shop – the thrift shop is a way the nuns make money to continue their services and it also makes good clothes and goods accessible for their beneficiaries. 

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Interview with Ale Boza ... About her Experience...

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Why do you go through all the trouble of collecting the bottles? What do you get from it?

I get satisfaction from thinking that I’m helping one more child will go to school.

About how much time do you dedicate to this project per week?

I’d say about five to six hours. But this project has a multiplying effect. There are hundreds of people putting in a few minutes a day, to help me out.

What is your vision for the future of this project?

I hope that one day the nuns will be able to educate all of these kids for free, so that their parents can invest that money for their future. ($54 dollars in El Salvador is about half of a monthly minimum wage).

What is your favorite part of the process?

There is so much trash in this country and I enjoy seeing all that plastic being recycled, and its for a good cause… its double win!

How did the nuns react the first time you brought them bottles?

They were extremely thankful… and the first time I didn’t collect that many bottles. Every time I go they thank me and hug me!

Have you had the chance to meet the children at the school? How was that experience?

Yes, the kids always have a smile on their face. Soyapango is one of the scariest areas of the city, but those kids always look neat and have a bright face. The school is like a safe place in the middle of a jungle.

What are other things that you would like to do for the nuns?

I think that what the nuns need most right now is a sustainable income to keep their projects going. But I definitely want to concentrate my help on their school. These kids are our future and I don’t want to see the progress done so far go to waste.

I understand that your grandfather first took you to visit the nuns. How has your grandfather influenced you?

My grandfather has been one of my greatest role models. He is the kind of person who will take of his shoes if somebody else needs them. He is the most caring, loving, altruistic person I have ever met.

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Alexandra Boza – Going Green for Education

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Alexandra Boza is a 29-year-old Salvadoran who was impressed by the altruism and hard work of a group of nuns and therefore decided to help them. Since she began five months ago, Ale has helped the nuns make enough money to pay for one year's worth of education for two kids. The nuns run a school for underprivileged children where they charge a small tuition and sponsor those who are unable to pay.

We interviewed Ale about her experience getting involved, read more about what she told us.

Learning about the project

Ale, learned about the nun’s project from her Grandfather, who has known the nuns for years.  Her Grandfather first met them when they cared for his mother as she recovered from pneumonia at the hospital where the nuns used to work. One day, Ale decided to join grandpa on his trip to visit his life-long friends, all the way to the “tougher side” of town, or the “Bronx of San Salvador”, as it is often called.

Ale was amazed at the project the nuns had forged with their effort and determination in the years since they moved downtown. Sister Hidalia Aguilar and Sister Dolores walked Ale and her grandfather through the school (see the facebook profile) were children, who would otherwise be out in the streets, were studying math, religion, computer skills, and ethics. For more information about the work the Missionaries in El Salvador are doing, see the project overview.

Finding ways to make the project larger

Ale noted her grandfather’s gratitude towards the nuns and was motivated by the hard work they did for the children. She wanted to help in whatever way she could.

The nun explained that they had recently started to collect plastic bottles which they sold to a plastic packaging plant which recycles them.  For each pound of plastic bottles, they recieve US$ 0.08.  (About 16 20oz plastic bottles make up a pound).

The money was used to sponsor new children at their school. For each child they needed $54 dollars to pay for one year.

Creating a strategy to maximize her bottle collection

Ale knew she could collect lots of bottles, but she knew that she would have to do a lot of explaining, reminding, and motivating. El Salvador doesn’t have a recycling system, and therefore people don’t know how to recycle nor are they accustomed to doing it. 

So Ale decided she would ask as many people as possible to help her out:

• She emailed all her friends and relatives
• Talked to the manager of every restaurant that she went to
• Gave large bins to work places where she had contacts

Much hard work for a project she believed in

Every Wednesday, Ale makes her round. She goes from house to house, restaurant to restaurant and work place to work place, to pick up the plastic bottles collected throughout the week. On Thursdays, she makes her way to Soyapango to deliver the bottles to the nuns who take them to the recycling center, get their money and sponsor more kids.

Ale doubles the good: recycling and educating

Ale has been successful in her collection and has helped the nuns increase school enrollment. Additionally, although not her initial intention, she has recycled pounds of plastic and has initiated a number of Salvadorans in the practice of recycling.

So far, in the five months since she started, Ale has:

• Collected more than 30,000 plastic bottles
• Helped the nuns cover one year of school tuition for two kids
• Gotten five restaurants to recycle their bottles and a bakery chain that has eight stores
• Convinced about 45 friends and family member to help out
• Provided recycling bins for six work places

As a byproduct, she has:

• Motivated employees at the restaurants and offices she visits to start recycling at home
• She has started to destroy the myth that in El Salvador it is futile to recycle
• She has motivated people to donate other goods to the nuns

You can help Ale

Read more about how you can help Ale at our Get Involved Section.




Back to the Extra Mile

Start: CREO Members Going the Extra Mile, Getting Involved

A series of profiles of young Salvadorans who step out of their safety zones to make a difference in their country

Throughout the country, young Salvadorans are helping their neighborhoods, their communities, their country in various ways. Many of these altruistic role models do their work silently, never receiving the recognition they deserve. CREO wants to give them the praise they merit by featuring their stories and encouraging others to join them. Read each profile to find out what your fellow young Salvadorans are doing and how you can help.

• Alexandra Boza – Going green for education 

Do you know a young Salvadoran who is going the extra mile and getting involved in their neighborhood, their community, or our country? Nominate them. Send an email to rorellana@creo.org.sv telling us their name, where they live, and what they are doing to help.

Week 6 assignment: content for CREO web site

I will be creating online content for CREO, a Salvadoran NGO whose objective is to help young adults get involved in country issues and in leading the country’s development.

The Audience

CREO’s audience includes Salvadorans ages 18 to 35 who make up the generation that will be leading the country in the near future.  CREO seeks to channel this group’s creativity, energy, leadership and capacity towards working for a better El Salvador.

People in this age group were very young or hadn’t been born during El Salvador’s Civil War.  Therefore, the only experience they have as active citizens is living within a stable political system.  Today El Salvador faces the possibility of a new period of political turmoil.  However, this new generation, because they didn’t go through the experience of the past, are apathetic about confronting the threats or at best don’t know what to do to confront them.  Most young Salvadorans continue to focus on the individual lives and prefer to avoid the local news rather than face reality.

Ideally, CREO would like to reach the entire 18 to 35 year old population in the country through its Web Site.  However, a more attainable objective, at least in the short run, is to focus on two segments of this population:

• those who would like to do something for their country, but don’t know where to start; and
• those that don’t really know what is going on nor what needs to be done, but who would get involved if they were made aware.

Both of these groups love their country and share the values that CREO defends.  Most of them are either young professionals or students, their socioeconomic status varies but they all have access to the internet, and most of them live in the greater San Salvador area.

Style and Design

Seeking to attract youth, the current CREO web site uses bright colors over a black backgroups, and a simple, yet “hip” style.  Considering that some of the users don’t have quality access to the internet, the developers try to avoid heavy graphics.  The site has been created for young people who want to get involved or at least have the potential to do so and therefore it attempts to give them space to interact.   This same style will be used in all subsequent sections, paying particular attention to making sure graphics are not too heavy and providing space for users to participate.  All the new content to be created will follow the AP Stylebook Guidelines (in a subsequent stage, an effort will be made to revise and/or adapt the existing content to such guidelines). 

Online Content

As has been stated, CREO seeks to involve youth in country issues.  In order to do so, the organization needs to educate them, provide them with the necessary tools, and motivate them. 

Currently the Site includes tools to educate its users about country issues, as well as spaces for them to participate and learn about ways in which they can get involved.  However, the organization as a whole and particularly the website needs to improve its efforts to motivate its audience to get involved.

With that in mind, I intend to develop a section which features CREO members who have gotten involved and made a difference.  Initially, those featured will be identified by CREO, however, the idea is that in the future users identify and nominate their peers.  In order to make being featured desirable, CREO will organize an annual award ceremony for involved youth which will be selected through online voting.

Featured profiles of involved youth could include:

• their background information, 
• a description of how they have been involved in country issues and what they have achieved, 
• what their plans are for the future, 
• their motivation to do what they do,
• pictures of their activities,
• links to their organization or blog, 
• a video,
• contact information, and 
• other multimedia elements  

The information will be obtained through an interview of the person.
Each profile will have space for visitor comments, as well as an application to send messages directly to the featured person.  Additionally, the section will use the web site’s existing social media tools to attract readers.

This section will help visitors learn from and be motivated by the example of other.  Those already involved in country issues will be motivated by the possibility of obtaining the award and will continue or increase their efforts.  Finally, visitors to the section will get the chance to contact the featured person to offer them help and thus get involved themselves.  The section to be created is based on the theories that we learn by example and that motivation is key to accomplish good results. 

In the future, as the section grows, there are additional elements that could be added:

• Separate sections for categories of the different types of involvement (ex. social work, politics, education policy, environment);
• An explanation of what the awards are, how they are chosen, prices, etc;
• A space to feature annual award recipients; and
• Direct access to places where youth can go to get involved in country issues.

The section will appear as a menu option on the Home Page.  That link will lead to a main Featured Profiles page which will have the list of names each with a three to five word description of the area in which they are involved.  Each name will be a link to another page that contains the full profile.  The main Featured Profiles page will also have links to the additional elements mentioned above, as well as to a page in which readers can nominate their peers.