To Blog or Not To Blog...

I've been trying to let people sitting next to me during the conference sessions that I'm blogging the session, so they won't think I'm just being rude and checking my email. In a conversation with one lady, I mentioned that MATS members are blogging sessions, so that if you weren't able to attend one in order to go to another you might be able to find a summary and links for the one you missed by checking the WLA blog. Her reply was:

Well, aren't all of the presentations going to be available online? Why do you need to blog it, too?

I responded that, hopefully, the blog entries would fill in some holes by giving more information than is available in someone's handouts or PowerPoint presentation, that it's just another way to share information about the conference for those who couldn't attend or missed a session.

She also said that she assumed people using laptops in sessions were simply being rude, that she thought they were just checking their mail or doing work and ignoring the presenters who had spent a lot of time preparing their information.

So I started thinking.... Do we really need to blog the sessions? Are we adding value to the handouts and slides that will be posted later? Or are we just annoying people by typing too loudly or by looking like we're not paying attention (even though we are).

What do you think? What was your experience at the conference? Are bloggers helping or just being irritating? Share your thoughts in the comments, please!