How Not to Write a Call for Papers

Dr. Jody Byrne has received quite a few calls for papers over the years. One he received recently, however, really caught his attention... for all the wrong reasons.

As Dr. Byrne points out, "Calls for papers are supposed to inspire, encourage and explain. All this one does is bombard you with jargon, vague descriptions and non-explanations and then give you a bit of a headache."

Have you ever received a particularly bad call for papers? What stood out about it? What could have made it better?

Tweet Archive

For anyone who wants to capture and archive tweets from a conference, you might want to check out TweetNotes.

What makes the app so special? For one thing, it's free. It also lets you:

• Add context by incorporating content, like slides and handouts.
• Organize multiple sessions under one meeting space.
• Visualize participants.
• Embed in blogs, Web sites, etc.
• Archive activity for future reference.

The developers say they're planning a lot more features, including additional collaboration tools. We're not sure how they plan to monetize it, so it might not be the best option for mission-critical applications, but definitely worth looking into.