Paula Gregorowicz
SemanticWeb.com Contributor

Live blogging took the Internet by storm this past week as millions turned online for perspective on the election, and CoveritLive played a pivotal role in that. The Toronto-based startup offers one-stop shopping for anyone needing to offer live coverage of an event.

CoveritLive is new, having only been in development since April 2007 and out of beta since November 2007. President of CoveritLive Keith McSpurren and head of development Bob Barnard originally created the product for somewhat selfish reasons. McSpurren explained to me that he was a fan of ESPN's Bill Simmons and the sports diaries he would publish the day after a game. As a sports fan, McSpurren thought it would be great if fans could get that commentary and perspective real time as the game was happening rather than after the fact. And thus CoveritLive was born and it has been gaining widespread popularity since with thousands of big name users.

(Editor's note: Jupitermedia has also used the CoveritLive tool at the Datamation Blog.)

What is It?

CoveritLive is Software as a Service that provides a robust, multimedia live blogging platform that anyone can use and integrate into their existing blog or website by using just a small snippet of embedded code. Unlike the many-to-many approach of real time software like chat or the online presentation application of online conferencing, CoveritLive offers a one-to-many approach. The premise is that people go to a live blog because they want to hear the perspectives and commentary of the person hosting the event while also being able to participate in real-time. Here is an example of a live blogging event from their online demo:

The live blog occurs right on the website and can include text and all kinds of multimedia. The host uses a console which allows them to administer the event. They can start polls and the results are updated in real time within the same window. They can include all types of multimedia from images to streaming video.

Readers do not have to download any special software or create user accounts in order to participate. Readers can attend and contribute to the event simply by entering their name and message. The host then decides what level of reader interaction they wish to allow and can determine which comments, if any, are published. Nothing gets into the live blog feed unless the host lets it in. This feature is particularly useful for large groups to avoid a mess of comments detracting from the usefulness of the live event. Anyone who has ever been in a group chat room with numerous people knows how quickly things can turn to a mess of text.

Reaching people live is really cool, but one thing that makes it even more useful is that CoveritLive automatically creates a live blog replay at the conclusion of the event. So, the content stays on your site to access after the fact by those who couldn't attend live.

Why Might I Use It?

"CoveritLive is meant to meet all the needs of a person running a live event" says McSpurren. While many of the exciting examples highlighted on their site and through my conversation with McSpurren are Internet-based, the possibilities for application within the enterprise are equally interesting. Current customers have used the product for sporting events, news events, sales meetings, earnings reports, Q & A sessions and more.

Imagine having a few members of your sales staff at a trade show. They could live blog the event sharing what's going on with other members of the sales staff or management at home office in real-time. Or, your staffing department could be at a job fair and doing a live blog Q&A with managers back in the office. McSpurren shared that a number of customers have used it for new product sales meeting, conferences, and Q&A sessions. Whatever the situation, if you need to do it live in a one-to-many format, CoveritLive can do it.

How Does it Work?

CoveritLive is built with AJAX and runs entirely on their servers. All you need to do to start an event is to sign up for a free account, enter some event details, and then drop the generated code onto your site. The code uses an iframe for its content so it is cross-platform compatible. All information is updated real-time without having to hit refresh, preview, or save.

The software scales for events with thousands and thousands of participants. McSpurren shared that the election was their biggest day so far in terms of the number of live blogs and content being streamed. Other notable big events included the NFL draft and recent hurricane coverage by news media. All the content from the live blog is stored indefinitely on CoveritLive servers, but can be downloaded by the account holder if desired.

What Does it Cost?

How does free sound? Yes, at this point in time, CoveritLive is 100 percent free. Currently they are building in the functionality to charge for additional features and offer a premium version. When I spoke with McSpurren he indicated that the plan is to always have a free version with some advertising included. To remove the advertising or have additional features like content management, a paid version of the software will be available.

McSpurren explained they have two main types of customers -- those with a revenue objective like news organizations and large independent bloggers who do not want ads to appear and those without a revenue objective who would be willing to have a small amount of advertising included for the opportunity to have access to the software for free. The plan is to be able to serve both groups by offering both a free and paid version of CoveritLive.