Mark A. Miller wrote:
There is another permathread brewing about the role of the backchannel. A “backchannel” is a conversation among audience members during a presentation, or any other “unofficial” discussion during a meeting. I have had backchannel discussions during face-to-face meetings, conference calls, and (most often) during presentations at conferences. Usually it takes the form of IRC, although any real-time collaboration tool would work. The point is that some people are having a secondary off-the-books conversation, generally talking about the people who are having the primary on-the-books conversation.
I can not be any clearer: I wholeheartedly support this. Despite hysterical objections from the usual suspects, I have seen the benefits of the backchannel firsthand. At ApacheCon last fall, Ken Coar announced during the initial keynote that there were IRC channels set up for the conference (one for each presentation room, and a main one for the conference in general). When I presented, I went so far as to put the address of the IRC channel on my first slide, to remind people where they could talk about me behind my back for the next 45 minutes. A friend in the audience forwarded me a copy of the channel transcript afterwards, and I discovered that several of the best questions came out of discussion in the backchannel.
irc.linucon.org perhaps?
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/04/02/ten-words
-- Mark A. Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] (512) 796-3592
