swimming the backchannel

So last week was a week of events. There was the online communities gig* with Mark Pollard, Christy McCarthy, Angela Beesley & a crowd of participants. Thanks again to the Wesley Mission for their help. It was pretty darned good. If you didn't go, find someone who did & then ask them about it.

I also started teaching @ UTS. More on that in a few weeks. I also ranted a bit around social software at FISH@6, tagteaming Tom Kendall.

Probably my most conflicted experience of the week was @ E2EF. Ross knows how to put on an event & he did invite me so I'd better be nice. The social software newbies absolutely loved it. The jaded old 2.0 hacks were bored. Nathan Wallace & Peter Williams were fun. David Backley had 2 brilliant slides that were jam-packed full of experience. IBM were an event sponsor and the presentation by Brent Lello may have been good - I don't know because I found the first 5 minutes such a turn-off that I walked out**.

A conversation I had with two participants*** raised the issue about the back channel. Lots of people were on Twitter, tweeting away. I have mixed feelings about this. Many of the Tweets seem to be: "Hey, I'm at a conference, some just said something" or some form of public note-taking. The next conference I am speaking at with Tweeting, I want the Tweetfeed on screen next to me. Stuff the powerpoints, let's bring it on!!! Olivia Williams has some interesting points but I think the critical thing is that we have a feedback loop here. I want that exposed & integrated. What I really want is a tag cloud of the audience's comments flickering over my head: "interesting" "flawed" "rubbish".

Can someone build that for me please?

What's exciting about tools like Twitter is the immediate, shared feedback you get - which amplifies responses. 90s rave tracks would include samples of crowd roars in the mix - which would trigger copy responses on the dance floor. Tools like cheap SMS, backend computing & real-time visualisation will revolutionise how we experience things as crowds, as audiences, together. People crave that sense of collective experience.

Should we give it to them?

*A few people couldn't make it - including one man whose car broke down on the way to the venue. Ah you say, a likely story. He included a TIFF of the tax invoice from the towing company as an attachment to an apologetic email. N.B. I believe you. But we gave all the spare cash to the Wesley Mission, so I don't think we help you out on this one.

**I don't go to strip clubs because tired old routines being performed by someone desperate for my cash just don't do it for me. I asked the actKM list what they thought of good & bad vendor presentations. I will unveil the results shortly.

***Which took place in a deserted fun fair on a blazing hot day. This was in no way surreal, oh no.