Some recent blog posts reflecting on and analyzing the phenomenon of the backchannel (e.g. Chris Lott and Jennifer Jones) prompted me to write a consideration and proposal on the TTIX 2008 blog. My post there summarizes the question of backchanneling, and encourages conference participants (this includes anyone who participates, by the way, not just registered attendees) to evaluate the backchannel before, during, and after TTIX.
We’ve tried to build the idea of engagement, community, and persistence into TTIX 2008 through integration of Web 2.0 technology and conference structuring; backchanneling is just one piece of our effort to make TTIX a better conference, echoing the thoughts and ideas of folks such as Henrik Ahlen and Steve Hargadon. As success requires active participation by the community, I have to cross my fingers at this point and hope it “works”.