There was a time not too long ago when, as a presenter, looking out on an audience and seeing this would have lead to the emotional equivalent of being hit in the face of a rotten tomato.
Thankfully (or perhaps not so thankfully, depending on your view of human social evolution) seeing a crowd full of faces illuminated by the radioactive glow of their laptops or smart phones is no longer the symbol of disrespect that it once was. It can be, in many cases, the new look of engagement, which I've discussed in this blog before.
Today, open laptops, prevalent wireless internet access, and highly functional smart phones have ushered in the era of the backchannel and increased the level of engagement and interaction at conferences by magnitudes inconceivable just a few years ago. The speaker is now only part of the experience. (For those not familiar with the term, back channel communication refers to the practice of using social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Ning, etc to communicate/ discuss the happenings of some event "behind the scenes", often in real time). Hashtags (for aggregating social media contributions from conference participants) have become even more prevalent than printed conference guides. And from my own personal experience, I can say that the back channel has really added a welcome depth and connectedness my conference going experience over the past few years.
How conferences and individual presenters choose to embrace (or not) this phenomenon is widely varied. Some people pretend that there is no backchannel, and that people connecting with each other is a fad. Thankfully I don't attend such conferences or associate with such individuals =) Some will post a hashtag during a conference kickoff then stand back and let things ride. Some will integrate backchannel artifacts such as tweets or fickr images into their conference websites, or bring the "back" to the "front" and address back channel conversations during presentations or Q&A sessions. But at this years GLS conference, I happened across a use of the backchannel that I've never seen before - a game.
The game was called "BackChatter" and it was put together by several GLS participants - Mike Edwards, Colleen Macklin, John Sharp, and Eric Zimmerman. How does it work? The full explanation can be found on the game's site but essentially it goes a little something like this.
I didnt actually participate in BackChatter but I was a big fan of the idea for a few reasons. First of all, it was a game and turning things into games = awesomesauce. Secondly, it was a very non intrusive, and more importantly fun way to draw people into participating in the conference Twitter stream who might not have participated otherwise. You didnt necessarily need to live-tweet the conference yourself, but you did need to pay attention to the people who were as well as the entire range of available sessions beyond those that you may personally have attended if you wanted the best chance of winning. Third, there were very few barriers to entry. As a bit of a hardcore gamer myself, I don't always like that, but in the case of a conference game its important to set the bar at a point where as many people as possible could participate. BackChatter hit that mark beautifully. The only things you needed were a Twitter account and a device that could let you send your picks. The game mechanics themselves were easy to pick up. The time commitment or pre-existing knowledge required to play was negligible. There were no complicated controls to master or skills required to succeed. And because prizes were awarded for the winner of every session block, you could even play if you missed some of the conference.
But the party doesnt end with the BackChatter game.
One of the game's developers, Mike Edwards, took the time to do some analysis of all the Twitter data that was being compiled for the game and he did some trend spotting of his own and even put together a pretty slick sociogram of twitter based connectedness (you can click the image for a bigger version if you really want to see how sweet I am ;-)
Obviously you can expect that to a certain degree, a crowd of folks dedicated to the exploration of educational gaming might be pretty open minded their willingness to embrace and promote phenomena like back channel communication, but I was impressed with the thoughtful integration that BackChatter had with the conversation, and the dedication of the GLS organizers to promote and share the goings on of what lie behind the curtain. It might not have been the most progressive use of backchannel communication at a conference I've ever seen (we've got quite a few all stars in my own office) but it was certainly up there and I applaud the effort of everyone who made it happen.
Now the question becomes, when will BackChatter be available for every conference?
Image from http://www.bech.uni-c.dk/tnc2006/wednesday; Graph from http://onearmedman.com/research/glstweets
Thankfully (or perhaps not so thankfully, depending on your view of human social evolution) seeing a crowd full of faces illuminated by the radioactive glow of their laptops or smart phones is no longer the symbol of disrespect that it once was. It can be, in many cases, the new look of engagement, which I've discussed in this blog before.Today, open laptops, prevalent wireless internet access, and highly functional smart phones have ushered in the era of the backchannel and increased the level of engagement and interaction at conferences by magnitudes inconceivable just a few years ago. The speaker is now only part of the experience. (For those not familiar with the term, back channel communication refers to the practice of using social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Ning, etc to communicate/ discuss the happenings of some event "behind the scenes", often in real time). Hashtags (for aggregating social media contributions from conference participants) have become even more prevalent than printed conference guides. And from my own personal experience, I can say that the back channel has really added a welcome depth and connectedness my conference going experience over the past few years.
How conferences and individual presenters choose to embrace (or not) this phenomenon is widely varied. Some people pretend that there is no backchannel, and that people connecting with each other is a fad. Thankfully I don't attend such conferences or associate with such individuals =) Some will post a hashtag during a conference kickoff then stand back and let things ride. Some will integrate backchannel artifacts such as tweets or fickr images into their conference websites, or bring the "back" to the "front" and address back channel conversations during presentations or Q&A sessions. But at this years GLS conference, I happened across a use of the backchannel that I've never seen before - a game.
The game was called "BackChatter" and it was put together by several GLS participants - Mike Edwards, Colleen Macklin, John Sharp, and Eric Zimmerman. How does it work? The full explanation can be found on the game's site but essentially it goes a little something like this.
- You try and guess which word will be tweeted most during a particular conference session block.
- You can pick up to 3 words per session block, which are submitted by direct messaging the bcgame twitter account.
- You earn points based on the word frequency (more points for more uses) and based on the number of other people who picked that word as well (less points for each person that picked it). So basically you are trying to guess what words will be frequently used that no one else will pick.
- The top words are selected by pulling together every tweet with a particular hashtag (in the case of the Games Learning and Society conference, the tags were #GLS or #GLS09
- The person with the most points at the end of the conference or at the end of each session block wins (t shirts and a copy of Spore were the prizes).
I didnt actually participate in BackChatter but I was a big fan of the idea for a few reasons. First of all, it was a game and turning things into games = awesomesauce. Secondly, it was a very non intrusive, and more importantly fun way to draw people into participating in the conference Twitter stream who might not have participated otherwise. You didnt necessarily need to live-tweet the conference yourself, but you did need to pay attention to the people who were as well as the entire range of available sessions beyond those that you may personally have attended if you wanted the best chance of winning. Third, there were very few barriers to entry. As a bit of a hardcore gamer myself, I don't always like that, but in the case of a conference game its important to set the bar at a point where as many people as possible could participate. BackChatter hit that mark beautifully. The only things you needed were a Twitter account and a device that could let you send your picks. The game mechanics themselves were easy to pick up. The time commitment or pre-existing knowledge required to play was negligible. There were no complicated controls to master or skills required to succeed. And because prizes were awarded for the winner of every session block, you could even play if you missed some of the conference.
But the party doesnt end with the BackChatter game.
One of the game's developers, Mike Edwards, took the time to do some analysis of all the Twitter data that was being compiled for the game and he did some trend spotting of his own and even put together a pretty slick sociogram of twitter based connectedness (you can click the image for a bigger version if you really want to see how sweet I am ;-)
Obviously you can expect that to a certain degree, a crowd of folks dedicated to the exploration of educational gaming might be pretty open minded their willingness to embrace and promote phenomena like back channel communication, but I was impressed with the thoughtful integration that BackChatter had with the conversation, and the dedication of the GLS organizers to promote and share the goings on of what lie behind the curtain. It might not have been the most progressive use of backchannel communication at a conference I've ever seen (we've got quite a few all stars in my own office) but it was certainly up there and I applaud the effort of everyone who made it happen.
Now the question becomes, when will BackChatter be available for every conference?
Image from http://www.bech.uni-c.dk/tnc2006/wednesday; Graph from http://onearmedman.com/research/glstweets
Leave a comment