Stowe has a classic summary of the now legendary LesBlogs incident in which one of the Bloggerati lectures a packed hall of bloggers on the need for civility – while this is going on a couple of bloggers are IMing away – the content of which is being projected on the screen behind the speaker. Finally, one member of the IMers comments that the speech is bullshit. To which the speaker calls the individual to account and suggests he is an asshole. So much for civility. Classic!
I’m feeling so warm and civil I could melt… Actually, in all seriousness, we really do need to stop taking ourselves so seriously.
This is so packed full of irony it’s just too funny. The fact you would have something called a “backchannel” projected onto the screen behind a speaker is just too much. Backchannel? Sounds like self-inflicted interference.
Whatever happened to a good old Q&A session or simply raising your hand?!
Backchannel seems to mean well, but please. How is the audience expected to pay attention to the presenter?
Maybe they should also have a split screen monitor on the front of the podium with BBC and CNN news running constantly to see if there is any news stories that apply to the speaker and, OF COURSE, have a stock ticker running across that screen. Really push the distraction envelope.