Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

My NTC Schedule in New Orleans Next Week and My Giant Insect Goal

Photo by Markpolous

I am one week before the NTC, Day of Service, and Penguin Day and it's pretty crazy to say the least.  I wanted to get my schedule in one easy to reference place (for myself) and think about how to incorporate some new panel moderation/panel techniques into my practice.

One of the reflections to come out of this week SXSW Conference was for moderators of panels to use Twitter (or back channel tool) to poll the audience upfront and monitor it real time.  Nancy White made a great observation in the comments, "The new tools give us new ways to transmit the cues and sense where others are, even if we do not coordinate our actions. It’s like a new set of antennae."  So, if you're moderating a panel, think of yourself as a giant insect!

In some email back and forth with Nancy, she brought up the issue of agreements and expectations from the audience, moderator, and the panelists - that includes listening and sending signals.   How do we negotiate what we have the capacity to do?  I know for myself, it will be a challenge to add this new level of multi-tasking (watching a twitter stream in real time) while in the room - in addition reading the body language, traffic coping the conversation, listening to the panelists, keeping an eye on the watch, etc.

So where is the line and how do we declare what it is for each of us and negotiate (if and when) it means something to us as a group?  What are the expectations or acceptable behavior for sending signals from the audience?   When you are moderating a face-to-face discussion, part of the job is to keep in on track - on topic and on time - while allowing for interesting conversation to flow.  However, this means reining in off topic directions or disruptive group behavior.   Adding Twitter as a listening tool will really demand a new level of moderation skills.

I'm going to challenge myself to do this in a couple of sessions where we might have a lot of Twitter users and going to make some quick notes on practice.

Tuesday, March 18
Night Before Day of Service Dinner
Cheryl Hanback and I Co-Leaders
Sign up here

Wednesday, March 19
Day of Service

Breakfast at 8:00 am at the hotel
Wireless Network Installation team at Community Center of St. Bernard leaves 8:45
Strategy consults at hotel - 9-11
Wireless Network Installation team returns to hotel - noon
Training Team for Center of St. Bernard leaves hotel 12:30
Training Team works on site from 12-2
Jay Dedman Video Blogging Workshop -2-5

Netsquared Meet up 5:00 PM

Thursday, March 20
10:30-Noon
So you want to be a consultant?
-Use Twitter in beginning as part of poll of audience questions
-Use Twitter during small groups to cross pollinate
-Use Twitter at the full group report out

Social Media ROI Case Study Slam
1:30-3:00
Detailed Plan

I'm moderating the panel
-Use Twitter for audience poll
-Monitor Twitter during the 5 minute ignite style presentations and incorporate questions

3:30 PM
Need to figure out which session to tweet or micro blog

Friday, March 21

Building, Growing, Sustaining Vibrant Online Community
10:30-Noon
I'm a panelist

The Next Latest Thing
1:30-3:00 PM
I'm a panelist

3:30 PM
I'm leaning towards Jay Dedman's video blogging to get my video blogging mojo back

Saturday, March 22
Penguin Day

Marc Canter: Spell My Name Correctly!

How Marc Canter deals with the backchannel:  Just spell my name correctly!

I can relate.  My name is constantly mispelled. And here is a little context about why the Canter/Cantor/Kanter/Kantor name.

Technorati Tags: lesblogs, backchannel, net2, nptech

Intermediated Conferences and Backchannels

I'm thinking a lot about "backchannels" in a very micro way ... (e.g. chat going on while a phone discussion).  This is part of my  preparation for a 90-minute webinar I'm doing for N-TEN on making face-to-face workshop/panel sessions more interactive.   

I'm using web/phone conference software called "Ready/Talk" which (thank god) offers some interactive features, like chat and handing control of presentation to someone else's desktop.   Since the workshop is essentiallly about designing more interactive face-to-face learning environments, I don't want to model a 85 minute lecture with 100 slide powerpoint, leaving 5 minutes for q&A at end.   

I'm thinking of ways to integrate the chat with the phone discussion -- similar to what I experienced and learned about during Nancy White's Online Facilitation Workshop last fall.

But the word backchannel also refers to the chat in a conference where there are people in the room chatting as well as remote participation.  I wonder if there are learnings or ideas one can take from here?
So, this has brought me to the question of the learning design of the backchannel - if there is such a thing.

One of my favorite vloggers and screencasters is Raymond M. Kristiansen who is a self-proclaimed Norwegian media juggler.  He recently participated in the backchannel for Les Blogs.  He shows a video clip of Mena Trott's Keynote calling for more civility in blog commenting.  Apparently, the comments in the backchannel got her angry, they weren't so civil - particularly those from Ben MetCalfe who Mena called to the mike.  (Warning she says the F-word on the clip.)  See Dave Winer's comments here, or as someone on the vlog list "Fighting for civilty using rudeness."

Raymond goes on to raise some really good reflective questions about backchannel:

How do they affect the relationship between those on the stage and the audience?
What does this intermediation of dialogues mean?
How can we use back-channels as a progressive force at conferences?
How can we use them as a test of how things are going at the conference?
How can we play further with the distance between those up there - on the podium and those in the audience?

Some more things to read on backchannel
Backchannel = Blogosphere
Liz Lawley on Backchannels and here

Update: September, 2007

Coolcat Teacher wrote an excellent post reflecting on the use of backchannels in the classroom

Technorati Tags: nptech, net2, backchannel, learning Technorati Tags: lesblogs