Day: September 11, 2009

A DM Tweet today caused me to go and look and see what resources I’ve posted on the blog about back channel work.  For me,  back channel refers to a number of things that fall into two broad categories:

• back channel as a text based channel used at live events for a way for participants to be in the conversation and potentially share it out to the wider world, and
• back channel facilitation in online groups where you make a decision to address issues privately and not “in front” of the whole group.

After a bit of searching, here is what I came up with.

Conference Back Channel

• Backchannel Resources (including a link to Howard Rheingold’s)
• Raising the bar at online events
• Some backchannel ideas buried in this broader post on events.
• What live chat back channel looks like
• Clay Shirkey on back channels at conferences
• Chat as telephone call back channel
• Getting to know someone through back channel chat
• Civility and the back channel (the gems are in the comments)
• Jon Garfunkle on the backchannel at conferences (from a blog post comment)
• Barry Dahl talks about the “back channel” at conferences
• Liz Lawley on Digital back channels (referenced in one of my posts)

Community Back Channel

• Interventions: in front or behind the curtain – an older piece focused on facilitation aspects.
• Hopping between note taking and back channel conversations
• Blogs and Community (has as section on backchannel)
• Jim Benson on the Backchannel at work (from a blog comment)
• Lots of links at the bottom of this post on telephone call facilitation with much emphasis on back channel

Do you have any great back channel tips or resources to share?

Photo Credit: Flickr creative commons from Deb Schultz – thanks, Deb!