I’m not sure why you feel that twittering during talks is negative on balance – I have to admit my experience of being involved in twitter while presentations are on has been generally positive – and I think the open nature of the channel contributes to this (I’ve seen other, less public, back channels be more juvenile in a ‘back row of the classroom’ type way)

I just think in this case people should put down their laptops and actually experience the presentation fully.

I like Richard’s suggestion about putting up the tweets at the end of the talk – seems a bit less stressful than having them appear during a presentation. Though might be embarrassing if there weren’t any…

I think whether to embrace the backchannel by adapting a presentation on-the-hoof will have to be an individual choice – for some people, and types of presentation, it may work, but for many it won’t. Presenters have generally taken far more trouble to prepare a presentation than a few immature, smart-alec tweeters will give them credit for; even in Shakespeare, things sometimes sag in the middle but come right in the end!

But, more straightforwardly, perhaps to the usual 5-mins-for-questions-and-feedback at the end, we could start adding (or substituting) 5-mins-for-Tweets-and-Tweetback. I.e., switch the display to show, via Twitter Search/Twemes/whatever, all the tagged or otherwise identifiable tweets about the presentation on the big screen, and ask the presenter to comment and/or audience to discuss further? I think this would be both interesting and fair, encouraging constructive tweets and hopefully discouraging less wholesome twittering by those unprepared to stand up and be counted.

Why not try smthg like this out at IWMW?

This report (http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/twitiquette-short-but-helpful-guide-to.html) of ‘inappropriate’ tweeting from an ALA meeting is a good example of where people overstep the bounds.

I think that embracing the backchannel is one way to actually modify behaviour. Until recently Twitter has been a relatively small back water of activity in reality, and saying something on Twitter could be regarded as whispering it quietly to a colleague or two. As takeup of backchannels increases it becomes more like standing up and shouting it to the room. Throwing the backchannel up on a screen makes this transition extremely clear – if you know what you say is going to appear on a screen the moment you say it, it becomes explicit that you are interacting in a public forum, and so behave as such. There is a fine line here – I may take issue with what someone says, but I need to do this in such a way as is professional and doesn’t become personal.

When I’ve taken part in backchannels I often find myself framing my disagreement as a question rather than a straight contradiction – this gives the speaker (or others) an invitation to respond and debate.

To me it feels a lot like passing notes in class when the teacher is talking!

I’m a late adopter of Twitter, and the one thing I dislike is the horribly self-important and egocentric way someone can come across on it. Not sure I’ve managed to avoid that in my own tweets, but I’m trying!