Les Blogs 2.0 was on Monday and Tuesday. For me as non-attendee it will be known for the backchannel incident. It is being discussed at length (I agree with Liz Lawley:
It’s also worth saying that there’s a difference between saying that a
speaker’s remarks are bullshit, and saying that a person is an asshole.
One is about content, the other is about personalities. I think Mena
crossed a line there.
Anyhow, not my point. I know geeks are kind of funny, but were does your attention go with having a backchannel? What I find especially disturbing is how Mena was able to see Ben’s comment. Wasn’t she giving a presentation? And the other way round? Sure, it is a blogger conference, but does that mean everybody has to pay more attention to his own blogging than to what goes on on-stage?
Dave Winer suggests the following:
This ought to be a major clue that it’s time to delete the audience once and for all. It’s an obsolete concept. End the madness, begin the discourse. Scoble wants to try the HyperCamp in the week between Christmas and New Year’s in San Francisco or San Jose. I’d like to do it in the East Bay of course. We just need a big space that’s got good wifi (or even just broadband) and then we need about 20 companies or people to stand up and talk for 20 minutes each. Or as many as 40 people. A big table in the middle and some refreshments coming in all day long, and we can re-invent the conference business in one day.
Instinctively, I would have gone the other way. Same set-up, but get rid of the presenters. Have a moderator instead and just let the thoughts free. Much more effective too, to have the the attendants think and join their brain juices. Sure, reps of 20 companies could be the moderators, but don’t get rid of your target.