Here’s danah’s response and Jenna’s commentary.
I said it at IR10 and SoP, and I’ll say it again. 1. Twitter is a horrible backchannel tool since it is too open, too 140 character limited, too persistent, and 2. it’s NOT a backchannel when you project it behind the speaker!!!
Personally, I think snark and irreverence is perfectly fine in a backchannel, so long as it’s also constructive, productive, informative, and on topic. I think their reactions to the content of the bc is overreactionary, but it’s all besides the point because the conference organizers shouldn’t have been broadcasting it in the first place. It’s a BACKchannel!
I’d also add, now that I’ve played around with todaysmeet, irc, and etherpad a bit, is that a proper backchannel helps people have threaded discussions about whatever is being presented, helps people articulate a counter-story and be subversive to the official channel, and is flexible enough to let people use it how they want to use it. Ehterpad rocks for this.