I’ve really enjoyed etech the past two years, but each year should see improvements based on the last. Here is the first of my thoughts on this. Note that Indentity Woman has been musing on this topic as well… I would invite others to do the same and start tagging them etech07. May as well start now.

One of the problems with Etech is that at the same time that the content is about innovation in technology and– essentially– communication, the format of the conference sessions themselves are incredibly traditional. The rare speaker that deviates from dispensing the traditional Death by Powerpoint cocktail most likely does the same with Yet Another Lessig-style Powerpoint (which I hereby label the YALP).

There is an active backchannel via IRC, but little is done with it. This year they don’t even have the single aggregating screen with IRC-bot they had last year, much less anything more innovative. It’s all about Sage on the Stage with their trusty projector sidekick. Granted, this style is efficient and will likely be the base for conferences (particularly as they get this large) for a long time to come… but doesn’t everyone recognize that while it’s a good format for hearing, it’s not so great for learning, understanding, or interacting?

As one back-channel wag put it, this isn’t a conference about everything emerging– after all, they don’t want emerging food or hotel beds (though we do have emerging inflatable chairs in the main foyer). Fair enough– but I maintain that with so much of the talk here being about technology enabling community and attention streams and filtering that perhaps the conference itself could become a crucible for creating a real etech community that pays attention to… well… attention. Which is one of the things the backchannel is about.

I’m not claiming to have complete answers, but why not try to put some of the ideas to work? It’s like getting together on audioconference to talk about how empowering and enabling web communities are. If you have to, you can, but here we don’t have too. So…

What about a filtered, live, parallel back-channel feed using the collective community smarts everyone is talking about? And this is a serious geek brain trust.

Since O’Reilly is OK with whoring out speaking spots (not to put too fine a point on it– I do love O’Reilly and etech, but that kind of thing really bugs me), how about turning a few hours over to lightning sessions with a gong-show style audience-voting mechanism? In fact, this would be preferred for most vendor presentations if I had my way. And, clearly, anyone who was paid for (or rewarded with) a speaking spot should be clearly identified in the program just as vendors and services already are.

Or, be less overt. How about some lamps or orbs which change color and/or intensity according to the back-channel assessment? A simple IRC bot that read the ++/– lingo could do this.

How about some different session formats: use a group collaboration tool like GroupSystems for a session, have a panel conversation Q&A, break an audience into groups with topics and discuss. It doesn’t have to be (and really couldn’t and shouldn’t be) a complete unconference, but some variety would be great, particularly of the kind that gets the important conversations started.

The traditional academic style poster sessions could actually be put to good use– solicit poster sessions and a space for them where an individual or group can put their hobby-horse on display and invite group conversation… kind of a mini Birds of a Feather bazaar.

And why, in this day and age, are tutorials limited to the same-time, same-place with no prep? Tutorials are money-makers and presenters work to deadline (don’t I know it!) but imagine how useful and interesting the tutorials would be if the presenter could know in advance that he can expect a certain level of familiarity on the part of the participants? As a constant trainer, I could only dream of having that leg-up when I am preparing to work with a group!

[ ]