Backchannel[1] is a term originally coined by Victor Yngve in 1970. It refers to a secondary, usually online, conversation that takes place at the same time as a primary, often face-to-face, discussion or presentation. Initially tested in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the concept gained significant recognition in 2002 at the PC Forum conference. Backchannel communication not only allows participants to contribute to the conversation but also fosters engagement among different audience members. It has been increasingly used in the education sector, with various tools and platforms facilitating real-time comments, note-taking, and resource sharing. Experimental models have also been created for backchannel communication, such as Joichi Ito’s HeckleBot. Over the years, numerous studies have been conducted on backchannel, exploring its role and impact in shared physical spaces, collaborative learning environments, and classroom participation.
Backchannel is the use of networked computadores to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside the primary group activity or live spoken remarks. The term was coined from the linguistics term to describe listeners' behaviours during verbal communication.
The term "backchannel" generally refers to online conversation about the conference topic or speaker. Occasionally backchannel provides audience members a chance to fact-check the presentation.
First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow participants to use ordinary chat like IRC ou AIM to actively communicate during presentation. More recent research include works where the backchannel is brought publicly visible, such as the ClassCommons, backchan.nl and Fragmented Social Mirror.
Twitter is also widely used today by audiences to create backchannels during broadcasting of content or at conferences. For example, television drama, other forms of entertainment and magazine programs. This practice is often also called live tweeting. Many conferences nowadays also have a hashtag that can be used by the participants to share notes and experiences; furthermore such hashtags can be user generated.