What is it?
backchan.nl is tool for involving audiences in presentations by letting them suggest questions and vote on each other's questions. backchan.nl is intended for conference or event organizers who want a new way to solicit questions from the audience and make better use of question and answer time.

How might communities use it?
While people attend presentations, panels, and lectures to learn something from the people at the front of the room, there's a lot of potential for creating spaces where audience members can interact with each other and the people presenting. This project focuses on augmenting the physical space of the auditorium to provide a venue for the audience to ask (and filter) questions for presenters. This approach also makes it easy to engage audience-members who might not be in the auditorium, but who are participating on the web, in an overflow space, or in an environment like Second Life.

At what stage of development is it?
backchan.nl has been used at many events including Futures of Entertainment 3, ROFLCON 2008, Free Culture 2008, Mixed Realities Symposium. It is still being developed and can be activated for specific events by request.