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Cliff Atkinson's "the Backchannel" is an excellent guide for today's presenters. Even if you don't plan on dealing with the backchannel, I would strongly recommend reading this book. The book starts with the definition of backchannel and a "cookbook" introduction to Twitter. It also discusses some other tools, such as Tinychat, for using as a backchannel. As is customary with Cliff Atkinson's books, there are plenty of online resources, including actual exchanges between conference attendees in a backchannel "clash." Although the book concentrates on the backchannel and the trends in social media as applicable to presentations, it is an excellent guide for any presenter. The discussion about "4 and 10 tweets," including presentation design, is perfect for anyone attending or presenting at a conference, a meeting, or a workshop. One of the highlights is the discussion about the best practices of using Twitter which can be summarized in "Tweet unto others as you would have them tweet unto you." It's also worth the reader's attention to look at the discussion about "unconferences and open space (there is now an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, on the same subject). Cliff offers practical advice on dealing with unruly "snarky" audience and practical, achievable ways of getting your point across without losing your sanity. Cliff's strongest point through the book is his emphasis on understanding the learner and today's audience. The situations he describes, however, don't just apply to today's unique target audience. Much of his advice is applicable to anyone who presents or teaches -whether every day or once a year. I found this book tremendously useful for my own workshops, in learning how to filter negative and positive feedback, and immediately applying such concepts as "the Law of Two Feet" and "dispense with pretense." The most powerful part of the book is scenarios, the access to actual exchanges, and suggestions on dealing with various issues during the presentation. I would strongly suggest looking at the online resources mentioned in the book to benefit from this resource in full, including testing various tools, such as SurveyMonkey, for preparing the presentations in addressing the needs of the audience. Review by Irene Knokh

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 4:48 PM