Amplified Events

Exploiting Technologies to Enhance the Impact and Learning at Events

What Is An Amplified Event?

An amplified event exploits various technologies in order
to extend the reach of an event. This can include:
• Enhancing discussions at the event through use of
technologies such as Twitter.
• Enhancing access to talks to remote audiences
through video or audio streaming.
• “Time-shifting” access to resources.

Case Study: IWMW 2010

UKOLN have provided amplification of its IWMW event
since 2005. The IWMW 2010 event featured:
• Live video streaming of the plenary talks.
• Over 3,00 tweets from over 270 users using the
#iwmw10 Twitter hashtag (there were ~170 attendees).
• A „Twitter wall‟ providing a display of event tweets near
the registration desk.
• An official „event amplifier‟ summarising plenary talks on
Twitter and posting summaries on the event blog.
• An online barcamp enabling the remote audience to
participants in a discussion session.
A summary of the Twitter statistics is illustrated below.

Captioning Videos using Twitter

The increasing use of Twitter at events led to
development of iTitle: a Twitter captioning
service hosted by RSC Scotland North and East.
Tweets posted at an event are extracted from
the Twapper Keeper archiving service and
converted into a caption file format which can be
replayed with audio or video clips. This allows
users to replay conference sessions augmented
with the original back channel communication.
At UKOLN‟s IWMW 2010 event videos of
plenary talks were synched with the #iwmw10
Twitter archive using iTitle as illustrated. Twitter captioning using iTitle
Summarizr Statistics for the IWMW 2010 Event

Key Technologies People Issues

Key technologies which can be used to provide amplified
events include:
• Video and audio streaming: to amplify events to
remote audience.
• Video and audio recording: to provide ‟time-shifting‟.
• Real-time communications channels: to support
discussions at the event and with remote audiences.
• Resource-sharing services: to share resources such
as slides, bookmarks, etc.
• Archiving services: to keep a record of the resources
and discussions.
When organising an amplified event you need to
consider various non-technical issues such as:
• The purposes of the event amplification.
• Concerns that use of devices may be considered
rude or distracting to speakers and others.
• Concerns that inappropriate tweets may cause
offence.
An Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) can help establish Can use of devices at event be
distracting? Is such use rude?
appropriate behaviour. A „quiet zone‟ could be
provided as a device-free area. Evaluation can
provide feedback for planning future amplified events.

JISC-Funded Greening Events II Projects

UKOLN is supporting ILRT in the JISC-funded Greening Events II
project which builds on ILRT‟s Greening Events project, funded under Further Information
the JISC Greening ICT programme. Further information about amplified
UKOLN‟s work involves: events is available at:
• Gathering further evidence on approaches to the provision of <http://bit.ly/jisc11-amplified-events>.
amplified events and feedback from various stakeholders.
• Publishing a report on best practices.
The report will be made available under a Creative Commons licence.

07-02-2011