Will Twitter feedback loops affect live events in the future?
Audience feedback hasn’t evolved a whole lot from the clapping/whistling/screaming that I imagine used to occur when the hunters returned to the cave with a T-Rex or whatever else they were able to subdue. Oh sure, there was a great leap forward when the um, cigarette lighter was introduced to rock concerts in the 70′s. Still, we’ve had too few other ways to let poor Bono know that he’s loved, other than by throwing money and screaming at him.
Things have changed. With Twitter, event organizers can look at audience participation to see what is working, in real time. If performers/organizers are nimble enough, it’s easy to envision them using the data to create feedback loops that could change the performance, or the agenda of an event, in the name of an improved experience for the audience.
There’s still a ways to go in turning Twitter usage by audiences at events into actionable data, as indicated by this interesting analysis of Twitter usage at Wordcamp SF, by Pathable, but you can feel it coming, assuming continued Twitter adoption by the masses. Even with the fractional participation that the Pathable study reveals, the data is too valuable to ignore: it’s articulate now.
Who knows, maybe events that happen without the audience having some say in the proceedings will be seen as passe in the future. Sounds like there’s another killer twitter app in here somewhere.
