I remember reading a year or two ago that conferences would soon reach the point where those attending remotely, either through hashtag following (interacting with other non-attendees as well as delegates who are in the room) or via videolinked 'watch parties', would probably exceed the number of people actually attending the event. We've probably comfortably passed that point now.
Anyway, I have just made up a nice word to describe these 'delegates at a distance', akin to telegraph, telephone and television. I'm not sure if teledelegate needs a hyphen but let's see how it goes ;)
I like to think that this word will do better than my acronym 'satbawu' which stands for 'Start at the bottom and work up' and can be used for those ridiculously long threaded emails. Can be used, but isn't...
Bet this is my shortest blog post.
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Edit 30 April 2013
Others have suggested 'telegates' which is the more obvious word, though I don't think it actually works that well, 'hashgates' and 'delegavatar'. I still like teledelegates the best, but don't get to be in charge of usage ;)
'Teledelegates'. I think it captures the whole idea of being there electronically and not physically.
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http://unn.edu.ng
Well, yes :)
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