I have been talking about this for what seems like ages. Ever since i went to my first conference with live back channel chat projected above the heads of the speakers. I think it was the PDF in 2004. The idea is that during big national political televised events, like debates, conventions, state of the union.... events that are carried on major media outlets uninterrupted... you have a live IRC or similar type of back channel chat where smart folks can talk about the event, point out lies, or truths, crack wise, etc.

Then folks watching at home can tune in to the back channel while they are watching. Events can also take place across the nation or the world where the event and the back channel are projected side by side.

This probably works best if the people able to post to the back channel are vetted first, bloggers, politicians, reporters, comedians. If you have too many people participating the experience for those viewing will deteriorate.

I would love to organize this kind of thing for this year's State of the Union (I bet it will be a doozy!) but I don't think I am going to have the time to pull it off. So, like everything on my website... this idea is Copy Lefted under CC Attribution Share Alike 2.5.