Backchannel: whispering in digital conversation

Backchannel communication in digital conversations permits private communication which is visible only to the sender and receiver. Backchannel is multithreaded, substantial, and governed by many social conventions; it persists only if captured in users´ private logs. To better understand backchannel´s function - and to predict ways in which it may be affected by application design and by attempts to capture it on a server-wide scale for research and analysis - we analyzed private transcripts of meetings and class sessions held in MUDs. We identified five backchannel categories: process-oriented, content-oriented, participation-enabling, tangential and independent backchannel. Software designers can use these results to understand how backchannel should function in digital conversation applications. Making backchannel overtly available for study would require making its presence and content visible and its content persist, affecting the nature of the backchannel and raising social and ethical issues.