There is increasing spill-over between online and offline.  A considerable proportion of online conversation consists of links back to trusted sources; the BBC and the traditional newspapers in particular for science conversations.

Online can feed offline (such as soliciting questions for speakers in a TV debate) just as it can be used synchronously (such as voting for a particular TV performance).  Offline can also feed online, generating quality content for online discussions – it is good practice to write an article or blog about what happened in a live event. Traffic flows in both directions.

There are a three key rules for practitioners when working across multiple channels: –

1. Try not to channel shift participants backwards (move from email to telephone for example).
2. Do not open a channel of communication you cannot maintain.
3. Understand when a conversation should be taken offline.

This article originally appeared on TCI Wiki