An Event Apart is a conference for “people who make websites” that moves from city to city throughout the year. I went to their Boston ‘07 event, and it was outstanding. An intrepid fellow at their latest event put together A Seat Apart, which maps attendees’ Twitter handles to their seats.

At any conference these days, Twitter creates a “back channel” of discussion and sharing that never existed before. I heard that panelists at SXSW this year were monitoring Twitter to respond to comments and questions in real time.

By cobbling A Seat Apart together during the conference, attendees’ tweets immediately went from anonymous chatter to real people speaking. I love this story in equal parts because it shows how social media continues to humanize itself and how easily someone with a great idea can quickly implement it using the web as a platform.