Last year, I had the chance to play the role of Social Broadcaster during PBS affiliate KLRN's 10-day auction, Blazing Gavels.  As a Social Broadcaster, I joined a team of local volunteers where we put auction items on Twitter and Facebook and leveraged the principle of the back channel to discover and share what people from around the U.S. (and some around the world) started to bid on auction items from far, far way using the Internet

Here's my interview with KLRN's Vice President Communications & Marketing, Katrina Keogh, giving us a preview of what to expect starting this Thursday night at 7 PM CST in the U.S.

Be it  airline travel, hotels and restaurants they planned to dine at when they were visiting San Antonio, the buyers were not necessarily coming from the traditional TV viewing audience.  Others were bidding on gifts from afar such as fruit baskets or wine they could have delivered to friends and family members in the San Antonio and South Texas region.

Taking that observation one step forward, and with the help of NewTek's TriCaster, KLRN will now be broadcasting the auction live, on UStream.  Think live TV-broadcast, viewable wherever you have an Internet connection.  The stream will be embedded into the auction site.

• Locally or outside the traditional viewing area of KLRN's reach, people can bid and buy products and services as they watch the event from their computer, their tablet or smart phone, just as they would on their TV.

• The auction runs June 9 - 18 and begins each night at 7:00 PM CST in the U.S.

•  I hope you can take part, or at the very least log on from wherever in the world you may be able to watch, and see a bit of what I think is some pretty cool broadcasting history, as well as contribute to some social good.