I attended a talk on the L4 Microkernel at 21C3. Close to the end of the talk was a inaudible conflict of opinions between the lecturer and a member of the audience. I couldn’t figure out, what the reason for the differences between the two was. The member of the audience left the room with the words “what a waste of time”.

If there was another feedback mechanism instead of getting the microphone and asking questions, it would have been possible to get a more in depth insight. Weblogs and other webbased forms of publication have a significant advantage due to their feedback possibilities e.g. via trackback and comments. But I also value the conference model because of its compact presentation form and the potential in-person contact to the lecturer.

Sometimes I wonder if there could be a way of combining the advantages of the two distinct models?

• Live IRC chat? Nah.
• A weblog per talk? To much overhead.
• A conference weblog with one entry per talk? Maybe. The 21C3 weblog was already a step in that direction.