a great way for grandparents to stay connected with their distant grandchildren, or

a link to a site where you can post your virtual condolences to victims of tragedies

Some of the ideas are even useful for your every day work life, such as the following idea which we thought was really terrific!


From an e-mail to the Alternative Institutions discussion group on the Internet (to subscribe to this online discussion group, send a request to: AltInst-request@cco.caltech.edu).

Meetings are long slow things of low bandwidth. I devised, implemented and tested this variant:

The agenda of the meeting is placed on a central computer. (At the time I wrote some locking code and scripts on a VAX/VMS system, but now the same could be done easier with RC on any Linux system.) The participants, in their own time, edit the agenda, writing in whatever they would have said in the meeting; i.e., everybody co-writes the minutes of the meeting before the meeting happens. Before the meeting, the future minutes are printed and everybody reads them. The meeting can then simply approve 90 per cent of the future minutes, and briefly argue about any remaining controversial issues.

Pros: Fast. Simple. The minutes are far more accurate and complete. Quiet personalities can get their word in.

Cons: It doesn't work in the presence of Alpha personalities. They not only like to have their say, they like to be seen to have their say, and hence will verbally and at length go over everything again.
--John Carter