Smart Phones in sessions

[Cameron_Fraser]

I found the following quote, and the associated article (a link for which is provided below), in today's New York Times.

"You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a sub-meeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting. BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles."
PHILIPPE REINES, (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/22smartphones.html?th&emc=th)a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/22smartphones.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

I have been pondering this very thing. I am not one to impose ground rules (like no smart phone use) on a group simply because I believe adults generally know how to behave in meetings (and if they don't that tells me something which might be useful. I am fine with facilitating a group's creation of their own ground rules should they wish to have some).

I am aware of the thinking behind digital natives which suggests they are able to multi-task in ways digital immigrants (people like me...on the other side of 50...well, 35 really) are not. On the other hand, side meetings of any kind can be a problem for a couple of reasons: Because individuals may be missing bits going on in the main group and because you may be missing critical thinking from a side meeting which is not getting to the entire group.

So what do you, my colleagues think about/do about electronic side meetings?

[Cameron_Fraser]

I should have said two other things:

I often work with groups where the individuals have to remain connected in order to respond to emergencies. (Emergencies in this case means things like transportation accidents... aircraft, rail, shipping, etc...things with a high level of impact.) Turning off their devices in a meeting is not an option.
I have wondered whether you could harness electronic sub-meetings and use the tool for individual and small group work rather like we do now with pair groups, triads, etc.

[Dutch_Driver]

Cameron,
I think we are about to see the internet and Web 2.0 apps fundamentally change what meetings look like.

At NASA, I facilitated a session using Twitter. We had 300 comments from those in the room and that was an estimated 75 minutes worth of work (assuming 15 sec/comment). Was it a total success, no. But it was a first step.

One thing. My colleagues were appalled that I would allow people to divert their attention away from the speaker. I maintain the unleashing wisdom of the crowd is ample reason to try it. Speakers only have the floor, the room has the decision.

So, instead of having surreptitious commentary and sidebar where factions can coordinate response. Bring the conversation into the room and put it up on the Big Screen.

Of course, I hate scribing so this is a big plus for me, personally.