Cory Doctorow posted Chat as a side-channel for face-to-face meetings. This got me thinking – I’ve used MSN Messenger many times during conference calls, to discuss things real-time with certain attendees but off-line from the call. It’s proved especially useful when having a conference call with one of my clients, and one of their suppliers/customers. Kind of takes the place of the “lean over and whisper” thing, when you’re not all in the same room.