Wifi to the aid of the wandering mind?

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So far in Israel I've seen only a couple of instances of conferences that offer wifi to attendees with laptops (and until now I've seen very few laptops at these conferences). Having read numerous blog posts written during conference sessions (on many of the blogs I read) I've been interested in giving it a try myself, but the opportunity still hasn't presented itself. Frankly, though some of these real-time reports have been extensive and even enlightening, I wouldn't mind if people wouldn't simply jot down their notes in their word processors and then type them up, with a bit more reflection, after the sessions about which they've reported.

But maybe they post about these sessions because if they don't, they'll be using their laptops for other purposes (and not only to play online games while bored). I can picture myself, for instance, hearing a speaker make a particular claim, and then saying to myself "wait a minute, I remember a page that shows that the opposite is true...", and then starting to search for it, becoming more and more engaged in my search (and the various tangents on which it leads me) and less and less focused on the session itself.

I'm quite sure that wifi-enabled laptop holders instant message each other during conferences. If they're at the same session, they might be making comments "behind the back" of the person presenting, and if they're at different sessions, they may be asking whether it's worthwhile jumping over to hear what's being said somewhere else. I'm not aware of any instances of participants instant messaging the speaker while he or she is speaking, but I'm quite sure it's already happened.

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Go to: The tedium of real time.