Mac + WisCon?
Any of y'all who are going to WisCon and who are bringing Mac laptops (that have wireless capability): if you'd be willing to try an experiment, could you go download SubEthaEdit? It's free!
The idea is that it lets multiple people edit a text document, all at the same time, using different computers that are networked together. Sadly, it's available only for Mac OS X.
What I'd like to try is collaborative note-taking—multiple people sitting in a panel taking notes, everyone editing the same document. I have no idea whether it'll work, but I think if nothing else it'd be fun to try. And people have been using this tool to do this sort of note-taking at computer conferences lately, and have reported good results.
Of course, this presupposes that any of y'all will be (a) attending panels, and (b) interested in taking notes on any of the panels you attend, and (c) carrying your computers to said panels. Maybe I'm the only one who does that. But hey, the software is free, so it can't hurt to download it, right?
The same software could also be used for other forms of collaboration. Two (or more!) writers working on the same story at the same time! Or, more likely, working on the same nonfiction piece at the same time; there are pieces Mary Anne and I have collaborated on that this approach might have worked for.
I've never actually used the software, so I just don't know what it's like. Might not be useful at all. But I'd love to experiment with it.
