Data channel for conversations
Every so often, my friend Rob S calls, and we have a long conversation that touches on half a dozen of the latest trends in web technology, and at the end of the phone call I have a list of five to ten websites that I need to point him to for followup info.
This happens in discussions with other people, too, of course, both in person and by phone. I've sent email to four people in the past 24 hours or so giving them URLs of web pages that have come up in voice conversation.
What I really want is a data channel attached to a voice conversation. Sure, I could send the person emails or IM or text messages during the phone call, or I could spell out URLs by voice. But I want it to be more portable than that, and more directly tied to the voice discussion, and possible to do in person as well as by phone. And I want to be able to send search strings to use as well as URLs. I don't really see a way to implement this with current tech, but once we have the Internet plugged into our heads, then it should be easy to set up a Bluetooth or infrared auxiliary data channel.
I think I got the idea from a 1980s comic book called Starstruck, one of the best science fiction comic books ever, by Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta. It's been years since I've re-read it, but I vaguely recall that the android characters tended to have multiple channels of conversation at once. Good stuff.
