Blending online and face-to-face conversation

I have talked in the past about telepresence and beaming into a Knowledge Café and also looked at some spectacular Kinect based technology were the user is able to see and talk to people inside another room via an interactive 3D display.

I have yet to experiment with any of this technology myself but I just spotted that Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner having been doing some very interesting work in blending online and face-to-face conversation.

And none of this is using expensive or exotic technology, just everyday stuff such as laptops, smartphones, Skype and Whatsapp.

Take a look, you may well be able to use some of these ideas in your own workshops and get-togethers.