how synchronic can conversations become in blogging? how quickly can conversations occur (both with or without plug ins, RSS, etc.)? these were ‘hot’ topics at blogtalk this year (at least at the after conference dinners), and very interesting to my particular research. i venture to say without plug ins of some sort, blog chat will still be significantly delayed. i have seen quite a few plug ins now, and today i found an interesting one on dina’s blog called chatango. i have also found that you can use skype on your site, but it is a bit messier as both people must have the program installed on his or her computer. i am using it more as a portal than a resource for meeting new people/contacts.

we used a plug in on our jokkmokk blog called the blob (must search for link) which was very effective for this type of event coverage. the draw back was the loss of comments. we noticed a very specific behavior with this plugin, however…flocking. the blog also shows how many people are on your site simultaneously. when people noticed that they were not the only ones looking at a site, they were more likely to go into the chat (which offered both the option to use voice and text). will having a chat plug in embedded in your blog make conversation more synchronous, or will it simply become a portal for pre-arranged meetings, similar to my skpye button?