Austin Frakt says conference calls should be more like Twitter. I agree! I would go further: I think that people should use each medium exactly so far as it’s useful, and should use each to augment the others. For instance, I believe that people should use email up to the point that everyone is talking past everyone else and the conversation is muddled, but no further. If there’s information to be conveyed that can’t be conveyed via telephone, I believe that it shouldn’t be conveyed via telephone. Likewise, if a rapid back-and-forth would be useful, I believe telephones should be used for that. If the conversation is more asynchronous, particularly if it’s happening across many time zones, I believe email is valuable for that. And I believe conducting part of a conversation over email, part over voice, is the right idea.

My “some methods are appropriate in some contexts, some in others” approach has made a big splash approximately nowhere.