Instead of purchasing frontal talks at conferences, the idea of a symposium with e- collaboration seems much more attractive. Workshops can facilitate 'birds of a feather', from beak 2 beak and build flocks. After all, all can be mined on the web.

The Social Software in the Academy Workshop at the USC Annenberg Center just recently seemed to provide such an exemplary event. One of the co-chairs was Dana Boyd, the presenters' bios are also available. The papers and materials can be viewed here. Ssaw also tagged with social bookmarks. The 'event space' also provides a 'brain-dump' of all the talking.

Very inspiring, wish I was in California and not Sydney!