A Safer Place to Meet

Brian Brouillette, head of education services at Hewlett-Packard, holds an hourlong "coffee talk" with his staff each month. The talks are a decades-old ritual started by company cofounder William Hewlett, meant to bring bosses and workers together in a congenial, open format. Hewlett used to do it in person, but times change. Now Brouillette chats over the Web, reaching half of his 80 global offices at once.

In last month's chat he PowerPointed his way through the division's sales goals and praised an employee who had recently won a patent. Employees instant-messaged Brouillette with questions and comments. Those who wanted anonymity typed their comments on an icon of a yellow legal pad. "Information tends to get filtered by the time it gets up to me. This is a good way for me to get a pulse on what the heck is going on out there," says the 21-year HP (NYSE:HP - News) veteran.

For all its tricks, Web conferencing has yet to make voice transmissions truly intelligible. The technology exists, but bandwidth constraints make speaking through a PC akin to using a walkie-talkie. So a traveling salesperson in an airport lounge is still forced to juggle cell phone and laptop while conferencing on the road. "Voice-over IP [Internet Protocol] is the missing link that's going to pull it all together," says Andrew Nilssen, an analyst at Wainhouse Research.