It's kind of like when you are shopping for a major purchase, like a car. You do copious amounts of research, but at some point you make your decision based on the information you have on hand. You may not have made the perfect decision, but it was the best you could do while still juggling other commitments and responsibilities.

But where are the boundaries? I've noticed lately that it seems to have become quite acceptable to send instant messages to others in the middle of meetings. So, in addition to listening to multiple speakers at these corporate get-togethers, we now have to juggle instant message input from those same colleagues. Inevitably, during such a meeting someone will be asked a question, and it's apparent that he hasn't been paying attention to the speaker. Rather, he's been reading and responding to comments about said speaker or some other topic entirely.

Let's examine another common IT tableau. Many hard-working IT professionals attend conferences. At these events, attendees are often given the opportunity to sit in on as many as six or seven speaker sessions per day on a variety of complex topics. Attendance at these events often requires travel on the part of the IT employee and an expense of several thousand dollars on the part of the IT professional's employer.

Yet, in spite of the great deal of time and expense associated with this activity, it's becoming common to see half the audience typing away on their computer screens while purportedly listening to the speaker. Since many of these events are now set up with wireless access, attendees can be connected to their offices during sessions.

Now, it's certainly possible that the dedicated IT professionals are using their PCs to take notes. My own informal survey suggests, however, that this is rarely the case. Rather, most of the screens I've eyeballed show that their owners are answering e-mail, working on projects or even playing solitaire.