Face-to-face meetings can be hard on resources. Often there's just not the time or the money to bring people together. This is especially true for those working in rural areas or those who need to communicate with others in regional offices. Therefore, people need to be more creative about how they communicate with each other. Online social networks, such as Yammer, LinkedIn and Facebook help to fill these communication gaps, offering spaces to share information and to engage in conversations with others. However, a new tool on the block - TodaysMeet - takes a slightly different approach.
TodaysMeet is a simple chat facility that can be used by anyone who wants to open a discussion. It works on the premise of opening a 'room' (without signing up and logging in) for a specified period of time. It's simply a case of picking a name for your room and the time you want to keep it open for. Options include: one hour, two hours, eight hours, one day, one week, one month and one year. Payment is required for yearly use.
As soon as the room is open, you will see a 'room tools' button where you can copy the link to invite other people to the conversation. Other features include the ability to pick up an embed code or QR code for the chat room, and save a transcript of the conversation. Much like Twitter, each message has a 140-character limit to encourage concise points. TodaysMeet was developed for teachers as a way for students to discuss topics outwith the classroom, but it has relevance for anyone who wants to host a meeting or chat, or provide a backchannel for an event.
