Another often overlooked use for IRC is as a side channel during events. In conferences, we'll all be in a room, on IRC commenting on talks. During the BP oil s

Another often overlooked use for IRC is as a side channel during events. In conferences, we'll all be in a room, on IRC commenting on talks. During the BP oil spill, a channel (#theoildrum) had 500+ people, including some with oilfield experience, discussing the live ROV feeds, as well as scanning to find lots of ROV feeds that were not visible to the general public.