In all my professional training and teaching, the most valuable
information exchange happened (probably) during the coffee break, not
during the classroom section itself, when people had the opportunity to
level questions and answers without interrupting a speech or
presentation.

I already participated in a training section based on that factor, when
coffee breaks were induced every hour and they last 30 minutes each...
it was served in another room, and other than juices, cakes, cookies and
milk they served plenty of paper, pencil, literature and a black (white)
boards for drawings and fast explanations.  I don't need to say that
lots of people never return from the break to the main room, since the
discussions and technical stuff being explained there were much more
interesting and useful.

I think about [OT] as the coffee room, where no obligation to the
subject is imposed, and you can listen (or read) if you want, but in
general everybody pays attention and learn something.  The best example
of that was when a well internationally known IBM visionary scientist
went to our building to talk to 200 people about the new age of light
communication mainframes (S/390), it took one hour, then the coffee
break took another hour talking about the new tag identification chips
(it was in 1994 or 95) to be used widely and substitute bar codes,
automate stores and tremendously speed up inventories, help to locate
lost things even in your house.  Everybody returned (non-programmed
section) to the main room for another 2 hours to talk about this new
chip and its future applications (widely used during the last 4 years in
the Orlando's highways tolls, hospital badges, etc.)... which section do
you believe was more productive?.. which one do you believe ended up
with almost 30% more audience?

Now, why am I talking about it? just because I lost the count of how
many long [OT] thread I started here, and I feel responsible for them
completely.  Unfortunately one of them, months ago, turned and ended up
in a nasty religion discussion, not my fault, but I feel guilty anyway.
You can not imagine how many "silent" this-list-readers did learn
something about magnetism and moto-continue machines last week, I don't
need them to raise their hands, I know they are there, how? because I
did it by myself for so many years, invisible, reading, listening and
learning, still doing it.  Fortunate are those who did born with all the
universe knowledge in their brains, I was not one of them, even my poor
English still very hard as a third language.

As I already said before, I believe that [OT] is as much important as
the main subject at *any* discussion list, while the main subject is the
back bone that holds the list. [OT]s should be related to the main
subject somehow, you can scan the archives and try to find about fishing
or sports... Of course you can not agree, it is your choice and right,
but try to live and practice only what you did learn in school,
including personal hygiene (that you need to wash your hands before to
eat, brush your teeth, take a daily shower, comb your hair, and so on)
and you will ended up with your toilet paper in your hands without
knowing how to use it, and *that* is so much important to know, isn't?

:)
Wagner.