Join Us Monday And Tuesday For The Brand-New InformationWeek Live

Join us Monday and Tuesday when we're launching a new series of events: InformationWeek Live, a real-time podcast featuring InformationWeek editors and top guests. You'll be able to listen in to a Q&A as it happens on the most important technology issues, discuss the conversation in text chat, and ask your own questions.Our official launch is Tuesday, when I'll be talking with InformationWeek senior editor Andy Dornan about virtualization and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Right now, virtualization is all about server consolidation, but the marriage of virtualization and SOA will let IT shops be more flexible in deploying resources. SOA breaks big enterprise applications into tiny components, virtualization helps you spread those components where they make the most sense, all over the IT infrastructure. Andy and I will discuss the benefits, drawbacks, and limitations of SOA and virtualization.

That's Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

But first, we're holding a public test Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern. The primary goal is to make sure the technology works and we know how to use it. However, just so we're not all breathing into our microphones for a half-hour, a couple of my colleagues have graciously agreed to join us. InformationWeek editor, online, Alexander Wolfe and West Coast News Editor Michael Singer and I will discuss the latest tech headlines, and hopefully get in some lively disagreement. Feel free to join in the discussion and help us try out this technology.

To participate, just come back to this blog post and click the badge when you're ready to join the show.

That'll take you to the InformationWeek Live page on the TalkShoe network, where you can listen to the call and participate in the text chat.

You can listen and participate in the voice discussion by dialing (724) 444-7444, Call ID: 12478. But even if you decide to phone in, you'll want to visit the InformationWeek Live page to participate in the text chat backchannel for the show.

TalkShoe specializes in delivering these kinds of live community call-ins, on subjects including technology, health, politics, self-improvement -- you name it, they seem to have it.

Internet events are going to emerge as a major trend on the Internet. Right now, the Internet is pretty much a store-and-forward medium. I write a blog post (like this one), you come along later and read. You send me an e-mail, I come along later and read it. Instant messaging is real-time, but it's mostly a one-on-one channel. Chatrooms and live streaming audio and video have never really stuck as mainstream channels. Cory Ondrejka, formerly CTO of Linden Lab, and now a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, Annenberg, described interaction on the Web as "leaving bread crumbs."

But virtual worlds such as Second Life, and games like World of Warcraft, show that it's possible to hold real-time events where groups can gather and do something together. And TalkShoe is like Second Life for your ears.

Events are going to prove to be a big part of the Internet, and InformationWeek will lead the way. Join us.