Hello Doug:
                      We are working on a distant relative of iTunes U that might be called
"virtual conferencing".  This involves podrecording of the audio component of
conference talks, and linking with the accompanying slideshows [ppt or pdf].
We experimented with this at the recent American Chemical
Society [ACS] meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, and at regional meetings of science educators
in the Atlantic Provinces.
Here is an account from the ACS:
"The Division of Chemical Information (CINF) sponsored a session at the
231st National Meeting of ACS (held in Atlanta) in March titled: "Social
Software and Chemical Information."  There were eight speakers in the
session, presenting on topics of blogs, wikis, podcasts, and more.  These
talks are now available as audio (MP3) files, with accompanying slides (PDF
or PPT format) on the CINF website.  To access these files, point your
browser to http://www.acscinf.org, then select Meetings button, then click
on either "Technical Session" or "Abstracts" for the Atlanta meeting.  You
will see PDF, PPT, and MP3 links for papers 1-8.  Use any MP3 software
(e.g., QuickTime or iTunes are both free to download) to listen to the
audio files, either on a computer equipped with speakers, or on a portable
MP3 player.  The audio files are quite large, so may take a few minutes to
download.

On behalf of CINF and Erja Kajosalo and myself (co-organizers of the
session), I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following folks:
Brian Lynch and Lai Im Lancaster, who not only participated in the session
as speakers, but who also recorded the audio files and provided technical
advice; Rick Williams (CINF Webmaster), who loaded files and designed the
web page for delivery of files; and finally, all of the session speakers
who so graciously gave permission to be recorded and broadcast via our website.
Please feel free to forward this message to other communities who might be
interested, and feel free to contact me with questions or comments."

We hope to be able to run another pilot at the meeting of the Canadian Society
for Chemistry in Winnipeg next spring.
The presentation in the USA received excellent publicity [see attached file]
from the ACS and also the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World
[see 2nd attachment].

We feel that the concept will enhance the value of typical large science conferences
through making material available to those who cannot attend physically,
and also solves problems for attendance associated with simultaneous multiple sessions.

As per the ACS quote
Please feel free to forward this message to other communities who might be
interested, and feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

Sincerely

Brian Lynch

Brian M. Lynch, M. Sc., Ph. D. [Melbourne], FCIC
Senior Research Professor
Department of Chemistry
Room 3067, Physical Sciences Complex

St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia B2G 2W5, Canada
Tel: 902-867-0450
Fax: 902-867-2414