But rapturous receptions for writers like Anthony Beevor, author of a tome on wartime Berlin, show that interest in real books at least matches the appetite for chit-chat.

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So far, it's at tech-oriented conferences like this where people are most aware of the "backchannel, " or the real-time electronic chit-chat going on about presentations as they occur.

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There is significant evidence that "work sampling, " the use of tests similar to the work being performed, is a better predictor of future performance than the usual job-interview chit-chat.

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Without further chit-chat, here are the charts and graphics.

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The e-mails, in English and Arabic, contain "both evidence and chit chat, " the source said.

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They would then chit-chat on their way to the meeting, agree on a strategy and present it to the stewards.

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Everyone comes in because everyone knows how important it is to share ideas and have idle chit-chat as well as important conversations about the projects everyone on the team is working on.

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But Mr Obama likes ideas more than chit-chat and they are, at least on the surface, ideological allies.

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"No more trying to find time to call and chit-chat, " is how one poll respondent described the business appeal of texting over talking.

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The problem, of course, is what's lost when that chit-chat goes.

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