Twelve of us sat around a conference room table in Utah, all with cell phones and laptops, all with similar jobs, but from different parts of the country. Not long ago, a group of business folk such as ours would have splintered into a half-dozen side conversations the moment there was a break in the formal discussions. But not this time. Whenever our meeting hit a pause, we all looked down toward our laptops' glowing displays and checked our e-mail, the weather or the stock market, or deftly scrolled through messages on cell phones.
