[strlen]

One interesting tactic that we had at Yahoo and have adopted at a start-up (which includes several ex-Yahoos) is the "stand-up meeting", where the idea is that we all stand (as not to be comfortable and not have the meeting drag on for hours) and merely say what we are doing that may be a blocker to others (or where we are being blocked by somebody else).

Another idea (for engineers) is setup an IRC server and have everybody run a screened (as in the screen utility) client on a stable UNIX machine in a common channel. Screen on a stable UNIX machine provides persistence, IRC provides real time ability. 37signals campfire provides the same functionality (real time, but also persistent chat) for less technical people.