[bane]

Like I said, it can backfire in weird ways. I think it happened because the silence rule made people stop verbal communications, which is the most natural thing in an open office, and it never switched to using email because well...it seems weird to email somebody who's right there. So email clients stayed closed and the communications culture just generally shut down.

[andrewflnr]

Odd. Everywhere I've been with an open office, it's perfectly normal to use electronic chat with someone who's next to you. I guess you would want to make that part of the culture early on, to make it less awkward.