It's not very new. We adapted it from some academic models and models from other industries. Our goal is to facilitate sharing of information in depth. We don't see enough of that happening today. These vary in quality and there is no opportunity to ask questions of the author or challenge the data or the conclusions.
Some people come to conferences, where they see many short presentations.
There is never time for more than a few minutes of discussion. Even in panel sessions, only a few minutes are spent by discussants on each other's opinions or data. Another problem at conferences is the promotion of credentials instead of the promotion of data. We're mindful of an article by Bill Hetzel on software metrics in which he complained of the difficulty of tracking down the data behind many claims. Many people learn techniques from peers.