The big Boskones, except for the very last one, had radios -- and Arisia had them too, even this year. Often there were (and are) multiple channels requiring someone in Ops to relay. And despite the internet in everyone's pants, there had been until very very recently an assumption that email was not a good way to reach people at runtime, and that the thing to do was go into Ops and see if anyone there could find them. That Ops has recently been doing so by cell phone instead of by radio isn't what changed things. The new thing was that people -- finally! -- realized that they didn't need to throw away their existing communications modes and replace them all with putting Ops in the middle.

Boskone could have replaced Big Ops with the Voodoo Message Board and given staff instructions to check it every hour. That our Voodoo Message Board is electronic and in our pants is not the innovation.