When the web chat gets a reasonable population, we can think about how chat might complement Engineering.SE
Please come and visit, and think about how to promote it.
http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/20403/engineering
(You need to be logged in to stackexchange.com and have 20 reputation to talk.)
First off, we ought to have some room owners in order to help with some of the minor things that come up in a chat room. Usually there isn't much for them to do, but there can be an expectation of they help explain chat room mechanics and help set the tone for the room. I'm not sure if we need a site mod (aka Robert) or an SE employee (aka Robert et al.) to set room owners or if any mod has that ability. I'm a room owner for the Whiteboard and would volunteer for the Engineer chat room.
Second, we need something to discuss. The Whiteboard tends to be one of the more civil and active chat rooms that SE has. That's partly accomplished by having a good range of off-topic subjects to cover (e.g. good booze, tech war stories, photography, woodworking, etc...) as well as a regular crowd that can tackle the "not on-topic for main but great for chat" type questions. I think that part will only come with time.
