I don't know about on the inside, but i feel channel 9 is a good thing for the outside. The videos are definitely a big plus. I personally feel I am more aware of what is going on at microsoft.

The coffeehouse, the main problem is, and i think it is with any forum, or newsgroup where a lot of people use it, is that it gets a lot of clutter. I normally just read the first post of a thread, mainly because of RSS.