Each person to a communication session records their contributions to the communication session. Metadata is maintained for each contribution to identify the time of the contribution and any other useful information to enable the content of the contribution to be accessed at a later point in time. When a portion of the communication session is to be recreated, the people involved in the communication session are requested to provide their contributions for a particular period of time or all contributions associated with a particular topic. Users will then select and forward previously recorded contributions that they are willing to have included in the recreation. By collecting contributions from the individuals involved in the communication session, the intended portion of the communication session may be recreated. Since each person is recording their own contribution to the communication session, no explicit permission is required to record the conversation.