to add more to Lien's post, here is how the guest speaker idea
might work.  First a speaker is selected.  then she would be
asked to write a short bio about themself or describe their
current work and interests, all which would be posted to the
list.  If people wanted more information or to dig deeper into
the speaker's interests or area of familiarization, likes to web
pages would be provided.  Questions for the speaker would not be
sent to the list, but to a specific e-mail address where they
would be collected for about one to two weeks and forwarded to
the speaker.  the speaker would then would respond to each
specific question like in the old Rolling Stone interview style
or write her response in narrative.  This has not yet been
decided.  After the guest has posted her responses to the
questions, she would be invited to hang out on the list for a
couple of weeks for discussion and dialogue.

some of us in the larger groups wish to use the most basic of
today's technology to provide the valuable insights and learning
that derives from the seminars that we organize.  We recognize
the limitations of those on the suburban fringe or those who may
not have a vicug in their community and who cannot benefit from
these experiences.  While this presents opportunity, it also
presents a few problems.  One is the increased amount of traffic
on the list.  More e-mail in your inbox.  it will also require
some commitment from some list members to organize this activity.
We might also face the difficulty of net tourism:  people jumping
on the list for a hot speaker who are not familiar with our
online community and then jumping off when that particular
seminar is finished.  I would be interested to learn if list
members strongly like or dislike the idea of guest speakers.

kelly