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Thanks, Barnaby, for reminding us that many acts of selection run on automatic pilot: one rounds up the usual suspects and declares the result to be significant (or to have justified the funding). But is this not true of "organizing" art events/exhibitions as well as "curating" symposia? What concerns me is the proposal to substitute terms of category (curating/organizing) for a value judgment (thoughtful/mindless) or a labor hierarchy (person in charge/ secretary). I believe that even those of us who provided the instructive examples of responsibilities that included selecting both symposium speakers and art events can probably still distinguish between them. What is it that some of us feel is to be gained by abandoning our responsibility to criticize something that is done poorly (not bothering to seek out new ideas and new speakers) in favor of expanding the territory covered by the term "curating"? Cheers, Marlena