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Hello Jane and Mary Elluminate is a web conferencing software that allows for virtual meetings and conferences. It connects people via the Internet-you can talk to each other, use instant chat, and the presenter can up load slides and present them. It is easy to use once you get the hang of things like which button to press which allows you to speak. Ideally, you need a microphone so you can speak, but you can do without and communicate by text. I have been involved with it a few times now - we have used it for staff meetings. I have also been to 'lectures' - the speaker has presented her/his slides as a 'lectures' and then the participants have had a discussion. The other useful thing is that it can be recorded, so if you miss the session, you can listen to it at a more convenient time. http://www.elluminate.com/academic_edition.jsp I know there are a couple of my colleagues on this list who have used Elluminate-what di you think of it? The advantages are that it connects people from all over the world. The only 'problem' can be time differences. I must admit, I have also attended a couple of sessions where the connection has dropped so that can be a bit frustrating at times. I have access to the software here at Otago Polytechnic and a great support team. If people were interested, I could organize a session - it would be free. There are several approaches we could take: 1. Have a meeting for PhD students who cannot make the face-to-face meeting that is being organised by Jane. This could take the form of an informal discussion/support group, or it could take a more formal approach. or 2. We could decide on having a mini lecture/conference. A colleague of mine has been organising a course where he invites a speaker to give a 10 minute lecture and then opens it up to the participants for discussion-we could do something like that. Here is the URL for a course I am involved with about e-learning and facilitation of online communities. If you look at the entries for September 2nd and August 28th, you will be able to download two sessions. Whilst the actual topic may not be of interest to you, it will still be useful to see how the program works http://online-learning-communities.blogspot.com/ I am happy to organise a session if there is any interest because it would meet the requirements of a course I am taking about . It also feeds into my PhD research about e-mentoring. best wishes Sarah