Thanks for the reply.  My idea is a bit hazy but it might be worth teasing out separate strands (might as well do it here as anywhere)

1. Setting up in business, with the question on "busy".  A lot of the critiquing here is about business methods and practices.  One of the easiest criticisms from the right is: "Yeah, and which business did you set up today?"  If we can agree that new forms of business need to be developed then I think it an interesting project for ET to ponder business models.  The example that came to mind yesterday was "setting up an electrical system."  To generate a lot of power is complex, but to see how the basic circuits work, to try out different energy sources etc. you can start with a basic circuit of some kind.  I'd like to get my paws on a "real existing" business (no matter how small) just to see how (e.g.) the tax laws work.  I think, also, that a "we work together" model (a business?) can be as ad-hoc and informal as one likes when the "we" is less than ten people.  Above ten, though, it seems that there are economies of scale and/or new methods and/or dangers and/or etc... that I enjoy thinking about in the abstract but would also enjoy testing in the...material...in the less abstract...An experiment, then, in new forms of business (=economics).

2. Creating a physical book.  Okay, let's call it a "Vanity Publishing" project.  If it quacks like a duck etc.  Because I'm planning on publishing other person or people's writing (only with his, her, their permision of course), then the "vanity" part is maybe not so vain, but let's go with the phrase.  What I'd really like is a "non computer" element of ET, maybe in the same way that ETers enjoy gathering away from their computer screens (in various combinations and for various reasons.)  Now that books can be created "on demand"--a new technology--then...what I'm thinking is that idea 1 can be incorporated with this: what is the best model for publishing "extended-word-projects".  Is it .pdf?  (The only one I've really read, I have to admit, was RAW's Prometheus Rising, which I printed out--100 pages of .pdf is too much for my eyeballs--may just be me.)

3. Examining (recycle, reuse!) the ET archive.  The search facilities on scoop (I may have got this all wrong and would be very happy to be enlightened) are limited.  I can search by one criterion, and I can choose one of two time periods (this month/everything).  I'd like to be able to do more complex searches.  I think the ET wiki idea has aspects of this, but it doesn't seem to be a well-used resource (again, I may be wrong on this, I haven't checked numbers.)  A collation of ideas, so that people can refer to the "growing knowledge base"...something like that.

4. An ETer mentioned the sitemeter stats to me the other day.  Here are the latest:

I can't work out how many "readers who don't post" that makes, but that silent (and hopefully enjoying themselves) audience somehow connect to 1), 2) and 3) above.

It's early days, maybe this idea (these ideas) of mine are just....pfff...but I like ideas and I like testing them against realities of various kinds...

Am I making any sense?

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.