Starting the Conversation?

At this point, I have posted the following below:

1) A conference abstract and rough agenda as followed in the November 19 meeting.
2) A rough summation of the issues raised by each of the participants during the course of the meeting.
3) A list of points for discussion raised by the audience and the participants for discussion at the conclusion of the presentation.

At this point, it seems to me there are a number of issues to be discussed, and I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on them...

At present, this blog is not open to the outside world (i.e., you have to know the address to go to it). Once the chaos of the quarter is over, I'm hoping to devote a half-hour or so, three days a week to contributing postings. Nevertheless, I don't want to be the only star of the show, and nor does Erik. Therefore, I welcome "guest contributions" to be posted to join the conversation--for the time being, you can email your thoughts to me and I'll post them as such (perhaps Erik can take the first crack at this). However, it seems to me that this raises several questions about the next steps that we should take:

1) Should the blog simply be a private conversation piece for the time being? Or could it be made more public to widen the conversation?

2) I hope those of you who participated in the roundtable shared my view that it was quite successful. I'd like to develop this into some kind of thematic conversation for the coming MESA conference in Montreal. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

3) A long-term goal of this conversation and project would be to prepare an edited volume that would address the neglected historiography of Sufism and its institutions during the Middle Period in various historical and geographical contexts. I'd like any thoughts I can get on the feasibility of this project.

4) Do you know any others who would like to join the conversation? If so, I'm open to suggestions!