Andrez - I should also have mentioned that I would never in a million years advocate virtual folk sessions instead of, or as alternatives to the real thing. Everything you say about real, human musical interaction in a group is true. It's whether we can make use of the current networking habits of the young to draw them into walking through our doors.

Here's a parallel problem in my locality. Our village drama & music group is a fine group of amateur performers who put on cracking productions. One of their members was chatting to me in the pub recently about the difficulty of getting young people into the group and the ageing population of the current members. Familiar tale? I thought you'd recognise it!

Here's a strategy they've adopted: they're emailing round community groups and local schools, inviting them to attend an open showcase in the village hall (tonight as it happens) to talk about forthcoming productions ("Hood" is the upcoming Christmas show) and to invite participation. They're going to target local school orchestras to see if they can tempt the young musicians into the shows - and keep them there. Some fancy web stuff - not by itself - but as an adjunct to this human activity, might also have its place.