In some (other) idle moments, these thoughts have crossed my mind...

Virtual drinking fountain/cafe as a place to meet up? This could be common to every department. Wherever you were in the University, there would be a drinking fountain there where you could shoot the breeze with others. Informal chat, as a place to germinate new idea/articles, etc.

Live on-line lecture or Q and A sessions? We could get special guests in to have a chat. This will require, maybe, a more live chat thing (maybe a chunk of Java?), and we could get well-known astronomers/astronauts/you-name-it in to have a chat and 'spread the word'. Don't know how h2g2 might set itself up for 'chat' technology in the future...

Live events - e.g. meteor shower observation. People like Jimi could host a night of gazing and exploring the sky. Obviously going to regional, but still possible. Maybe post notification on a Dept noticeboard (Upcoming Events Board). Again, this could be common to every department. Except, maybe, the Quantum Chromodynamics Dept!

Live sky plot - see what the sky should look like at any time wherever you are on the planet. Heheh! I have a chunk of Perl code to do this, but presenting the resulting graphic might be tricky. Can quite easily caluclate planet/sun/moon rises, etc - like an almanac. If anyone has not seen the Starry Night program, check it out Right Now! It's easily the coolest app I've ever played with... (click here for a demo download, and then buy it for Bob's sake!) We could do a partnership thing here because it's Internet-savvy, so lots of people could agree to explore together, or swap asteroid coordinates and actually hunt them down in the night sky, etc.

Man, there's no end to what we can do! Vive l'Internet, as the French probably don't say due to their restrictive laws on Internet use and cryptography... :-)