By Ann Coleman (TMF AnnC)
March 31, 2000

I'm not really here. I'm really somewhere else today. On the Web, no one can tell where you are. We used to have datelines on our stories so you could see if someone was writing from Chicago or Washington, D.C. or Aruba. We dropped them when the whole thing got to be too big to manage. Apparently some of our editors thought the dateline should reflect reality, and running down writers who forgot to include them (so, of course, the editors didn't know where they were) was a bit much.

Then there was David Forrest (TMF Bogey) who wrote a weekly column for the Workshop last year, always from some place new. One week he was in Vail, Colorado, then it was Crabapple Cove, Maine. When the Masters Tournament was on, it was Augusta, Georgia. Finally his dateline read: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (May 14, 1999). In real time, he was always at his desk (and I do mean always), but in his heart I'm sure he was in Crabapple Cove. Bogey has moved to more managerial duties at the Fool, but I like to think that in his heart he is still in Loon Mountain, New Hampshire. (More likely, he's always Between a Rock and a Hard Place.)

Today I could actually have a cool dateline:

LAS VEGAS, NV (March 31, 2000)

But alas, they are no more.

Cooler than the dateline is the reason why I'm here. (Well, I'm not here yet, you understand, I'm still at home, but I will be here when you read this. Unless you are reading it from the archives, in which case I may have been dead for a few centuries -- I'm flattered that you are reading this.)

The reason why I will be/am/was in Las Vegas is the Mechanical Investing Convention, MICon2000. The folks on the Mechanical Investing message board have organized a convention where they are going to get together for two days of mechanical investing seminars, reports, and presentations. There may be a few hours available for whatever Vegas has to offer in the way of entertainment as well.

As far as I know this is the first time one of our communities has organized a major event like this, and the idea just blows me away. Here are a bunch of people who "know" each other only in the sense that they have exchanged ideas via electronic signals. This community has grown solely on the strength of those ideas and a shared commitment to improving their investing skills.

Think about it. Two hundred and thirty people plus spouses, kids, in-laws, and significant others are flying in from all over the country to spend two days with people that they have never met but feel they know based on their experiences on a Motley Fool message board. And the agenda is largely educational. Take a look: MICon2000. You'll love the logo.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Mechanical Investing board, it is the "graduate school" board for the Foolish Workshop area. A kind of great-grandchild of our Dow strategies, the MI board is where strategies like the Keystone 100 -- which we have talked about as a possible growth-stock version of the Foolish Four (more about that next week) -- as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of other strategies have been proposed, tested, and developed -- or rejected. The community is an amazing collection of talented and hardworking Fools who have spent countless hours developing and analyzing data and then generously sharing their findings with the community.

The sharing process is like compound growth. One person working alone can increase his knowledge, just like you can increase your savings by making steady deposits to a passbook savings account. But when freely shared, knowledge compounds like a good investment. Sometimes it's like adding sugar to yeast -- you get exponential growth.

I'm thrilled to be going (of course I'm thrilled when I drive across the river to Maryland -- yea, another state!), and I will report back on the proceedings next Tuesday. I'm switching my regular Monday slot with Barbara Bayer who will be writing Monday's report while I fly back from Vegas. Actually, she has already written it because on Monday she will be coming to Fool HQ in Alexandria, Virginia, from either New York or Florida, I've forgotten which.

Not that it matters. On the Web, no one knows where you are.

Fool on and prosper!