Irish actors, writers and musicians will be available for a "chat" from next week on a new global website.
Seven Weeks to St Patrick's is a site which, as its name implies, will run until the national holiday and feature a wide variety of well-known names from contemporary cultural life.
Every week from next Tuesday, two people will be available for an hour each to answer questions from admirers around the world. Among those who have already agreed to participate are authors Frank McCourt, Patrick McCabe and Colm Toibin, musician Gavin Friday and actor Aidan Quinn.
Seven Weeks has been set up by 30-year-old Gerard Power, a Dubliner who has been living in the US for the past seven years. Mr Power, whose background is in telecommunications, worked first in Colorado before moving to New York, where he established ArtShapes.com, a website intended "to show the world a more contemporary Ireland and to help rejuvenate Irish arts".
According to Mr Power, "the Internet overcomes inefficiencies and one of these is the way Ireland is portrayed, particularly in America." Although ArtShapes.com is a commercial site offering Irish-made products for sale, its creator insists the business can provide other services. These include a newsletter e-mailed to interested parties, regular competitions and virtual workshops with craft workers on the web. Mr Power now has work by 45 craftspeople on the ArtShapes.com site, which also sells books, CDs and videos, all with an Irish provenance.
He is in Dublin at the moment attending the annual ShowCase crafts fair at the RDS and is looking for further products to feature on his website. He describes his service as an "info-mediary" since, instead of proposing a substantial but indiscriminate range of products to customers, ArtShapes.com "offers consumers only the best of that particular segment".
Seven Weeks is the latest addition to the company and is being sponsored by Yahoo.com which is helping to publicise the series. Although no figures are available for how many people log on to website chats with the famous, a correlation exists between the popularity of the person involved and the size of audience. Mr Power has 10 names lined up for Seven Weeks but is still looking for four additional stars to participate.