That's right, we're putting on clothes and emerging from behind the computer to go out in public and speak! We're not sure why we were invited - something to do with being 'citizen journalists.' Whatevs. We're always down for wine and cheese, especially if all they ask of us is to get on stage and ham it up.

Seriously, we're pretty amazed at the assembled speakers for this panel on "The State of Bay Area Online Journalism." Jeff Peline, Editor at CNet News; Bruce Koon, Ex. Editor of Knight Ridder Digital; Mark Fiore, Mercury News Political Cartoonist; Jeff Veen of Adaptive Path; Mary Hodder of Technorati and a panel of bigwigs from CBS MarketWatch, Yahoo, CNet News, KQED and Salon. We already feel like the poor, ugly cousin at the family reunion.

The Online News Association is sponsoring this event, which will be held at the CNet Headquarters on Second and Howard. It's open to the public, so if you have an interest in hearing about the state of local online media, asking questions of the distinguished panelists (or us) or just shamelessly networking, you should come on down.