The first thing that probably should be done is to establish everyones CVs/abilties and where they stand on the project hierarcy. If we've got project managers/team leaders/etc lets use them for their experience, also use more experienced coders as mentors for the less experienced.
The next stage before anything goes any further is, IMHO, to produce a requirements spec for what the project should acheive.
I will be interested to see ( and participate - this is not a negative comment) in how a distributed project will actually work.