newbie: dynamic code loading

[Dave Pettypiece]

hi everyone,

i am extremely new to the python world, so any suggestions would be
helpful.

what i would like to do is be able to dynamically load python classes
either remotely from a network connection or locally, it doesn't really
matter to me. the catch is that the program which will be loading these
classes will have no prior knowledge of what the classes it will load
are named, only that they implement a well known interface.

essentially my question boils down to: does anyone know a nice way to
implement a "plug-in" architecture in python?

as a side note, is it possible to get around the security restriction
placed on the rexec module? (eg i want to be able to use sockets)

any help is greatly appreciated!

dave