May Highlights
TSI is hiring: Director of Engineering and new internship program!
We
are excited to announce that we are looking to fill the following
positions. These are on-site roles here at the TSI offices in Palo
Alto, CA.
- Director of Engineering:
This person will provide vision and management for all of TSI's
technology initiatives, such as seastead designs and prototypes, and
have some involvement with hands-on execution. This is a paid,
full-time position on TSI's Executive Staff, reporting to the Executive
Director.
Design Contest Winners Announced
We have finished judging our first 3-D design competition, and have posted a showcase of the winners.
We had a great level of participation, with 41 entries being
submitted. More importantly, the quality of the entries was generally
very impressive and the competition was very close, as several of the
winners won by the smallest margin possible.
Participants
succeeded in capturing the pioneering spirit of seasteading and
expressing a vibrant, lively feeling through beautiful architecture!
New Strategy Initiatives
Here
at TSI, we've been thinking a lot about how to improve our strategy and
get some tangible results sooner. After collecting feedback from our
community in a recent strategy survey, we've decided to immediately begin planning the following projects:
A ship-based ocean venture,
likely involving low-cost residential condominiums and possibly other
business ventures, and launched with additional outside funding. See
our "Strategy" section of this newsletter for more details.
TSI Grants ProgramWe have announced a new $20,000 grants program
to support our community in their efforts to design and build
structures to help advance the goals of seasteading. Note that the
Ephemerisle-related grant proposals are due at the end of June, so apply now!
Awareness and Community
Membership Program
Since our
Membership Program was launched on April 15th (our anniversary), 22 pioneers have signed up! Please consider
joining them to support the long-term future of seasteading.
Website/Social Media
We've just launched a redesign of our
homepage.
The new design conveys a much clearer sense of what TSI is all about
with both our mission statement and images of seasteads
front-and-center. It also conveys a greater sense of credibility as a
real, action-oriented organization, with our total donations, mailing
list subscriber count, and key press coverage prominently shown.
The
new homepage was designed by volunteer Nathan Manousos. Volunteers
Steven Kane and Ben Lavender assisted with implementation. Thanks very
much to all of you!
Stats:
Press/Awareness:
Blogs:- Those
of you interested in the political theory of competitive government and
seasteading, remember that we've moved these discussions to the new
blog Let A Thousand Nations Bloom (RSS). If you're interested in this topic, please help us spread the word about the new blog.
- The TSI blog has split into two blogs: A main TSI blog, and an engineering TSI blog covering technical topics.
- Some April posts to check out:
Events:
-
Our May Social was attended by the Canadian film team that is profiling
TSI for their upcoming documentary on nation building. Thanks to all
the TSI supporters who came out to be on film!
-
Maker Faire - The Seasteading Institute just participated in the upcoming Maker Faire
- the world's largest DIY festival - in San Mateo on May 30th &
31st. Our exhibit featured design contest entrants, a kiddie pool, and
materials to "build your own seastead". It was very popular and
received an "Editor's Choice Award".
-
TSI will be exhibiting at FreedomFest
in Las Vegas in July. We don't know whether or not Patri will be
giving a talk, but we'll have a booth and more of our awesome new
brochures that went so quickly at Maker Faire. This will be a huge,
fabulous event (although expensive), so check it out!
- Our
June Social will be a backyard barbecue, graciously hosted by TSI
supporter Na'ama Moran. Mark your calendar for the afternoon of June
21st and be sure to join the Meetup group for more details.
Conferences:
-
Second Annual Seasteading Conference - Planning continues. Mark your
calendars for Sep. 28-30 (Monday evening, full day Tuesday, Wednesday
through dinner, location TBD).
-
First Ephemerisle Festival
- Planning continues, we are building a website and researching the
location. Mark your calendars for Fri Oct. 2 - Sun Oct 4 (in the
Sacremento River Delta).
Communities:
There has been active discussion on the seasteading forums about the
idea of starting a community of seasteaders someplace, where they can
live together, develop seasteading technologies, businesses, and actual
seasteads. Key links:
Business & Engineering
As
mentioned earlier, we have made substantial changes in our strategy in
these areas, based on the strategy survey. Expect to see these
categories as our strategic foci going forward.
Cruise Ship Venture
Patri
has started drafting a business plan for the venture, and it will be
published on the blog for feedback sometime this month. The business
model will likely be either a residential ship which cruises the world,
or a commercial ship which travels a short loop (like LA -> Mexico),
although staying put in international waters is possible as well. If
you are interested in keeping up to date on this project, please subscribe to the mailing list for occasional announcements, which will be more detailed than what we include in this TSI newsletter.
SFS Construction
As a result of the strategy survey, we have announced a new $20,000
grant program
to support our community in their efforts to design and build
structures to help advance the goals of seasteading. We offer
shorter-term grants for structures to be displayed at Ephemerisle (due
by the end of June!), and longer-term grants for structures which can
be developed anywhere in the world (can be submitted any time,
evaluated quarterly).
Engineering Research
-
A series of 7 final reports and updated cost estimates for our patented spar platform design are available on the ClubStead engineering page.
Reports include architectural design, hydrodynamic analysis,
construction and installation, weather conditions, structural analysis,
and more.
- Breakwater Research - Nothing to report yet.
Administrative
TSI is growing - in April we hired Eric Jacobus as our Administrative
Assistant, and we are currently looking a Director of Engineering and
an Event Project Manager. Detailed job descriptions and information on
how to apply are available on
our website.