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Ephemerisle lessons learned
Oct. 6th, 2009 07:14 pmThis got long. Here are the subjects:
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
2. Make the event longer
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
5. Houseboats should customize.
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
A thought about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit and risks are not too insane.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
------------------
( The lessons in much greater detail )
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
2. Make the event longer
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
5. Houseboats should customize.
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
A thought about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit and risks are not too insane.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
------------------
( The lessons in much greater detail )
