This is a guest post from Jim Lee, author of the paper Castles In The Sea: A Survey of Artificial Islands and Floating Utopias in our Misc Resources section.

I've created a Flickr Group for seasteading images.  If you'd like to be able to add photos, just email us your Flickr username and some example pictures.  You can also subscribe to it by RSS.  We plan to integrate the feed into the site at some point, but using a mature external service seemed like the easiest thing for now.  Here is a live slideshow of the photostream:

Sorry this is late, I've been sick since Friday, and a bit overwhelmed with the email deluge resulting from our big media week last week.  Plus Monday was a holiday, so Friday will be my seasteading day this week.  But I wanted to get this email out because there's lots in it and will be lots more on Monday, I expect.

As I mentioned in the OTC trip report, there is a huge amount of uncertainty in our cost estimates, because we aren't sure how the expense of a seastead will compare to that of an oil platform.  Since we believe that the success of seasteading hinges on whether it can be done at a reasonable price, this will be one of our key areas of research this year.

We seem to be having some database issues with the website today.  Please bear with us. 

 Just as described in Wayne's original seasteading paper, Rich Sowa built an island out of plastic bottles in net bags.  Here's a video:

 Like libertarians, or economists.

The Reason & Marginal Revolution posts about generated significant direct traffic.  But the avalanche of net recognition (slashdot, gizmodo, etc.) didn't start until the wired.com article.  The Wired article brought us about 3-4x the direct traffic as Reason, and 30x the indirect traffic.

My conclusion is that it's important for marketing efforts to avoid echo chambers.  Seasteading is interesting and inspiring to many more groups than libertarians, and we should pitch it accordingly.

There is a lot of debate and worry about climate change.  Most are worried about warming and sea level rises, which would cover coastal land and reduce usable landmass.  Others are worried about global cooling.  A significant swing in either direction would substantially change the latitudes at which human life is most comfortable.

Which is where seasteads come in.  The more of the earth's population and economy which are on seasteads, the more robustness the world has against climate change.  Unlike traditional buildings on land, seasteads are geographically flexible.  Our main motivation for this is to empower people to create and choose societies to live in, but like any great idea, it has all sorts of accidental benefits as well.

Alexis Madrigal, who wrote the wired story, is interviewed on NPRs Bryant Park Project.  It's great to have passionate people out there evangelizing for us - Thanks Alexis!  Also see coverage on Gizmodo and Slashdot, which are...um...somewhat less evangelical :).

But does anyone else think it's weird that on the one hand our vision gets called crazy...and on the other hand, it gets evaluated based on a video game?

Rich Nerds Want To Build A Utopian City In The Ocean And...Wait A Minute...

Today's xkcd suggests geohashing - using the date and Dow opening to generate a random physical location for a meetup.  It's fun to think about this method being used to coordinate Ephemerisle gatherings.  I can see the method being both better and worse on the ocean because of it's relative homogeneity - every place is like every other place.  So you don't have the failure mode of randomly generating a location that's difficult or impossible to reach, but you don't get

Hey everyone.  The response from the net this week has been phenomenal, which means we're a bit swamped with emails.  Many of them are offers to volunteer or form collaborative relationships, which is great!  We have a big vision, a small staff, and a small budget, so your help is crucial in bringing this dea into reality.

We're a bit overwhelmed right now, so we won't be able to get back to y'all as fast as we'd like (especially since this is not yet a full-time job for Wayne or I), but we hope to find some time over the upcoming 3-day weekend to sort through and respond to everything.

Keep the emails coming - we need your help!

Biggest thing this week is tons of web traffic today due to links from high-traffic sites (13K visits so far today).  We've got some graphs below.

We're considering a couple different locations and dates for our first annual conference in the fall, and would like your feedback.  We're tentatively planning for October 5th or 12th, in the SF Bay Area.  So please let us know if there is another major related event that conflicts with these dates.

For location, we have two main possible areas:

Like many non-profits, we have ambitious goals and limited resources, and volunteer assistance is crucial for making up the difference.  Seasteading attracts some amazingly talented people, and I hope that a few of you have the free time to lend us a hand.  I've posted our current set of requests here, and am reproducing the list below.  Each job title links to its description on the volunteer page.

 The Strategic Area sections have been updated with our goals for 2008, and they are also included below:

(A guest post from Joe Lonsdale, Chairman of the Board here at TSI)

At first glance, it might appear that an American working to create new systems of government on the high seas is not very pro-America.  How could working to create new, separate systems of government, external to our national sovereignty, be a loyal act?  We’re a diverse community – not every seasteader loves America or his or her home country, and many might be eager to escape.  Others will come looking for profit or adventure.  But in fact, many of us who are passionate about the cause of Seasteading are patriots, proud to serve and die for our country.

America's first cement ocean-going vessel "Faith" was built in a Redwood City shipyard and launched from the port there in 1918.  It never saw military action as the Armistice was signed a few months later (Redwood City Public Library).  (Coincidentally, we are thinking of holding our fall conference in Redwood City, and perhaps locating our offices there as well).

Patri Friedman's Trip Report
Offshore Technology Conference
Houston, Texas
May 6-7, 2008.

21 + acre park-like paradise, lush landscaping consisting of many ponds, lakes, hundreds of palm trees, various fruit and flowering trees, many large old, oak trees, two bridges and a large deck cantilevered over a lake.