The Seasteading Institute April 2010 Newsletter

The Seasteading Institute April 2010 Newsletter

>“Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress”

> Theodore Levitt

Table of Contents

  • Highlights
  • TSI 2nd Anniversary April 15th
  • Freakonomics Radio Hosts Patri Friedman
  • Summer Internships at TSI Announced
  • Patri Friedman’s World Tour

  • Ephemerisle Newsletter Relaunch

  • Poseidon Project

  • Awareness & Community
  • Membership Program
  • Events
  • Media

  • Book

  • Hiring

  • Membership

  • Special Thanks

Highlights

The Seasteading Institute Celebrates Its Second Anniversary

This month, April 15th marks the second anniversary of the creation of The Seasteading Institute. Over the past two years, our non-profit has grown from dreams of its founders into not just a tight-knit group internally, but a real movement with supporting donors and a dedicated membership who make their homes across the globe.

2009-2010 was a huge year for seasteading! Take a look at some of the achievements TSI has brought to bear:

April also marks the anniversary of many TSI memberships who are on an annual subscription plan. If you are one of the many yearly-contributing members who will come due for renewal this month, keep a look out for your annual reminder email with instructions on how to keep your membership active.

Also remember that now is a particularly interesting time to make your tax-deductible donation to The Seasteading Insitute. Courtesy of the The Thiel Foundation, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar — so a $2500 gift becomes $5000 when matched.

Do you have an employer that will match donations to your preferred non-profit? You could quadruple your donation to The Seasteading Institute — use your employer’s matching contribution to double, and then double it again with the matching grant from the Thiel Foundation. Your $2500 becomes $10,000!

This offer expires on July 31st, so don’t wait until the end of the year to contribute! Donate now and help us sail into the future.

We’re extremely grateful for the support of our donors and membership — we couldn’t make seasteading happen without you!

Freakonomics Radio Hosts Patri Friedman

Steven Dubner and Steve Levitt, co-authors of the book Freakonomics as well as the spin-off blog of the same name, now co-host a podcast they call Freakonomics Radio. Episode three of this new podcast — which emerged at #1 on the iTunes podcast charts overall after only its second episode — asks the question, “What Would the World Look Like if Economists Were in Charge?”

To answer that question, they assembled Mart Laar, former prime minister of Estonia, a professional (and very successful) call-girl named Allie, Russ Roberts, professor of economics at George Mason University, and our own Patri Friedman, son and grandson of economists. How do they stitch this motley bunch together? You’ll have to listen and find out.

Download the episode free through iTunes (direct link), or pick it up from the Freakonomics Radio RSS feed.

This podcast is pretty entertaining, if we do say so (and not just because our executive director is featured in it)!

Summer Internships at TSI Announced

TSI has a limited number of unpaid internship openings!

We’re looking for brilliant young students who are passionate about seasteading, fun to work with, and have a stellar track record of independence and accomplishment, and who are excited at the idea of taking on a high degree of ownership and responsibility. Our internships are custom-designed to meet each individual’s interests and skill set. We enthusiastically provide support, but want people who will make results happen with a minimum of oversight.

Our internships provide an opportunity to make a real impact to the seasteading movement. Most of our projects right now are related to fundraising, Ephemerisle, or general publicity, so relevant skills (sales, graphic design, event planning, manual labor, video production, phenomenal communication skills, web research, etc.) are especially helpful.

Exceptional applicants should send a resume and cover letter to .

Some colleges will pay for students to intern at nonprofits. Check with your school to see if they have a program like this!

Ephemerisle Updates Get Their Own Newsletter

Ephemerisle is our annual festival on the water, a celebration of freedom, community, and creativity. It’s a rather large undertaking, between securing the event’s location, recruiting and training volunteers, and of course, ensuring that all participants have a safe and enjoyable time.

Accordingly, we’ve got a lot to say about it as we get things into shape. Rather than fill up the TSI newsletter with Ephemerisle event coordination, we’ve shunted this block into its own newsletter, the Ephemerisle announcements list on Google Groups.

The Ephemerisle announcement list is the absolute source of the latest information about Ephemerisle, including ticket sales, houseboat information, volunteering, and workshop coordination. You’ll also find a special event calendar for Ephemerisle-related goings-on, such as special info sessions, hands-on workshops, and community groups.

As always, of course, you can also check in over at Ephemerisle.org.

Patri Friedman’s World Tour

TSI Executive Director Patri Friedman is on the road again this month. From Brazil to New York City to Europe, Patri will be speaking in front of audiences of economists, political theorists, and freedom aficionados, as well as meeting seasteaders from around the globe.

Take a look below in the “Talks” section (under Awareness and Community: Events) below to find out where and when Patri will be turning up throughout the month of April. And if you see him, do say hello!

Poseidon Project

The Poseidon Project is our medium-term strategy to build the world’s first independent seastead by 2015, which we unveiled at the 2009 Seasteading Conference. We are still iterating on strategy, budget, timeline, and pitch. The strategy consists of three areas of focus:

  • Platform. The “Platform” track is the physical and legal foundation for the project, including the location, engineering design, legal research, and diplomacy.
  • Commercial. To be economically successful, there needs to be demand for our commercial real estate and jobs for people who live on the seastead.
  • Residential. We need pioneers!

Currently our energies are focused on the Ephemerisle 2010 as well as hiring such key personnel as a Director of Engineering. We’ll have more updates in this section in later months.

You can read more about our vision and strategy for this undertaking on the Poseidon Project page on www.seasteading.org.


Awareness and Community

Awareness and Community: Events

Check out the ">The Seasteading Institute public calendar, where we list all TSI hosted and sponsored events, both singular and ongoing. You’ll find casual meetups, speaking engagements, conventions, workshops, and other intriguing community events.

And there are lots more ways to keep in touch listed on our Seasteading Social Networks page.

If you’d like to hold an official Seasteading social event or workshop in your area, send an email with your idea to

Bay Area Socials

Upcoming

  • Seasteading Social Dinners: Venues are being scouted to find the perfect location for a new incarnation of the Bay Area Seasteading Socials. For the latest update on these soon-to-be-instated regular meetups — and the power to influence which venue we ultimately pick! — sign up with the Bay Area Seasteading Socials page on Meetup.com OR keep an eye on the Bay Area Seasteading Facebook group.

Previous:

  • March 14th (Sunday): Film on a Sail. Courtesy of the captains of the free yacht at Emeryville Marina.

Talks

Patri Friedman’s upcoming world tour appearances:

  • April 6th (today): Patri Friedman will be speaking at the University of California at Berkeley. For more information and to find directions, check out the event details on Facebook

  • April 11th: 1st Mises Brasil Austrian Economics Seminar in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

  • April 15th: The Millenium Insitute hosts Patri at their “Ideas and Projects for a Freer World” seminar in Rio de Janerio, Brazil

  • April 25th: Copenhagen Business School includes Patri in the speaker lineup at the “In Defense of Capitalism” conference. There’s just a few seat left, so if you want to attend, sign up at http://indefenseofcapitalism.dk (link & info courtesy of Lasse Birk Oleson)

  • April 26-30th: Patri will be attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. http://www.oslofreedomforum.com/

Previous:

Awareness and Community: Media

Statistics

Press

Blogs

Selected blog posts from March:

Awareness and Community: Book

Your input is still needed! Cast your vote for the most important topics in seasteading, and help shape the canonical seasteading book by Patri Friedman and Will Chamberlain.

Hiring

We are seeking a Director of Engineering to lead The Seasteading Institute’s marine engineering research ($1000 referral bonus).

We have an opening for an Oceanography Intern to immediately begin work on the Poseidon Project, helping us research promising locations to place to first SeedStead ($500 referral bonus).

Internships (NEW): TSI is now accepting applications for student internships in various areas. For more information, see “Internships at TSI”.

Membership

Today is the day to join a movement that will change the world! Become a member of the Seasteading Institute and know first-hand the inner workings of a life changing movement. You’ll be joining 150 other pioneers in this effort and help bring Seasteading that much closer to reality.

Special Thanks

To our donors and members, who continue to astound us with their generosity, their volunteered insights, and the quality of their characters;

To the Captains of the Free Yacht for hosting last month’s Seasteading Meetup and letting us watch a silly movie in a gorgeous setting on the water;

To our forum participants, who have been keeping discussions lively, fresh, and civil, helping to further the cause of seasteading on all fronts;

And to you, for reading our newsletter!

See you next month!

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