It seems like a complete list to me.

Personally, i feel Government/Organization is the most pivotal topic, everything else is a means to an end. Id be very interested to see what people have to say about this, and how much common ground there is.

Further, i feel that design/engineering is an important topic, in the sense that this is where a lot of work still lies ahead, but that may just be my own bias talking.

Since most of the TSI engineering is being done in secret, it is not making for interesting discussion. I kind of worry that the most pressing and important problem is being worked on in secret. Does not use the abilities of this collection of interested people well. I think this reduces the chances of TSI making it. But the forums and wiki are still good for the rest of us to work together. :-)

I think patents are a non-issue for international vessels and the downside of secrecy is much worse than any potential upside of patents.

http://wiki.seasteading.org/index.php/Patents

1.  Overall vision and mission are important - perhaps a keynote address discussing DG and political considerations, and how seasteads fit into the overall vision.  Other political discussions should be handled offline as pre-arranged or impromptu gatherings outside the structure of the conference.

2.  I like the workshop topics mentioned, and would allow people to pick/choose among, say, 2 or 3 going on at the same time, while still allowing time for the presenters to attend other workshops of interest.

3.  Priorities need to be 1) how do we get started, and 2) how do we get others involved (including, e.g. engineers, builders, investors, financiers, etc.).  I concur that design/engineering is a critical part of this, but I think also that Vince has the right idea w/ experimenting and trying to find a practical way to start having others pay for this, so I think discussion of business ideas of how to use the seasteads once built should figure highly as a topic of interest.  Sorry, Patri, but I see Ephemerisle, transportation, and government/international relations issues as taking a back seat to the rest.  Not that they couldn't be workshops, but I see the goal of getting a working seastead built and making money as the most important thing right now in an incremental approach.  PR/Marketing will be important in all of this, as well, but perhaps will be worked out w/ a good business plan.  I think the other topics will be more relevant in future years.

4.  I would also suggest a workshop topic on experimentation (perhaps led by Vince) and how to diffuse it to more of the membership.  Specific topics (or this might be better for a wiki) could deal with properties of different materials, what to avoid and why, etc.  I think we already have an excellent discussion on this underway, but perhaps synthesize it?  Also, how about some hands-on experimentation in the bay there?  Granted, we wouldn't want to get in the water in October, but maybe someone could bring/rent a canoe/kayak to facilitate taking out into the bay.

That's it for now.  dArt

Questions about governments, relationships with existing states, etc., likely should take a back seat to technical and funding issues at this point, except to raise some awareness of general background issues.  Declaring statehood is impractical until defense against existing states is possible, so it's not really available in the immediate future.  Given that, the platform will need to follow the laws of its flagging nation, though in practical terms that's also not much of an issue.  Liberia or Panama probably don't do much law enforcement on their flagged ships at sea, and platforms IIRC are treated like ships under the laws of the sea.  Expect to be boarded by coast guards, navies, etc., for inspections, like any ship at sea.  In principle those folks will expect general international norms to be followed (no slavery, no drug smuggling, etc.).  In practice the people with guns and missiles make the rules, so how it will actually play out is unknown.

Getting a seastead funded and built is the first task.  Coming up with viable business models is closely intertwined.  Political innovation will need to come much later.  Therefore technical and funding issues are the first order of business.

At this early stage, treat things like a business venture, focussing on: location, marketing, funding, transportation, business models, etc.  Assume it will need to start in someone else's territorial waters, generally follow their rules, etc.  Unfortunately that may limit some of the initial businesses, but in the long term that may be less of an issue.

On ther other hand, general and early agreement about relational norms may prevent future problems.  For example, I would personally favor mutual agreements between steads to trade peacefully and not harm (initiate force) or otherwise interfere with each other.  Beyond that, the internal organization of each stead could be independently arrived at.  A basic agreement along those lines may be all that's necessary to create peaceful coexistence between steads.  Basically it's trade, live and let live on a stead scale.  In a sense that's minimally political. Perhaps agreement on some very basic organizational concepts may be possible and desirable up front.  On the other hand, that's generally how private ships relate with each other so maybe it's a not much of an issue?

I'm interested in trying to predict and prevent some of the possible failure modes, organizational, technical, financial, personal, etc.  Perhaps the greatest unknown beyond funding is how existing states would treat a stead, even fully within its own waters and generally conforming with its rules. 

I'm on the board of Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), which publishes Communities magazine and a directory online and in print. I've visited 80 different cohousing neighborhoods, lived in two, and helped co-create one, and I'm advising on some others. These are all, on one level or another, aspiring EcoVillages, in the process of living more lightly on the land through cooperation and mutual support in their shared visions.

While Seasteading of course has its own unique challenges, I do believe that the movement can learn a lot from the experiences of people banding together with a common vision, bringing in resources to support not just the physical infrastructure (greening your "stick and bricks" will only go so far), but the social structure, decision-making tools, facilitation/group process, conflict resolution, and the like.

If others are interested, I'd be delighted to be able to participate in a session that both looks at some case studies and some of the ways that communities have dealt with resource sharing, and how the physical layout and ownership structure affects the social relations. We could brainstorm ways in which things would be different in a seasteading context, and prioritize research on addressing the key concerns before they become entrenched problems.

Yeah thats certainly interesting. Will you be attending the conference?