Our first annual conference will be Friday, October 10th, at Embassy Suites in Burlingame, CA.  There will also be a reception Thursday evening (10/9), and an informal breakfast Saturday morning (10/11).

 With my injured shoulder, work has been slow this month.

• Community
  • Publicity
    • Political Animals radio/podcast interview (libertarian-oriented interview w/ Patri)
    • Rude Awakening radio show (short and not very favorable.  Can't win 'em all.)
    • Yachting Magazine
  • Conference - We have tentatively settled on Friday October 10th, at Embassy Suites by SFO (with some Thu evening / Sat morning stuff).  The cost will probably be in the $100-$175 range (with meals, not counting hotel room).  It will be "unconference" style, with a few keynotes and the main focus being on brainstorming, researching, networking, etc.  You can semi-mark your calendars, but we will make a more formal announcement when we have signed a contract and made a deposit.
  • Volunteers - Thanks for all the additions to the Volunteer List Wiki page!  We will be contacting volunteers over the coming weeks.
  • Seastead socials - We're thinking about having get-togethers in the Bay Area every 4-6 weeks, just general brainstorming/networking/keeping the enthusiasm going over drinks sort of thing.  We'll announce that here when it gets going.
• Engineering
  • We are hiring a local offshore engineering firm to do high-level structure conceptual design, and perhaps numerical modeling, simulation, and wave tank testing of some promising designs.
• Research - Nada

 Main areas this week - pictures, conference, volunteers, wiki.

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:

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.

I'll be at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas on Tuesday & Wednesday next week to listen and learn about the current state of the offshore industry.  If anyone else will be there and wants to get together, add a comment or send me an email.  If there's enough interest, maybe we can do a dinner on Tuesday?