SGC 2007 discussions

Hello All! Greetings from Hyderabad!

SGC 2007 has started officially today! We had the chance to meet each other in person and already sat down for a first group discussion
Team-members that are here are Sanjoy Som, Kavya Manyapu, Pieter Byttebier and Nyeng Gyeng. Joe Palaia joined our discussion aswell, he is the cofounder of 4frontiers a cooperation that designs habitats for in outer space. Today we also had some valuable input from Bill Nye, a famous American TVstar and vice-president of the Planetary Society, who was very enthusiastic indeed about our progress.
So What did we do?
We went through the last version of the paper, and shared our comments. Structually, everyone agreed with what was there, but regarding the content, the way of trying to convince and especially the arguments and spinoffs that were used, there was much very important info added. Various topics that should be mentioned weren't there yet, and we will look them up. e.g. Financial copairisons between the NASA budget on one hand, and money spend by the USA every year, funds for football and other sports,etc. on the other hand: NASA's budget seems to be relatively small.
The spinoffs will be organized and clarified, so everybody like f.e. Sanjoy's mother can read it.
But the general discussion opened again regarding the angle we will be using to write this paper, the arguments we will use to convince in this article the general public, especially how we find the balance between long term benefits and those on shorter term. Also the importance of human settlements was discussed. Is this worth mentioning in this paper, or does it just takes the attention away from the general cause.
We also agreed to change the name of the paper. We discussed for almost an hour about content, ispiration, controversiality etc. And finally we came up with: 'Global Imperative: We Must Go!'
Tomorrow Sanjoy is going to give a detailed presentation to all the delegates of SGC attending, to get some feedback from them aswell, for it is a very important subject and we're sure everybody will have some input to give.

That was what we did today in the work group. We had some interesting lectures and discussions apart of that. I sorry some of the delegates couldn't make it to be here, because you are missing a lot!

I hope Sanjoy will put something on this forum today or tomorrow about his great idea of making a movie in wich we can incorperate the ideas of the paper. But more about that later.

Pieter

Hey,

sounds as if you're having a great time! Really wish I could be there and take part in such an amazing opportunity to discuss important issues and to meet like-minded people from all around the world.

Don't forget that it is important that the document itself reads well, and that the structure is sound and logical - something that could be tricky with so much input from different people. A good structure is reflective of a well thought out argument as well.

Anyway, all the best with it and have fun!

Kind regards,

Max Beaumont