[SpaceProgram] Very good news from discussion with the DARPA 100YSS program manager tonight

[Alex Cureton-Griffiths]

Are there any existing licenses we could base projects on? This would
help in setting out rights, legal issues, etc


On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:50 PM,  <psytek at alphaonelabs.com> wrote:
> I'd like the document to be more explicit  about ownership of rights.
> I would like to retain ownership of my part of this.  Especially now
> that we're opening this up to more potential sponsors.  Thanks.
>
> On Jan 7, 2012, at 4:28 AM, Alex Cureton-Griffiths <alexcg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Myself and James Coombs (another Xinchejian'er, who'll be joining this
>> list soon) were discussing contests/prizes, along the lines of a micro
>> version of the Ansari Prize. If we had been accepted for 100YSS we
>> were thinking about (along with other hackerspaces) putting together a
>> technology tree (like in the game Civilisation) detailing the
>> technologies needed to get to a starship within 100 years. Prizes
>> would be awarded for building the technologies on the tree that are
>> needed to achieve the goal, with achievable milestones set along the
>> way. Since we're no longer focused on 100YSS we can apply the model to
>> other goals, e.g. a human habitat on Mars or whatever.
>>
>> The above strategy may also have potential to attract sponsorship from
>> Ansari X Prize Foundation or similar. On the other hand, I think Ricky
>> mentioned that one of the things DARPA liked about the proposal we
>> submitted was that it was more about collaboration than competition.
>> Perhaps we could do both - give some grants for interesting projects
>> that are already furthering the goal, and award prizes for projects
>> that "fill in" the holes in the tech tree that aren't being focused
>> on.
>>
>> Agree we should leave out weapons, not just for liability purposes but
>> also because they are a dividing factor.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:37 PM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Its a little more selective in its space project categories than the
>>> 100yss. But instead of pursuing a particular project, it would be nice
>>> to just redistribute the money with our own micro grant process for
>>> the exact same RFP requirements. So the global hackerspace
>>> organization could hold contests on projects related to the RFP and
>>> distribute prizes to winners. We could start small with RFI contests
>>> with a few 100 bucks or so for the best idea for a particular
>>> technology track followed for an RFP to match the winning RFI. We
>>> should leave weapons out for liability purposes (explosives and
>>> firearms requires federal and state licencing and they should just get
>>> their own DARPA grant if they are organized enough to get one of
>>> those) unless it is a non leathal weapon (microwave, foam, whatever)
>>> or a combat enabling tech such as augmented reality HUD. I think that
>>> the platform category should however be included in our global
>>> hackerspace consortium challenges with the space stuff. Many makers
>>> are already making UAV and FPV aircraft, blimps, balloons, boats,
>>> tracked vehicles, and other craft.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Luke Weston <reindeerflotilla at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> It's worth noting that DARPA contributes to heaps of cutting-edge
>>>> fundamental research that has no direct, obvious military value. Heaps
>>>> of civilian scientists at universities across the world are happily
>>>> involved in valuable civilian basic science and technology research
>>>> that attracts funding from DARPA and occasionally other DOD agencies
>>>> such as the Army Research Office, and they're certainly not just
>>>> building weapons or building better bombs or anything like that.
>>>>
>>>> Well known examples would include the DARPA Grand Challenge for
>>>> autonomous vehicle research, and a lot of quantum computing and
>>>> quantum communications research, for example a lot of the research
>>>> done by the universities affiliated with the ARC Centre for Quantum
>>>> Computer Technology in Australia (http://www.cqc2t.org/), as well as
>>>> this for example:
>>>> http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2010/11/new-initiative-to-develop-a-system-that-controls-prosthetic-limbs-naturally/
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>  Luke
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> SpaceProgram mailing list
>>>> SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SpaceProgram mailing list
>>> SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram
>> _______________________________________________
>> SpaceProgram mailing list
>> SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram
> _______________________________________________
> SpaceProgram mailing list
> SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram