As many of you know, a diverse group of your fellow netroots compatriots collaboratively drafted a progressive political platform in hopes of articulating their shared goals and influencing the national platform process.  We sent it to Michael Yaki, the head of the National Platform Committee, and scheduled a conference call to discuss it.  After an hour of freewheeling conversation on the phone, Yaki had to cut out to attend to a call for his "paying job," but he was interested and excited enough about the project that he suggested we reconvene afterward.  We then spent another hour brainstorming ideas about where we might take this kind of project in the future.  

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process, we used a completely open (anyone could join), transparent (you can see exactly how it was collaboratively built), and democratic (you can vote different original and remixed versions up or down) system to craft the platform.  We think the final, 29-page platform is pretty good for a first try, though we definitely came out with some lessons learned for next time.  But even more exciting than discovering our collective policy writing skills was embarking on a bold experiment in "open-source democracy."

Here is the 2nd part, of a 3 part series, on the space economy.  You can read the first part by clicking here.

In this piece, I talk about suborbital space business.

Here is the 2nd part, of a 3 part series, on the space economy.  You can read the first part by clicking here.

In this piece, I talk about suborbital space business.

Yesterday, I talked a little bit about space, and promised something more.  I know there are many people who question the purpose, and reason for sending people into space.  Tonight, you get to see the first, in a series, about how space can have a major impact on the economy.  

This diary was originally written in response to some of Senator Obama's comments about the validity and justification for manned spaceflight, but I know that there are more people than just him who question it, and thus, I suggest everyone read it, whether Obama or Clinton supporter (or uncommitted, like me).  

No doubt many of you saw the online debate between Chris Bowers, and Matt Yglesias about the issue of space, between what Senator Clinton has proposed, and what Senator Obama has proposed.  Unfortantly, I felt that both Matt and Chris could use more and better information (which is probably true of most people).  BTW, those who didn't see it, here are links to the 3 posts about space between Matt and Chris

Matt's original post
Chris's response
Matt's final response.

The time has come to have a discussion about what direction we want space policy to go, and how to best utilize space.  And I plan to be a part of that, and I hope you do to.