[AERO] Commercializing Space Generates More Jobs!

Well, that's true according to a recent study conducted by The Tauri Group, a premiere space consulting firm. You might want to check out the link here:

http://taurigroup.com/graphics/snapshots/DERPCCCEPBR.pdf

Found this study through the Commercial Spaceflight Federation by the way. They're an industry association of various companies and organizations actively involved in commercializing space. As far as I'm concerned, more focus and government support for commercial space companies is the right track to go. I thought of writing an article on why it was a good thing that Constellation was canceled but frankly some people just write much better than me on this topic.

The latest Aerospace America issue (April 2010) had a very insightful and concise article written by Marco Caceres from the Teal Group with viewpoints that I wholeheartedly agree with. You might want to take a look at pages 20-21, 24-25 of the latest issue if you haven't done so already. The article is entitled "A Boost for Commercial Human Spaceflight" and it's a short read. To sum it up and to take directly from what Marco wrote,

"The cancellation of the VSE [Vision for Space Exploration] is a pragmatic decision by the Obama administration. There is just not enough money in the US budget to pay for a space transportation and exploration initiative in which the tangible benefits to the nation are not clear...NASA will help fund efforts by companies like SpaceX and OSC to develop human-rated space vehicles that will eventually be able to transport astronauts. These vehicles can, in turn, be adapted and offered to spur the development of new commercial markets such as space tourism. This will stimulate private capital investment in these types of space transportation programs, and before you know it you will have a growing and vibrant commercial human spaceflight industry."

I find it interesting that two separate aerospace consulting firms have reached the same conclusion, namely that space commercialization is good. I'm wondering if there's any aerospace consulting firm out there who actually thinks shifting emphasis from the Constellation to private space companies is a bad thing. Let me know if you find any.

[IT] Anyone Heard of Gist?

When I stumbled upon this website,

http://blog.gist.com/2010/04/16/relationships-are-life-and-why-i-use-gist-everyday/#more-1543

earlier today, I thought to myself: "Hey! This is an idea that I have thought of a year ago." Well, it looks like since I did nothing about it someone else did. The idea is simply a website to reorganize online social information. In other words, you can look up anyone's name in your contact list and see the person's contact info, latest meetings, recent tweets, status updates, emails, and potential people that both of you know. 

A very simple idea but a very necessary one in our modern age where some of us into social networking have at least five different ways of connecting with people online and checking every single one and correlating between them gets very tedious or confusing. I only wish that I had started working on this a year ago. Ah well. Can't win them all. The project I'm currently working on should show some promise in a month or so: VbizMirror.

Why Did I Start This Blog?

My original purpose in starting this blog was mostly for professional networking and exposure of myself. I had just finished reading the book called Smart Networking by Liz Lynch and her words here convinced me to start one:

"Write your first few posts, the first of which should reveal your vision for your blog, what inspired you to start it, and what you plan to cover...Then send an email to your contacts letting them know you've launched a blog and invite them to submit comments. This starts the interaction with your readers that is so important in blogging and networking."

However, I have decided that I have a lot of thoughts which are less than professional and heck a personal blog is supposed to be representative of that as well. From the end of July 2010, I have rectified this matter by not limiting myself to the scope of topics discussed.