Ephemerisle lessons learned
This got long. Here are the subjects:
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
2. Make the event longer
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
5. Houseboats should customize.
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
A thought about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit and risks are not too insane.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
------------------
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
The whole Achievement Lounge concept relied on an inflatable Coleman Island. The island cost $80 and could seat many people, but I was constantly worried about it popping. I was stressed out over babying it the whole time. It was accidentally rammed by a boat (ironically, a boat sent over to pick it up and bring it across to me) but only the top section popped. If the pop had been four inches lower... no achievement lounge. Next year I'll either spend $250 for the hardcore canvas island or I'll abandon inflatables entirely.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
My super cheap ghetto method of making pontoons (buying $5 12 gallon bins at Home Depot and then using weatherstripping to seal the lids worked fantastically well. I could stack 15 bins into the backseat of a Honda Civic and then assemble it all on site. They're not good for continuous complete submersion but are otherwise fine. Even though they were dunked several times over the course of the weekend, they picked up very little water. Each bin supported around 80 pounds, so with the cost of weatherstripping added in, it's still around $10 per 100 pounds of load. For total dunking security, sealed 5 gallon containers are the way to go at $12.50 per 100 pounds, though they have the disadvantage of not being very stackable.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
Seriously. We were all fucking clueless.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
Cellphones were very useful for coordination, but they had a habit of being left in odd places when we were afraid of them getting wet. Let's invest in some dry bags or some waterproof walkie-talkies.
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
This is especially true with a large number of not-so-maneuverable boats in close proximity. The solution of lashing a line of houseboats to each other and then anchoring the ends was problematic as problems resulted when one boat in the middle needed to leave. If we don't have everyone anchor themselves (which could lead to a tangle anyway), we should get really good anchors for 5x30ft corridor platforms and have the boats dock to those.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
The construction cost is low relative to a continuous pathway, and the delay of 1-2 minutes is acceptable. It allows the city to be assembled in a set of smaller, separately anchored chunks. It also gives the visiting 9-year olds something to do that makes them feel important. :-)
I could see doing rope barges as long as 200ft. This would help separate noisy from quiet areas and enhance the town's sense of scale. One of the city's three platforms should be anchored separately, and the build crew can camp there.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Presuming the weight is distributed properly, it would be very cool to hold unconferences or other such events on the houseboat roofs. There could also be a mini golf course, projected movie screenings, waterslides etc. Or if two boats are far enough apart, an advanced version of the Achievement Lounge. :-)
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
This is more about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
2. Make the event longer
We were getting N amount of learning per day of event. If the have an event that's twice as long, we can learn twice as much, which will help the event get its sea legs (so to speak) a lot faster on an annual basis. It also means I don't have to spend the whole time setting up and taking down art. :-)
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
My big interactive visuals art + psytrance music ended up on the platform where all the platform builders were sleeping. The result? I had to turn it all off at around 1am so people could sleep. LAME.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
Not to stereotype too much...
- There was the hardcore DPW-ish build crew who busted ass to make the platforms come together as well as the food and other event infrastructure.
- There was the very intellectually oriented group who spent much of their time on the houseboats talking, and didn't engage as much with the central platforms
I can't pretend to speak for either culture, but I do want to make sure they're both happy.
5. Houseboats should customize.
They were for the most part rather faceless, which made it hard to tell where you were or get any sense for the peronality of the boats
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
I don't know if it is possible to get a section of river reserved or find a more secluded area where we can be louder, but I think it would add a lot to our level of comfort in being ourselves and feeling like we're in a separate society for the duration of the event.
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
2. Make the event longer
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
5. Houseboats should customize.
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
A thought about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit and risks are not too insane.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
------------------
Infrastructure/tech lessons:
1. Most inflatables are too delicate for general use.
The whole Achievement Lounge concept relied on an inflatable Coleman Island. The island cost $80 and could seat many people, but I was constantly worried about it popping. I was stressed out over babying it the whole time. It was accidentally rammed by a boat (ironically, a boat sent over to pick it up and bring it across to me) but only the top section popped. If the pop had been four inches lower... no achievement lounge. Next year I'll either spend $250 for the hardcore canvas island or I'll abandon inflatables entirely.
2. Sealed plastic bins held up just fine for occasional dunking and are also compact and cheap.
My super cheap ghetto method of making pontoons (buying $5 12 gallon bins at Home Depot and then using weatherstripping to seal the lids worked fantastically well. I could stack 15 bins into the backseat of a Honda Civic and then assemble it all on site. They're not good for continuous complete submersion but are otherwise fine. Even though they were dunked several times over the course of the weekend, they picked up very little water. Each bin supported around 80 pounds, so with the cost of weatherstripping added in, it's still around $10 per 100 pounds of load. For total dunking security, sealed 5 gallon containers are the way to go at $12.50 per 100 pounds, though they have the disadvantage of not being very stackable.
3. We should all take knot-tying lessons.
Seriously. We were all fucking clueless.
4. Save the cellphones from drowning and abandonment!
Cellphones were very useful for coordination, but they had a habit of being left in odd places when we were afraid of them getting wet. Let's invest in some dry bags or some waterproof walkie-talkies.
5. Anchoring is hard. Let's provide that as civic infrastructure.
This is especially true with a large number of not-so-maneuverable boats in close proximity. The solution of lashing a line of houseboats to each other and then anchoring the ends was problematic as problems resulted when one boat in the middle needed to leave. If we don't have everyone anchor themselves (which could lead to a tangle anyway), we should get really good anchors for 5x30ft corridor platforms and have the boats dock to those.
6. Rope barges are a great cost-saver and allow for flexibility and isolation of different areas.
The construction cost is low relative to a continuous pathway, and the delay of 1-2 minutes is acceptable. It allows the city to be assembled in a set of smaller, separately anchored chunks. It also gives the visiting 9-year olds something to do that makes them feel important. :-)
I could see doing rope barges as long as 200ft. This would help separate noisy from quiet areas and enhance the town's sense of scale. One of the city's three platforms should be anchored separately, and the build crew can camp there.
7. There's huge untapped potential for all that houseboat roof space.
Presuming the weight is distributed properly, it would be very cool to hold unconferences or other such events on the houseboat roofs. There could also be a mini golf course, projected movie screenings, waterslides etc. Or if two boats are far enough apart, an advanced version of the Achievement Lounge. :-)
Social lessons:
1. Societies have to be grown. (This came out of a conversation with my friend D)
This is more about seasteading in general. I think there are two major pathways to large permanent presence on the sea, and they're very different.
- Path 1 is mainly business-focused: Buy a cruise ship, retrofit it to do something not too controversial like medical tourism (as opposed to, say, drugs and prostitution, park it a few miles off the coast of the US, and start making money. With adequate funding, this is probably 5 years away. There's a clear path to profit.
- Path 2 is more society-focused: Keep growing Ephemerisle every year, and over the course of the next 15 years it may grow to the size of Burningman. Growth will be slow. People have pointed out that companies have serious problems if they grow by more than 10% per month. I think the same will likely be true of an ocean society. We experienced loads of social infrastructure issues that will likely take a while to iron out. I would recommend making Ephemerisle longer next year (say, 4-6 days) to allow more social issues to arise and be dealt with. I have no idea how much money was lost on Ephemerisle this year, but if it can become profitable it could be worth spinning off as a business.
2. Make the event longer
We were getting N amount of learning per day of event. If the have an event that's twice as long, we can learn twice as much, which will help the event get its sea legs (so to speak) a lot faster on an annual basis. It also means I don't have to spend the whole time setting up and taking down art. :-)
3. The city should divide into noisy vs quiet areas.
My big interactive visuals art + psytrance music ended up on the platform where all the platform builders were sleeping. The result? I had to turn it all off at around 1am so people could sleep. LAME.
4. There are already two distinct cultures. Let's make sure the event caters to both of them.
Not to stereotype too much...
- There was the hardcore DPW-ish build crew who busted ass to make the platforms come together as well as the food and other event infrastructure.
- There was the very intellectually oriented group who spent much of their time on the houseboats talking, and didn't engage as much with the central platforms
I can't pretend to speak for either culture, but I do want to make sure they're both happy.
5. Houseboats should customize.
They were for the most part rather faceless, which made it hard to tell where you were or get any sense for the peronality of the boats
6. Foster good relations with local law enforcement.
I don't know if it is possible to get a section of river reserved or find a more secluded area where we can be louder, but I think it would add a lot to our level of comfort in being ourselves and feeling like we're in a separate society for the duration of the event.