Friday, October 05, 2007

Pomerantz Report on X PRIZE Foundation's Moon 2.0

The Pomerantz Report discusses their space challenges, and especially the Lunar X PRIZE, and how the public can participate in these challenges. The phrase that they are using, Moon 2.0, is in part derived from this emphasis:

If Web 1.0 was about portals and "push" technology--content produced by a central body and served up for the public--Web 2.0 is about public participation, sharing, and, increasingly often, user generated content. If Web 1.0 was a unprecedented and useful window to an enormous library, Web 2.0 is a new sort of town hall, where all users can participate.

The main prize gets public participation going through the teams, which are typically "the public" (which to me means not only the established aerospace companies and agencies will be involved).

A lot of the participation comes from the teams themselves, though. Using the Lunar Lander Challenge as an analogy for what they (or at least I) hope to see with the Lunar X PRIZE, we've seen that the teams can enhance participation by letting us know what's going on (ups and downs) in straightforward blog discussions, getting local businesses into the sponsorship aspects, presenting at public events like conferences and the X PRIZE Cup, and hopefully eventually taking personal items to space. As the Report says:

Not only can any person from any country take part by forming or joining a team, but they will also be able to virtually 'ride along' with the lunar probes in new kind of way. I expect that each of our Google Lunar X PRIZE teams will find a new and unique way to do this...