| Personal background |
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My name is Frank Elder. I am 42 and have been an enthusiast of all things space related since I was a child. And consider myself a child at heart even now!
I own and operate a few websites, my most recent of which is NowThatsCookin.Com which is a foodie website, based out of beautiful Northwest Arkansas.
There are three websites that I check every morning; CNN, Space.Com and Nasa.Gov.
My hobbies include; website work, food (eating, cooking and more eating), graphics work, digital photography, playing online games (mainly FPS), fishing, gardening, hiking (just started recently, and loving being able to get out into nature), glass work (stained glass, fusing, torch work, bead making) and did I mention food?
Currently I am working on writing a book, it is a thriller and this is my first foray into the world of book writing.
I love life, my only regret is that as a child I did not pursue my love of space and space exploration more and actually go into a field that would have allowed me to be a positive influence in those areas. But had I gone that direction, then I would not have experienced life the way I have thus far, and I have much to be grateful for in that regard. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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1. I run seti@home because I want to be proactive in our search for extraterrestrial intelligence. I am quite sure that there is intelligent life out in the cosmos, other than ours. In my opinion those that say our planet is the only one that could sustain intelligent life, are the ostriches of the universe. They have their heads buried, oblivious of what else is around them. I do not feel it is a matter of "if" as it is more a question of "when" we will discover intelligent life outside of our own world.
2. It has been years since I have been involved with seti@home. Just started "crunching" numbers again for the project. And I hate to admit it, but I have not stayed up on the organization as a whole. I think this type of project is badly needed, I feel our exploration of the universe around us has waned to say the least. I personally wish that I had the money to contribute to seti, to assure it would not only be able to continue it's research but to dramatically expand the current research and start looking at other possibilities for the search for extraterrestrial life.
3. I am making some statements here based on a not so "concise" amount of information, so I apologize for any incorrect assumptions on my part.
First, I would look at ramping up your active search for donors world wide. The greater the influx of money, the more research can be done.
Second, I would look at other ways to gain data. Microsat technology seems to be progressing very well. Perhaps looking at ways to use microsats to create a space based Radio Telescope Array, that is under the control of Seti, would be a good option to be able to gather larger amounts of data. This would be very expensive, but I think with an active push to find "stakeholders" you could increase your donations (monetary and in-kind) to be able pay for an endeavor such as this. And the thing about a microsat array is that it would be easily scalable, the only thing holding it back would be funding.
Third, ramp up your "marketing" of this project. Using traditional marketing campaigns as well as using social marketing techniques. With the right people at your marketing helm, you could get the projects information out in front of vast audiance that has so far gone untapped. The more eyes on what you are doing, will also directly affect the amount of donations to the project. Tap into those "untapped" resources out there, as I am sure there are a LOT!
Fourth, find someone that has the "passion" for what you are doing, and make them your public face. Not necessarily a scientist, but someone that can ardently articulate the need for this type of research, and can "bond" with the general public in such a way as to "bring them in" and make them part of the process. This goes back to the marketing aspect of what you are doing, it NEEDS to be marketed. Get it out to the young kids in school, get them to participating and using some of their computer resources, get them hooked at a young age and you will see more participants down the road. And engage adults as well, these are the folks that can help provide monetary and in-kind donations. They do NOT need to be scientists or even "highly" educated folks to "get it" and see the need for these types of projects. All they need is the "push". |
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