Being a media person I agree that books, documentaries, films, etc are a reasonable and honourable way to raise SE funding. That said, not being particularly strongly attached to any reality or reason, I am about to ask what might be an off-the-wall question.
N.B. I am not advocating any particular course of action here. I'm just wondering aloud as it were. My apologies if this idea has been covered elsewhere and I missed it while acquainting myself with the various discussions here.
Media could be used to raise funds. While all funds are helpful in an economic sense not all funds are helpful in a political sense. Even a spectacularly financially successful film/book would have some downsides. Generally speaking, anything good enough to be financially successful would initially cost more to produce. Also, and possibly more importantly, it would have a greater potential political effect (which could be leveraged into more funding). That potential can work for or against the SE and would likely do both (i.e. turning some people off and some people on) forcing an evaluation of a net political effect prior to launching any fundraising effort.
Having thus prepared the intellectual ground, let me plant this thought seed in it and see if it is a weed or bears flowers and fruit.
Auction seats on the SE on Ebay to raise funds.
The SE operator is really only on the hook to take somebody to the "top" and back down. If they are not going into space per se there is minimal risk and the insurance premium could be factored into the seat cost or simply tacked on as in; passenger responsible for insurance. (I'm sure a lawyer could say it better and that's what they're for)
There could be a different classes of seats offered down the road; return trip plus spacewalk and/or return trip, spacewalks and one week in the first space hotel and/or all of the above plus space golf, solar windsurfing, space spa, zero G massage etc.
The financial risk is minimal as the listing fees are low (see below). It has the added effect of being high profile. Financially successful or not it would attract major buzz.
The obvious political downside is that it might be viewed as hucksterism and cheapen the overall political effort. An effect that can mitigated by the expert ministrations of T. Nugent et al. (My apologies for taking your name in vain Tom)
There is a company here in Toronto called Truition that manages auctions to maximum benefit on a pay-for-performance model. Having just filed an excutive profile on the president and CEO Butch Langlois for the upcoming issue of Silicon Valley North magazine (
http://www.svn.ca) I daresay Truition would welcome the opportunity to get involved with the SE. They already work with Dell, Major League Baseball and the NHL among others.
I have an idea the accountants will say that revenues gained from this would be unearned and thus couldn't be spent but it's a pretty poor accountant/CFO that couldn't leverage a large cash holding like that into something tangible. If there are any financial people here it would be interesting to hear an informed opinion.
Anyway that's my thought for the day.
PB
Ebay selling fees from Ebay Explained:
http://pages.ebay.ca/education/selling.html# Click on "Selling Tutorial"
There are three types of fees charged when selling on eBay:
Insertion Fee - A non-refundable fee will be charged to your account when you list your item on eBay. This ranges between C$0.35 (US$0.30) and C$6.75 (US$4.80).
Additional Option Fee - only charged if you choose optional seller features such as Gallery, Featured Item, Highlight, etc.
Final Value Fee - based upon the final sale price of your item and only applicable if the listing closes successfully - that is, if there is a winning bidder declared. It is generally a small percentage of the final value of the item.
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