Space Prizes blog under construction

I recently wrote a school paper on how to manage space technology innovation prizes. It covered the history of innovation prizes, current events related to space prizes, the advantages and disadvantages of prizes compared to other means of encouraging technology innovation, and the day to day management of space technology prizes. Perspectives included those of the sponsor and competitor. They also included private business, non-profit, and government points of view in these roles.

One thing that I discovered during this project is that there is a huge amount of information about any of these subjects, but there is not, as far as I can tell, a resource that provides a comprehensive view of all of them as they pertain to space technology prizes. There are lots of papers and books on technology innovation history, including prizes. An active debate is raging in academic circles about patent prizes. Guides have been published on technology innovation management and managing prize competitions. There are many news publications on current events like the X Prize. Government documents, papers, web sites, and books exist on all sorts of aspects of space prizes, or that relate to space prizes. All of these seem to cover one or two aspects of space prizes. I was reminded of the people learning about an elephant by feeling just the ear, the leg, or whatever. My goal with this site is to bring together these resources so a reader interested in space, or similar, prizes can quickly appreciate the whole of this potentially powerful approach to innovation. I don't have a lot of time to spend on this, but fortunately others have already provided, and continue to provide, most of the content. I have a few, possibly interesting, ideas on the subject, but mainly I'll just provide the "glue" that brings the different, already-existing areas together.

For now, you can consider this blog to be under construction. I've put up a few links to give a sample of what's available on the subject ... so start clicking!