SGF Frequently Asked Questions
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UNISPACE III
What is UNISPACE III
UNISPACE III is a United Nations conference, orgnaized about every 15 years. The general topic is the future space development. Specific topic of the 3rd UNISPACE conference is "Space Benefits for Humanity in the Twenty-first Century".
Who will participate in the conference?
The conference will be attended by top level government representatives (ministers), top executives from space agencies and companies, as well as scientists and engineers.
What is role of the UN in space activities?
The United Nations seeks to foster the peaceful use of space for the world humanity. It provides a legal framework and a forum to discuss future development and cooperation for space activities.
Space Generation Forum
What is it?
The Space Generation Forum (SGF) is the official youth forum of the UNISPACE III conference. Students and young professionals will attend three parallel sessions to discuss and brainstorm about future visions and realistic strategies for the space development. The emphasis of the SGF will be on the strengths of the youth: creativity, historic unaffectedness, open mindedness to new concepts and approaches and the motivation to positively effect the own future. Discussions in small groups will therefore be emphasised to provide everyone the opportunity to discussions his/her ideas.
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SGF delegates (or better participants) will not represent the interest of their country! The SGF will be a forum of people from all around the world to represent the interests of the world youth in the future of space development. SGF participants should feel as world citizens for the time of the conference and maybe beyond. |
Is the SGF an official part of UNISPACE III?
The SGF is an official integral part of the UNISPACE III conference. Part of the discussion results will be recommendations to the UNISPACE III plenary. The goal is to get a few of these recommendations to be part of the "Vienna Declaration", which is a very brief summary of the conference.
Furthermore an executive report of the SGF activities will be included in the official UNISPACE report.
What will be discussed? What are the topics?
The topic is "Visions, Ideas and Strategies for the Future of Space". The
large bandwidth of topics with be discussed in many small 
discussion groups,
which are grouped in three parallel sessions. The
most common trends and developments shall be identified and discussed.
Concrete ideas shall be discussed on how things can be changed and improved.
Whom do we address?
The SGF has been initiated by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) and has since then received enormously positive response and interest, from space agencies, companies and governments. These are the people we want to addressee primarily. In addition the UNISPACE III will receive a more fair deal of media attention (many prime ministers are expected to come). Therefore the SGF will also address the public as the group of people, who's future is being discussed.
Which people will be at UNISPACE III?
Governments on high administrative and ministerial level (many prime ministers). Directors and executive boards of space agencies and space companies. Distinguished scientists and engineers as well as non-governmental organisations, such as professional space associations (AIAA, AAAF, DGLG, etc.).
How many people will come?
The total conference will be in the order of 2000 people. The SGF is targeted with 200 participants.
How official will the outcome be?
There will be three levels of outcome:
- Recommendations for the Vienna Declaration
- SGF contribution to the UNISPACE III Report
- SGF Proceedings: Complete reference (appendix) of all presented material and discussion results
Recommendations and the SGF contribution to the UNISPACE III report will be official UN documents.
The SGF Proceedings will be provided on the web and in printed form, if funding can be made available. If will summarize all SGF conference activities and will be available to everyone.
What will happen to the outcome?
The reports will be distributed in paper and on the internet. It shall be a reference and source for new and unconventional ideas.
Relevance to you
Why should I contribute?
Space activities have been and still are to a major portion a public venture. It is therefore of key importance to help making the public understanding how every individual and humanity in general can benefit from space activities.
Secondly UNISPACE III is about the future of space, about the next decades - roughly the professional lifetime of today's youth, students and young professionals.
How can I contribute?
There are two way how you can contribute:
The ideas and discussion results we be summarise and fed into the discussions during the conference in Vienna. Meet your delegates on the web! Not only the ones from your country, but the ones with the same interest. Tell them what you think and what they should relay in the conference. Make proposals for recommendations and get feedback to improve them.
What do we ask for?
Ideas, Ideas and one more ideas
The youth can not have the same depth of knowledge and experience than today's decision makers. Our strength is to come up with new ideas and trends, spread our enthusiasm and communicate our ideas to the public.
Who selects the SGF Delegates?
Governments have been asked to send one or more Youth (SGF) Delegates in addition to their normal UNISPACE III delegation. If the governments finance the delegates (room and board - the participation itself is free of charge), we will suggest candidates. For developing countries limited funding is available.
How much does it cost
There are no cost associated with the participation itself. We will arrange hotel rooms and meals, which will be 1000,- EURO (about US$ 1060,-) for both weeks. We strongly recommend to stay with all SGF delegates, because there will be a number of evening activities such as lectures, expert group meetings, and of course receptions and parties. Staying all in the same place will significantly contribute to a more successful event.
Do I need specific qualifications?
You should have a solid background knowledge in your field of space activities. Further more, people with own and new ideas are most welcome. Try to express your background, your ideas and creativity in the essay, which is required on the application form.
How about national contributions and point of views?
The SGF is an attempt to overcome national borders and frontiers. It is an attempt to take away the burden of national which is created through political attitudes and positions. This in turn is a result of the historic developments of the state communities. The SGF however wants to look into the future. Moreover space doesn't have any borders and frontiers.
Of course there are specific local interests and problems. To create mutual understanding of sometimes contrary interests, an exchange of ideas and perspectives in the early phase of opinion making is suggested as a solution. The internet discussion forums are provided as a practical implementation to this solution. It is therefore suggested to provide continues updates of local discussions through regular postings in these forums.
How can Groups Contribute?
Local meetings and preparatory discussions are most welcome. Ideas and perspectives created in such events can be implemented into the SGF conference in a number of ways:
- Through postings in the discussions on the forums on this server.
- Through direct communication with the national delegates
- Through a live presentation or teleconference
It is recommended that all three options are seriously considered. Posting local discussion results in the discussion forums on this server is the most simple solution and will give people around the globe to possibility to think about your ideas. This will enable the discussions during the conference to reach a much deeper level and will raise the quality of our outcome. Only a high quality outcome will create attention and recognition in the space community. This is hence one of the highest goals of the SGF.
Web Discussion
Why a discussion on the web? What's the idea?
The key ideas are the following:
- Global opinion making
- Provide an ideal starting point for conference discussions
- Give everyone the opportunity to contribute
- Absorbing and digesting ideas
- Identifying discussion topics
- Drafting recommendation proposals
In the "Global opinion making" approach new perspectives, ideas and opinions shall be created in a global rather than local process. Thereby it should be avoided, that ideas which have solidified in small groups are become incompatible with the ideas and perspectives created in other groups. Finding a compromise normally requires lengthy debates and discussions. In many cases good compromises can not be achieved in a given time, leading to weak minimum solutions. The "Global opinion making" approach implemented through the internet discussion forums is a proposal to avoid this scenario and improve the outcome of the SGF conference.
Ideal starting point for conference discussions
The time for discussions during the SGF conference is very limited. To make
best use of it, any discussions on the topics itself shall be conducted before
the conference. On the other hand the selection of the topics is a key aspect
to guide the conference in a proper direction. Selection in proper topics can
constrain the results of such an event. This is why the topics have been
defined very widely, given more a framework than specific topics. The internet
discussion forums are provided to post and discuss opinions and ideas. The
results of these posts will be summarised and be input for the topic
definitions of the discussion forums during the conference.
The internet discussion forums are unrestricted. Everybody can post ideas. Thereby many more people than the actual SGF conference participants can provide inputs.
Absorbing & digesting ideas - SGF Delegate preparation
Really good ideas normally extend the horizon of thinking, sometimes
the horizon of perception. This is why really good ideas often appear
ridiculous at the first glance - some people say, they have to do so. It is
therefore required to give some time to absorb and digest new ideas, time
which is not available during the SGF conference. Disseminating ideas through
the internet discussion forums is therefore suggested for this purpose.
Identifying Discussion
Topics
The SGF programme committee will regard the discussions in the internet forums as key inputs for the
final definition of discussion group topics.
Drafting recommendation
proposals
Drafting of recommendations is a lengthy process, because recommendations do
not just have to be agreed on unanimously by the SGF delegates, they shall
also be agreed on unanimously by the UNISPACE III plenary and if possible be
taken into the "Vienna Declaration". Every word counts in such paragraphs and
the process of refining will be exhaustive enough. The drafting of the SGF
recommendations has to be done before the conference.
How can I contribute?
Virtual discussion forums are provided on this server, based on a bulletin
board system. You can post messages and people can view and reply to them.
Messages can be posted and read 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
What's the topics?
Although you might have heard of different topics in the past, this is the place for the final definition.
The topic of the SGF is "Ideas, Visions and Strategies for the Development of Space". Although not explicitly named in the title, it should be mentioned, that we expect concrete and realistic ideas rather than science-fiction.
the discussion framework consists of 14 discussion
forums. These forums are the same for the web-discussions and the
conference. However, new forums can be defined if there is enough interest.
During the conference, the 14 discussion topics will be held in 3 Parallel Sessions.
This will result in groups, small enough to enable real discussions (about 10
people).
Do I need to register?
You do not need to register for reading, but you need to register to post your ideas in the discussion area.
Registering takes just 5 minutes or less.
Please do the following:
- Go to the disucssion forum on the webpage
(use "Discussion Forums" on the header menu). - On every Forum webpage you find a link called
'Register' just under the headline. - Click 'Register' and give at least a name, nickname or synonym AND your email address.
- Your password will be mailed automatically to this email address. Once you got it, you can start posting.
Logistics
How do I get sponsoring?
There are basically 3 options for sponsoring:
- Your Government
- A Company
- The Space Generation Forum
In all three cases your initiative and dedication will be a key to success. Make people understand that you really want to come and that you are the best candidate.
Your Government
The governments of all UN member states have been informed about the UNISPACE
III and the Space Generation Forum. Many governments and space agencies have
confirmed to provide one or more candidates from their countries.
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A Company
For the first time, companies will be well represented at the UNISPACE
conference. This conference will be an unequalled opportunity to promote space
activities to more or less all governments in the world. Space companies will
directly benefit from an increase in space budgets and should therefore be
more than interested in a positive result and image of the UNISPACE III event.
The Space Generation forum will get a significant public exposure, due its
relatively large size, the positive association of youth and future and simply
because it is very unconventional.
All this should be reason enough for companies to support this event. An appropriate acknowledgement can be provided by the SGF. Take the initiative - contact your company, or a large company in your company. But please coordinate with us. We have contacts ourselves and will tell you if people have been asking a company before.
The Space Generation Forum
Limited funding for people from developing countries is available through the Space
Generation Forum. We will certainly provide people with funding as much as our
resources allow.
In any case, please apply to become delegate (online preferred). Once you are in our evidence, we can coordinate any further steps.
Do I get accommodation and food?
All SGF participants will be provided with accommodation and food.
How do I get there?
The $1000,- EURO (about US$ 1060,-) participation fee only covers food and accommodation. In addition, participants sponsored by the SGF will be refunded their trip to Vienna.
Do I need to dress up?
UNISPACE III is a highly official event. The Space Generation Forum is official part of it. There will be a number of occasions where UNISPACE participants will join SGF activities and vice versa. Appropriate clothing of the participants is therefore required. Traditional regional clothing is very much encouraged.
How about the weather?
The temperatures in Austria in summer vary between 20-35 degC during day time, and might be as little as 12 degC during night time. The conference facilities are air conditioned. For evening and outdoor activities light summer clothing is recommended. On rainy days you will need a pullover or light jacket.
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