Here's some more on Esther Dyson's overpriced space entrepreneur conference:

"Nobody's holding a space conference, so I decided to do one," she said in an interview. "It's not that there aren't space conferences, but nothing as tacky and commercial as we want to be."

So it wasn't just hype on the web site. She really is clueless about what's been going on in this field. This is both disappointing, coming from Freeman's (for whom my respect is boundless) daughter, and annoying. A lot of us have been in the trenches trying to make this stuff happen for years, even decades. We've overpaid our dues, and now we get to deal with an Esther-come-lately.

And she can't even be bothered to focus on the subject at hand:

The conference, which costs $1,492 to attend, is also aimed at taking on a topic of more immediate potential - a concept called "air taxi." A growing number of entrepreneurs are looking at using relatively small, inexpensive airplanes to revive and expand the short-hop commuter industry, ferrying people to and from small airports.

That's an interesting subject, but it has little to do with space technology, and all it will due is further dilute the utility of this one-day conference. I said I'd like to go if I could afford the time and the money, but now I'm thinking that even if I did, I'd get little out of it.

I suppose these conferences are aimed at industry insiders, but I wish there would be a more open philosophy behind them. Why not get videos of interesting parts of these conferences and post them on a web site? Make them accessable to a larger number of people. They need to reach out instead of closing it off to people.

She's a technical Robespierre: "Tell me where that crowd is going, I wish to lead them." I find her insufferable.

Groan... Having worked in the software industry for the last 20 years, I've have very little respect (contempt is probably a better name for how I feel) for Esther Dyson as an analyst. She seems to have little talent for anything but self promotion. I hate to see this leech turn her attention to this fledgling industry. I would much prefer to see private space entrepreneurs be left alone to succeed or fail on their own merits before analysts such as Esther start proclaiming the victors and losers based on PowerPoint presentations at her expensive gabfests.