Well, I thought I’d be more regular in my blog entries – it’s just one of those things. I’ve asked Peggy to give me a routine nag to ensure that I’m actually producing content for this venue.

In the meantime, I’ve just seen a news article citing Richard Branson’s intent to build a spaceport in the hinterlands of New Mexico. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m at turns anxious to participate and mortified at the idea of commercial space travel. This is the new venture, Virgin Galactic.

Branson, the prolific entreprenuer, saw the Ansari X Prize claimed last year by Burt Rutan and Spaceship One and decided now was a good time to get into the game. More than the space travel aspect of this, I’m intrigued with the risk profile Branson has in approaching his ventures.

SpaceShip One with Mothership

I can say this: in my experience traveling, there is no better cross Atlantic carrier than Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class. They’ve got a massage therapist on board as an example and what seems like 3 flight attendants for each passenger. The seats are beds, the entertainment system is part iPod, part TiVO, and part multi-user game console. If Branson can take a highly unpleasant experience of being trapped in a pressurized aluminum tube for 11 hours hurtingly along at 600mph, then I am really curious about what he’ll do for this emerging industry.

In a CNS-related comment to this, I wonder what we can do to change the experience of our customers from something unpleasant to something unbelieveable. Stay tuned, we’ll show some progress on that front.

One last thing, I think the new SCNN channels are really cool. If you haven’t seen them, you’re missing something. Imagine a time in the not too distant future when our customers can subscribe to any number and combination of RSS feeds to craft the experience they want in working with Sun. That will be pretty cool…