My name is Greg Schnippel and I am the lead developer (o.k., currently the *only* developer) and editor for the Open Debate Engine project and SpaceDebate.org. I have been professionally developing websites and collabrative software for the past eight years and have developed several successful and award-winning web-based advocacy campaigns. I have been researching and writing on technology and international security issues for the past 10 years and I recently graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with an MA in International Relations and a concentration in Strategic Studies. I live in Washington, D.C. (of course) and I work as an arms control analyst for a defense contracter. I maintain a news weblog Gyre.org, which is devoted to 'tracking the breakthroughs and implications of the next military and technological revolutions' (essentially just an excuse for me to blog about military robots and space debris).

I was also involved in competitive debate for many years, at the high-school and collegiate level as both a competitor and coach. I was inspired to do this project in part by the work of Gordon Mitchell, Associate Professor of Communications at the University of Pittsburgh, on encouraging social advocacy through debate. In the preface to his book, Strategic Deception: Rhetoric, Science, and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy, he tells this story:

"In the summer of 1990, Madison Laird (then captain of the Loyola University debate squad) was assigned the task of entertaining Earth Day organizer Bill Keepin during Keepin's visit to the Loyola campus in Los Angeles, California. After Keepin delivered a speech on nuclear power to the student body, Laird led him on a campus tour that ended up in the debate squad room, where yards and yards of argument briefs were stowed away in filing drawers. When Keepin asked to see the files containing research on nuclear power, Laird pulled open one file drawer stuffed to the gills with high-quality research. Keepin was stunned, asking incredulously: 'How long have you folks kept this stuff locked up?!' In a small way, this story illustrates the folly associated with the intercollegiate debate community's insular nature. Indeed, it would not be surprising to find countless other Bill Keepins out there who could make tremendous use of the research and knowledge generated out of intercollegiate policy debate competition. To reach them, debaters need only to realize that they can make vital contributions to public arguments swirling beyond the rareified confines of debate tournament sites."

This project is my attempt to make a contribution to the national debate on vital international security issues.