I call your attention to the article entitled "Citizen Satellites" on pages 48-53 of the latest Scientific American (my copy arrived just today). The article is by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and Bob Twiggs. Many of you know Bob Twiggs as KE6QMD, a long-time AMSAT supporter who is widely known as having been "father" of the Cubesat concept when he was at Stanford.
Bob is now a Professor at Moorehead State Univ in Kentucky. Many of you may have met him when he brought several of his students to the 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium in Chicago. You can read about Moorehead's space program at http://ssc.moreheadstate.edu/.
AMSAT and OSCAR have a proud heritage in espousing the concept that there is real potential worth to small, "hitchhiker" satellites. For may years it was like AMSAT was a voice in the "toy satellite" wilderness; as you read the Scientific American article, you will be surprised at just how that message has spread to the commercial, scientific and military world.
73 de Tom, K3IO