I've been looking at EC2 and would probably have used an AMI like yours, if not yours. So, FWIW, talking as an inexperienced n00b... As a suggestions, perhaps

I've been looking at EC2 and would probably have used an AMI like yours, if not yours. So, FWIW, talking as an inexperienced n00b... As a suggestions, perhaps an as valuable, if not more valuable, (perhaps more difficult) contribution would a set of scripts that would create such an image. Having the scripts and not the image would allow the many eyes to secure against the pig in a poke while automating image creation. AMIs could then either be created by users themselves wanting to ensure they know exactly what is going on and then uploaded, or, if I understand what you were offering, public/cloneable AMIs could be created at some public gathering and witnessed and checksummed....