Group Citizenship Option

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Lyubov
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Group Citizenship Option

Post by Lyubov »

Sudane has done some work to update the parcel scanning system that is used to determine parcel ownership for Citizenship. Her work may soon make it technically possible to allow land deeded to a group to be eligible for Citizenship.

Aside from the technical capability, there are significant policy decisions to be made. Changes to Citizenship criteria will also require changes to current laws, procedures, and the Constitution.

  • Procedures concerning the notification by the Chancellor of those past-due in tier, and the eviction process

After considerable thought concerning a process to allow for deeded land to confer citizenship, I propose two options that would allow an individual to qualify for CDS Citizenship. I am not proposing exact legal language at this time, but only the intent behind the qualification paths.

Option 1: The same process that we have in place today for individually-owned land, with a small update to the current language for clarity. "An individual owns land in their name, via About Land, at least one parcel in CDS and is current in tier on this parcel."

Option 2: A citizen in good standing may apply to for group citizenship. The application is to be directed to the Chancellor with a copy to the Dean via notecard. It must contain: citizen applicant’s name, login names of any proposed “group citizens” and their group administrator status, group name and group key, parcel tierbox name and ID to be deeded to the group, and the login name of the individual tierbox tenant to be set for each parcel. Each individual group citizen must be the tenant for at least one tierbox, no more than one individual may be a tierbox tenant, and a maximum number of five (5) group citizens are allowed per group. Group administrators will be authorized to request CDS Estate Managers to take action on any group-owned parcel, not only those with a tierbox in their individual name. The Chancellor will make a public post of the application to the Forum for a 7-day period to allow for public comment. Challenges to any application must be directed to the Dean via notecard who will adjudicate any such challenge. If no valid challenges are received after the seven day period, the Chancellor will approve the application without delay. Successful challenges will be reported by the Dean and result in application denial. Any change to the group citizens, including adding or removing members, will require a new application. A group citizen must be current in tier for at least one group tierbox in their name to maintain their good standing and CDS citizenship. CDS Estate Banned avatars and their alts have no right to citizenship under any circumstances.

This second option will collect all of the required information as part of the application process. The Chancellor who is charged with land management will handle the application. The Dean, who oversees elections and the census, will manage challenges to any application. The public will be given notice and have an opportunity to challenge any group citizen application, similar to the ability to challenge the Citizen List. Applications for citizenship are expected to be approved, except in cases such as where the individual is CDS estate-banned, the application is inaccurate or incomplete, or the number of group citizens exceeds the maximum (5) or the number of group-owned parcels.

Option 2 also requires each group citizen to be the tierbox tenant on at least one group-owned parcel, maintaining the standard that each citizen must “own” at least one parcel. At least one group tierbox in an individual’s name must be current in tier to maintain citizenship, similar to the individual owner standard in Option 1, our current system. A maximum of five group members may receive citizenship in this way; a group that owns ten parcels is limited to five group citizens. While all group members may have access to the group-owned parcels and have group land capabilities, only group citizens, as named in the formal application, are CDS citizens.

An individual, owning only one parcel in CDS, may apply for group citizenship, to allow them to deed their single parcel to their group and designate themselves as the tierbox owner and thereby maintain CDS citizenship. Additionally, a citizen that applies for group citizenship for their land group is not required to rely upon group citizenship for themselves, if they individually own at least one parcel in their own name within CDS; they may continue to rely upon the traditional process to gain citizenship, in Option 1.

Group administrators, as named in the application, may request EM action on any group-owned parcel; non-admin group citizens may only request EM action on the parcel(s) in which the tierbox is in their own name. In the event that any notice must be sent or any action taken against the group, the Chancellor will notify all group citizens named in the application.

The intention is to keep our current standard for citizenship unchanged, but to enable the convenience of land deeded to a group to still allow an individual to be a citizen, without additionally owning land in their individual name. The information required in the application includes the data necessary for the parcel scanning system to function, for the Estate Managers to properly configure the parcel, and a manual validation check on the individuals who will gain citizenship though the group-owned land.

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Tanoujin Milestone
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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

I favor this proposal in effect, but I need some clarifications. Obviously we have to change CDSL 16-03, where the constitutional formula „granted title to land“ is defined.
I would like to know how the land scanner would handle the parcel ownership list in the future. Does it now return the groups name? Do „we“ have to check the group manually to see whether the tier box owner is member of the group, or is this an automated process too?

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Lyubov
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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Lyubov »

Sudane replied via the General board:

Technically, the scanner returns the "key" of the owner group. The application process proposed by Lyubov asks the applicant citizen(s) for the name and key of the group, as well as the list of citizens who would be qualified to be owners via this group. We'll then add a simple look-up table to our citizenship file which delivers the name of the group each time the scanner detects that key.

As for group membership, this we have no automated access to. We *may* require that qualifying group members be listed "publicly" in the group so that this can be checked. Or we *may* simply disqualify someone who, upon challenge, is discovered not to belong to a group they claim to belong to. Personally, I don't feel it makes much difference.

As I understand Sudane's parcel scanning system, it returns the land owner for each parcel. If an individual, it is a name. If it is a group, it returns the group key. Sudane then checks the key against a table of valid CDS group keys to determine the name of the group and the citizens associated with that group. This table of group keys, group names, and associated citizens is manually created as a result of the application process. Once the table is created, the scanning and generation of parcel owners (individual name or group name) is automated.

Citizenship requires a second validation check, that tier is current. This comes from the separate CasperLet tierbox system. Casper does not provide an export function that would allow the data to be pulled and automatically validated against the parcel scanning system. In this case, the data from the Casper reporting website must be copied (one table, one copy) and inserted into a spreadsheet. Then, Sudane's Google Sheets Magic processes the tierbox data and corresponds it with the scanning data. The resulting Master List includes the parcel name, parcel owner (name or group), tierbox owner, and whether the tier is current.

From my perspective, I don't care if the group-sponsored citizens are actually members of the land-owning group. I don't want to be managing or auditing group membership lists and I don't want to require that the group membership list be globally readable. In practice, a group-owned parcel may be of limited utility to a non-group member, and I don't know why such a group would want to sponsor a citizen that is not a member. If we do want to require that group-sponsored citizens are actually members of the land-owning group, this could be handled though an assertion by the sponsor in the application, such as "I certify that all group citizens are and will remain active members of the land-owning group.".

The proposed process requires a "citizen in good standing", the sponsor, to provide a list of individuals who will be assigned to a tierbox and associated with the land-owning group. This application will be public within CDS with an opportunity for challenge. I then consider this "group citizen list" to be frozen. There will be no automated lookup of group membership, this is why the information is requested during the application process. No one will be added to or removed from the individuals gaining citizenship through the land-owning group. It is the sponsor's responsibility to maintain their own list. Changes require a new application.

I do not expect a high volume of land-owning groups requesting citizenship for their members. I also do not expect the individual citizens in a land-owning group to change often. Since I expect this to remain a relatively rare request, I think a manual process allowing for validation is sufficient.

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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

/me nods
thank you!

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Lyubov
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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Lyubov »

Tan posted via the General board:

„To hold title of a parcel means: to be the only tenant of the corresponding tier box AND to be owner of the parcel as seen in the About Land Popup, EITHER directly OR by membership of the private Group the parcel may be deeded to.“

That is a good way to handle the legal definition of "hold title", which we will need to address in CDSL 16-03 and possibly elsewhere.

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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by richie deschanel »

I support option 2 in principle as I think that groups should be able to pool prims within a sim if they own more than one parcel. I am fully behind the requirement to own at least one of the group parcels to qualify for citizenship (if that is what is intended - see below). Awen and I both own parcels in Neufreistadt but are unable to share our combined prim allowance without deeding the parcels to group. When deeded we then do not qualify as citizens under existing arrangements, even though the payment posts still recognise us as separate owners of our individual parcels. We raised this a while back but at that time we were limited by the sim scanners ability. That Sudane can now identify owners from the scanner is a major step forward in my view and should allow us to make an equitable change.

I am not sure that the about land pop up shows the true owner if the land is deeded to group? Doesn't it show the group as owner? Hopefully this is not a problem to what is proposed. I am slightly unclear if it is proposed that citizens can be group members who do not pay tier? For example say I own 2 plots and Awen owns one and we deed these to group how many 'citizens' can the group have? If I owned two plots and Awen none, could I nominate her as a citizen (as I own 2 plots)? Wouldn't it be simpler to keep the qualifying citizens as the individual prime landowners in the group (if that is what the scanner can identify). If it is the former arrangement one resident who owns 8 plots could qualify an additional 7 citizens? Is that is what is proposed or am I reading it wrong (probably).

In mine and Awen's case all we want to do is pool our prim allowance.

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Lyubov
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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Lyubov »

Richie, your use case is exactly the type that is envisioned. Today, your name is listed as owner in About Land for one parcel and your name is on the tierbox for that parcel. Awen is the owner in About Land for a second parcel and her name is on the tierbox for that parcel. The proposal would allow you and Awen to Deed both parcels to a group. About Land would then show the group as the owner for each parcel. Your name will remain on the tierbox for one parcel, and Awen's name will remain on the tierbox for another parcel. As such, the proposed process in Option 2 would allow both you and Awen to be citizens, while also pooling group-owned prims within the region. This is perhaps the simplest example of how the process is intended to work.

Yes, About Land will only show the deeded group name as the parcel owner. This is part of the reason why we have needed Sudane's scanning system update, to identify this group name, plus the additional application and registration process in Option 2, to state the individual names of the group citizens.

Some, but not all, group members may also be citizens. A group may contain ten members, but only two might be citizens. A group member must hold a tierbox in their individual name, and be registered with the land-owning group through the application process, as described in Option 2.

If you own twelve parcels throughout CDS as the About Land owner, your name is on the tierbox for all twelve parcels, and you Deed all twelve parcels to a group without further changes in your application, then you alone would be a citizen. As part of the Option 2 application process, the citizen applicant could name up to four additional group members to be included as citizens, for a total of five group citizens -- but each individual must be listed on at least one tierbox.

In the case the you cited, if you own two parcels via About Land and Awen none, you could Deed these two parcels to a group. This group and the two parcels could support up to two citizens. You would need to be listed on one tierbox, and Awen must also be listed on one tierbox. You would state in your application the name of each parcel that would be part of your group, as well as the individual tierbox owner for each parcel. An Estate Manager then sets the tierbox owner through the Casper tools, separate from About Land. This is also part of the application process in Option 2.

Option 2 states that a maximum of five citizens may be supported by a group's deeded parcels. Five group citizens requires a minimum of five group-owned parcels (each citizen must be listed on at least one tierbox). Four group-owned parcels may support up to four citizens, and so on. Ten or twenty group-owned parcels remain limited to a maximum of five citizens.

In summary, all citizens must be the individual listed on at least one tierbox and tier must be current. Additionally, all citizens must be listed as the individual About Land owner, or be a named member (as per the application process) of the group About Land owner. Option 2 further details the limits on the maximum number of individual citizens the group may support, specific information needed for administration, and the review process for proposed group citizens.

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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by richie deschanel »

Thank you for the clarification Lyubov, that makes perfect sense to me. On this basis I support the proposal set out in Option 2.

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Re: Group Citizenship Option

Post by Lyubov »

At yesterday's RA meeting, it was agreed to move forward with this option, with an additional limitation placed on groups.

Prim Parcel tierboxes are locked by default and only available to owners of small parcels in designated locations, with the intention of providing more usable Land Impact for these small parcels. As such, it was agreed that a group's ownership of one or more prim parcels shall not be considered in the calculation of the total number of citizens that the land-owning group may support. For example, a group that owns two parcels, one of which is a prim parcel, may only support a maximum of one citizen, not two.

It was also agreed that the Constitution will not be impacted by these changes, as the Constitution refers to "title to land" which itself is defined in CDSL 16-03.

The RA charged the LRA to draft language to modify CDSL 16-03 and CDSL 16-04 to enable this option.

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