Transcript from the 12th July 2014 10 Anniversary meeting

discussions related to planning the 10th Anniversary of CDS

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Ceasar Xigalia
Passionate Protagonist
Passionate Protagonist
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Transcript from the 12th July 2014 10 Anniversary meeting

Post by Ceasar Xigalia »

Transcript from the 12th July 2014 10 Anniversary meeting

[07:03] Ceasar Xigalia: the meeting will be recorded and posted to the forums on a thread that anyone is welcome to contribute to
[07:05] Ceasar Xigalia: the 10 year anniversary will be a an ongoing series of events that will begin July 30th as we celebrate the anniversary of Haney Lindens post
[07:06] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): ♡k
[07:06] Ceasar Xigalia: regarding
[07:06] Ceasar Xigalia: http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/3/dd/18984/1.html
[07:07] Ceasar Xigalia: please have a quick look at the link
[07:08] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): was that in CDS ?
[07:08] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: That is Haney Lindens first post that invited people to enter ideas to preserve the snow sims, which promted Ulrika to go forward and
[07:08] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: it is how CDS began, yes
[07:10] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: So the celebration of the tenth year anniversary begins with a celebration of the anniversary of the event that kicked off CDS
[07:10] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: What do you think ?
[07:10] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): good idea to celibrate
[07:10] Dee Shepherd: what will that celebration entails?
[07:11] Ceasar Xigalia: I had thought maybe some event at the Anzere info hub
[07:11] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): Are there ideas on how the first post will be celebrated?
[07:11] Ceasar Xigalia: it being in the snow sim where it all started
[07:11] Ceasar Xigalia: does anyone have any other thoughts?
[07:11] Dee Shepherd: I only ask to see what if any a PIO 's role would be
[07:12] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): that is a good idea Ceasar
[07:12] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker) nods
[07:12] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: Anzere was the sim for Neualtenburg Projekt from August 2004 to May 2005. Around August 2004, Linden Lab was worried about the way snow sims were "misused"--residents simply ignored the "theme" and built whatever they wanted--even outdoor swimming pools. Very quickly, there was no real difference between a snow sim and a tropical sim in terms of building, and it was too late to "enforce" new rules.

Instead, LL proposed a "contest for the preservation of the snow sims", where part of Anzere (1/2 sim--the rest would be kept as "protected land") would be leased for 4 months--but people would need to gather up tier to support it) for the best project who presented a thematic build and a means to mantain it. The Neualtenburg Projekt, lead by Ulrika Zugzwang, was the winner of the contest, proposing to recreate a medieval Bavarian village (based upon the RL town of Rothenburg) with some post-modern adaptations. As a means for mantaining the village, an elected government would be in charge of keeping it
[07:12] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: operational, changing and adapting the structures, holding events, promoting a financially sound operation (where the income generated by the city would be used to pay for tier), and generally keeping the city operational even when some of the residents left Second Life by electing new people for the government--unlike groups based on selected individuals, which usually fall apart when the "leader" of the project leaves SL.
[07:12] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): I like the idea of an event at Anzere
[07:12] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): yes, i would like an historical museum
[07:12] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): Perhaps something to renovate the exhibit of the biergarten for, Jos?
[07:13] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Build
[07:13] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: renovate the biergarten , gauis ?
[07:13] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: at anzere?
[07:13] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): To replace the exhibit that had been there for years
[07:13] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): No, our NFS biergarten
[07:14] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): umm, i think it would be nice to have a permanent historical museum but
[07:14] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: so put an exhibit in the NFS Beirgarten about the contest for the snow sim ideas ?
[07:14] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): an exhibit can be a good start
[07:14] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: is that what you mean G
[07:14] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i think an installation of the history of how the project began is a good idea. ..
[07:14] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): yes that is a great start for a museum
[07:14] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: is that what you mean?
[07:14] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): I mean a historical exhibit about the history of the Confederation in the NFS Biergarten, to replace Lilith's exhibit that has been there for years
[07:15] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: nods i think thatts a great idea.
[07:15] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: And also an event to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the proposal request
[07:15] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): i'm not sure it is wise to put an old exhibit away because some may not like to loose it ?
[07:15] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: at anzere
[07:16] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: thats just an art exhibit that Lilith did Jos, i think its not something meant to be permanent, but thats is a good point.
[07:16] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): ♡k
[07:16] Callipygian Christensen: jos, I don't think Lilith will mind moving for a museum installation
[07:16] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): perhaps we can make an installation that fits within a certain size, so that it later can be put in one room of a larger museum
[07:16] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: so now we have two ideas... 1. an installation of the history of the contest at the beirgarten, and a celebration in Anzere itself
[07:17] Ceasar Xigalia: exhibits move and change all the time in rl so I think it is a good idea
[07:17] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): ♡k ...
[07:17] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): perhaps part of the Anzere event can be finding things from 10 years ago
[07:17] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): Ach, must be going.
[07:17] Gaius Tiberius Curio (Guillaume Mistwalker): Bye all!
[07:17] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i think there was an idea in an earlier meeting that we have a sort of ( progressive dinner) of installations about the history .. to celebrate the ten yearss... my question is to make sure that the beirgarten is the best place fro this piece of it
[07:18] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: bye g
[07:18] Ceasar Xigalia: bye G
[07:18] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): or unveiling them ... and then stuck that in a historical exhibit ...
[07:18] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i tihnk we should definitely use the biergarten for one of the exhibits for the celebration..
[07:19] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: What about an event at Anzere. its quite small
[07:19] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): i think that is a great idea
[07:19] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): it would be nice if there are pictures from back then
[07:19] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: Anzere is full of very precious irreplaceable items and we have to make sure we do not disturb it
[07:20] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): aha, it is that small set of buildings
[07:21] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): there is a CDS outpost there
[07:21] Ceasar Xigalia: maybe we base an event there a meting or party to celebrate at Anzere on the 30th
[07:22] Dee Shepherd: excuse please pressing rl matters
[07:22] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): someone can perhaps recount the history
[07:22] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): oki Dee, later
[07:22] Ceasar Xigalia: bye Dee
[07:22] Ceasar Xigalia: i do have a notecard written by Gwyn I will pass out
[07:23] Ceasar Xigalia: its long so it might be a read after this meeting
[07:23] Ceasar Xigalia: i will post the text into the transcript
[07:23] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: I think the event should have CDS citizens
[07:23] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): ty
[07:24] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): history is one of the best way to introduce ppl to CDS and make it understandible what it is
[07:24] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): *ways
[07:26] Ceasar Xigalia: so we have a suggestion for an exhibit to be started in the biergarten and for an event to be held at the Anzere infohub to start the celebrations on the 30th July
[07:26] Ceasar Xigalia: does anyone have any other ideas or different thoughts?
[07:27] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): no, but maybe this is enough
[07:28] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i just think the event at anzere should be done by cds citizens, not hiring someone outside of cds to come do music or anything
[07:28] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i think having Gywn do a lecture if she can,and anyone else who was there then
[07:28] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: and getting as quickly as possible gathering all of ths
[07:28] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): agrees
[07:28] Ceasar Xigalia: I like the idea of getting some of the original people to speak
[07:29] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): dresscode: noobish :o
[07:29] Ceasar Xigalia: :)
[07:29] Ceasar Xigalia: I will ask Gwyn if she can be available
[07:30] Ceasar Xigalia: who else could we ask?
[07:30] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): that would be invalueable
[07:30] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: sudane of course
[07:30] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): Gwyn probably knows
[07:30] Ceasar Xigalia: yes
[07:31] Ceasar Xigalia: they will know if there are others who can be asked or are still available
[07:31] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): yes
[07:32] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): perhaps it is smart to create a party-commission
[07:32] Ceasar Xigalia: we have some material from the SL11B that can start the exhibit
[07:32] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): perhaps we can even start the process of building a Museum
[07:32] Callipygian Christensen: You might try contacting Danton
[07:32] Ceasar Xigalia: obviously I will ask the PIOs to help
[07:33] Ceasar Xigalia: does any one else want to volunteer?
[07:33] Callipygian Christensen: he started blogging CDS history in 07
[07:33] Ceasar Xigalia: I will also ask outside this meeting for those who could not attend today
[07:34] Ceasar Xigalia: I will try Danton
[07:34] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: donton wasnt in cds at 2004
[07:34] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): perhaps i can help, but you are right that this is already the job of the Executive I guess
[07:34] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: why danton
[07:34] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: he is not a very good source of information at all
[07:34] Ceasar Xigalia: happy to have you help Jos
[07:35] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): : )
[07:35] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: i think thi sis more about 2004
[07:35] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): he might have older materials though
[07:35] Ceasar Xigalia: any other thoughts?
[07:36] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): not from me, thank you Ceasar
[07:37] Callipygian Christensen: My mistake - I thought the celebrations were to be the ten years of CDS and the history would be relevant *shrug*
[07:37] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: well the entire ones
[07:37] CLEOPATRA Xigalia: but i think we were just nwo talking about the first kick off
[07:38] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): good point Calli, we don't have to focus on the start-point only, although at Anzere that would be logical to do
[07:39] Ceasar Xigalia: ok if there are no further thoughts I will close the meeting
[07:39] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): aye
[07:39] Ceasar Xigalia: I will post the transcript on the forum
[07:40] Ceasar Xigalia: Thank you all for attending
[07:40] josjoha moonglow (josjoha Resident): ty for chairing Ceasar.

Notecard referred to in the chat above
A brief history of the CDS in Anzere
Blame it all on Gwyn
Second Life, in mid-2004, just had some 5,000 residents or so, but it already suffered from the same issues that we have today: a chaotic Mainland without any concern of urban planning or respect for neighbours’ builds. Back then, private islands didn’t exist yet (but they would soon be released), so you could only hope that you and your friends bought plots nearby and built things together creatively, respecting each other. Unfortunately, all it took was a nasty neighbour to spoil a whole region; and that meant that people would leave and start something new elsewhere.
But even groups working together weren’t the solution: group leaders would leave SL — or just give up on the group altogether and do something less — and then you had the succession problem, which is common to all dictatorships, even “benevolent” dictatorships: when the leader goes away, who becomes the new leader, and how does one guarantee that the rest of the group accepts the new leadership — or that the new leader respects the group’s original intent?
While struggling with those questions, which were openly discussed on the SL forums during the summer of 2004, Robin Linden, then the Marketing Director for Linden Lab, proposed an insane idea: what did residents think about governance? Would it make sense to have a group of residents elected by the residents to oversee urban planning and settle conflicts?
Surprisingly, although the vast majority of SL residents live in RL democracies, over 97.5% of all residents replied “no” to democracy. All of them vastly preferred to live in chaos and drama to have residents elected “deciding” over urban planning and settling conflicts. This was quite surprising for a tiny group of residents who, at that time, continued to discuss those ideas, to the dismay of the rest, who were worried about “taking over the virtual world”.
During those days, Linden Lab was fond of promoting interesting content in SL. A bit similar to the Linden Endowment of the Arts programme (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_ ... r_the_Arts), they would regularly fund interesting ideas after a public contest, selecting the best participants, who would be granted a temporary area in SL on lease (usually on recently released regions on new areas in the Mainland, to serve as attraction points). Back then, snow regions were a novelty, and Linden Lab was looking for a way to capture residents’ attention.
So this small group of democratically-oriented residents thought that this would be a great opportunity to get together, apply for the competition, and see if they could establish a group that would establish themselves democratically as a planning authority and overall management. But there were a few further twists to the idea. The first was mostly to set an example: showing the SL community that democracy can work and encourage others to set up similar projects. Secondly, because of the theme — alpine regions — the overall look and feel would need to comply with Linden Lab’s guidelines, so the choice was to make the democracy project look like a Bavarian-inspired town up in the snowy mountains. And thirdly, it was expected that this project would be long-lasting — far outlasting its own founders — which was the whole point of showing how democracy is a stable solution for long-term management.
To create the proposal, three main issues had to be addressed. First, for the benefit of fitting into Linden Lab’s proposal, the overall look of the project had to be defined. The group proposed to create a tiny alpine town, enclosed inside its city walls, loosely inspired on the German medieval city of Rothenburg (but severely scaled down to fit the available space and just replicating the major landmarks and overall look). This lead to a city plan with strict guidelines of what could be built and where, for a town which was amusingly named “Neualtenburg” (“new old town”). Secondly, a proposal for the management of the region — using democratic elections to select the management — was also supplied to Linden Lab, which required drafting a Constitution and explaining its purposes. And finally, a schedule was presented to Linden Lab for the time to implement all this: the lease would be granted only for a few months, and, naturally, Linden Lab expected that most of the buildings would be completed early and that the team managing the lease would engage the community with interesting events drawing residents to the snow regions.
Linden Lab was sufficiently intrigued to accept the proposal, and they have allocated about a third of the Anzere region for this project. This was part of an area of Linden-owned regions in the Mainland which, to this day, are just there for creating a natural landscape, setting the stage for the surrounding regions to draw some inspiration from the beautiful mountains around them.
The first area to be built was the Marktplatz (market place) at the centre of the town, and the Kirche (church), as well as a few typical medieval houses. The idea was that the official launch of the project would be a recreation of a German Oktoberfest (when people all over Germany celebrate by drinking copious amounts of beer :-) ), and, for that, a large square area would be needed. So while the remaining areas were still being industriously built as fast as possible, the central part of the town was open for the celebrations and the inauguration of the first (and only!) community with a democratically-elected management team, dubbed as “government”. The group, by then, had some 80 members — all of them allowed to vote and be elected for government, which, at the time, had three branches: a legislative branch (the Representative Assembly), a builder union (the Guild), and a judicial branch (the Scientific Council, loosely inspired on university councils, thus the fancy name). There was no executive: it was expected that the Representative Assembly would plan the urban environment, adapting it to change, and that the Guild would deploy those plans, overseen by the Scientific Council. Even though the group was small, access to the Representative Assembly was via a party system — the idea, once again, was that people would vote for ideas, not individuals, since due to the ever-changing nature of SL, it would be very hard to make sure the party leaders would remain active for long. Each representative would serve for a term of 3 months (later, 6 months) and then general elections would be called; the size of the Representative Assembly was set as a percentage of the overall population. Union membership in the Guild was after application, depending on one’s skills as a builder or scripter, which would be examined by the Guildmeister (leader of the Guild); like medieval guilds, roles included Apprentices, Journeymen, and Masters. Finally, the judicial branch was a self-appointed meritocracy, where its members would invite other members based on their understanding of the Constitution and the Code of Laws, as shown on the very busy forums and in-world discussions. This allowed a certain balance between the three factions, all of which had checks and balances to make sure that no single branch — and no single individual on that branch — would be able to “take over” the group.
Membership was free; to become a “citizen” — someone with the ability to vote and be elected — all that was needed was to join a group and pledge acceptance of the Constitution and the Code of Laws. The project expected to generate some income (to fund events, contests, and further building) from selling “branded items” with a typically Bavarian look and feel.
Linden Lab’s lease soon expired in early 2005, and they suggested that the group would lease a private island instead, and move the content over. This generated a heavy debate among the members, since it would mean a much higher cost of maintenance — having to pay for a full region. Eventually, a group of three residents accepted the challenge, split the monthly tier fees among themselves, and relaunched the project, now on a private island named after the town. Soon, more former residents joined the group, and many others, over the years, continued to join.
This required a new change: free membership was not feasible, since the project didn’t generate enough income from sales. So the land outside the city walls was parcelled — as well as some selected areas inside the city itself, namely around the Marktplatz, where the telehub was located and it was the prime area for commerce — and plots individually sold to citizens. So, from then on, citizenship meant land ownership, and this has been the case until today.
Despite the fancy names for the government’s branches, and the unusual roles and titles, as well as the traditional events — from the annual Oktoberfest, the Winter Holidays celebrations, and the Inauguration Ball after each election — this is not a role-playing community. It most closely resembles an owner’s association, where individual land owners have their own ideas of how to run the place and voice them publicly, and, through debate and voting, the majority rules what is to be changed and how. There is seldom a “consensus”, and often, when a group gets their ideas voted down, they might, on the subsequent term, raise enough votes to get elected, so that they can apply their own ideas instead — just like on any democratic institution. But this also means that the project didn’t always run smoothly. Unlike most close-knit communities, which generally depend on a charismatic leader and the overall friendship with that leader to thrive, a democratic system means that you don’t need to be “friends” with everybody, but that there are mechanisms to deal with change, protect one’s rights, and allow everybody to participate, propose new changes, and get them voted. Obviously that often means that some good ideas, lacking popular support, might lay dormant; and it also means that some citizens, tired of being unable to get popular support for their ideas, might drop off the project. However, there are also several cases of citizens who left for a while and came back later.
In 2006 there was a major split and an abuse of power by one of the founders, and, due to that, the project was renamed to “Neufreistadt” (new free city). Later, however, as the project expanded, and new regions were added, the overall name was voted to be “Confederation of Democratic Simulators”. Regions are not separate entities, even though they usually have local groups doing planning for their specific regions, with overall approvement and supervision by the branches of government — which, today, have a different nature: the Representative Assembly has dropped the party system requirement and members are elected using a method called Single-Transfer Vote (citizens, during elections, order the individual candidates by their preference); the Guild was separated from the Government (it still exists as a forum for builders and scripters, and keeps its role as an aid to urban planning and teaching builders construction skills) and an Executive, lead by a Chancellor, now does the overall maintenance of the regions, organises events, manages land sales, and supervises the many covenants that regulate what can be built and what is forbidden. The Scientific Council keeps its role as a constitutional court and a final arbiter on difficult interpretations of the law, but has its power much reduced. So, over the years, the system has not remained static, but evolved and adapted according to the wishes of its citizens.
For example, when “tinies” became popular, there was a proposal to hollow out the area under the Marktplatz and create a “tiny city” for them, since, at that time, there were few “tiny-only” areas in Second Life. As more and more “tiny cities” appeared, this was abandoned. Instead, SL soccer became popular, so a soccer field replaced the Tiny City instead. And even though there are still places in Neufreistadt that go all the way back to 2004, almost everything else has been rebuilt, but keeping in the spirit of the project’s guidelines and covenants. The Kirche, for example, was succeedingly rebuilt, while still maintaining its place in the Marktplatz. And, on the other side of it, up the mountain that dominates the whole regions, the Schloss (castle) has recently gone through a major rebuild to fit its purpose better, reduce overall lag in the region, and provide better support for the city’s events.
Not all regions are themed as “Alpine”. Free from the constraints of Linden Lab’s original proposal, two of the regions are inspired by ancient Roman and Greek architecture. For a time, part of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators was joined by a similar project which recreated medieval Arab architecture during the golden age of the Caliphate. It was expected that, over time, and assuming constant growth, new areas would be added that included different themes, contributing to the variety of the overall project, but also adding the challenge of smoothly integrating all in a pleasing environment.
The CDS main goal was certainly reached. In its ninth year of continuous existence, 19 terms were served by the Representative Assembly, and the democracy is solid — but still subject to occasional changes. The whole community continues to successfully adapt to changes and to the ideas of new citizens. As foreseen, the project has long outlasted the founding members — which was the whole point. Only one of the founders still remains around, and she’s not been politically active for a couple of years; and it’s not unusual for brand-new citizens, just a few weeks after having joined the CDS, run for Chancellor or for a seat at the Representative Assembly — and get elected. While democracies tend to be a bit slower to adapt (there is much more to be discussed, debated, and voted upon), they are long-lived, and we’re now proud of being one of the oldest communities of Second Life in continuous existence.

Ceasar Xigalia,
“I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
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