Why I joined and support the Neualtenburg Projekt

I have posted my thoughts on this topic below. I would love to hear from others involved their personal reasons for joining and supporting this projekt also.

I have been battling the flu the last few days and have not had a chance to post to the forums. I am doing a bit better now and wanted to take this chance to voice my reasons for joining and supporting the Neualtenburg Projekt.

I've been in SL for over a year now. And I was around during the large debates about bringing a government to SL. Those who remember my opinions during those debates will know that I am opposed to a current (and forseeable future) government being established for the entire world of SL. However during the debates I also strongly agreed with those who were stating that there will be a day down the road when a government very well may be needed. This could be many years from now, and it may not even be within the SL as we know it.

If you think about the future of SL, and the worlds that will develop based on its ideals, then it does give reason to pause and think that 5, 10, or 20 years from now, with the growth of technology and more people throughout the RL world turning to the online world for business, education, entertainment, etc., we really cannot begin to imagine how much our online lives are going to start resembling our real lives. When the day comes that the online world and the real life world are intertwined so heavily that we cannot tell the difference, then yes, I very much can see governments coming into play throughout the
different communities.

To me, these ifs and whens are something to think about. And if we think about them now, and we experiment with different types of online governments now, before it is "too late", then maybe in the future the governments we now live with in our RL will not be the ones to neccessarily take over our online worlds. Through experiments and trials and error, I feel that those currently in online worlds really do have a chance at shaping the future dynamics of online worlds. Some will do it through business practices, others through educational, others still through arts and entertainment, and yes some through politics.

The Neualtenburg Projekt to me is a great testing ground that I personally believe can shed some light on a possible future. I do not fear it will ever take over SL (nor would I want it to). While I would love for the Projekt to grow and expand, it will never be something that would be forced upon the unwilling. It may inspire other government project to pop up in SL, and that would be great also! Unlike the difficulty of moving to a different country in RL when you are opposed to your government, in SL and hopefully other online worlds that develop, you can choose where to move in the first place based on your beliefs, or keep it from moving into your community. Or move out fairly easily enough if you cannot overthrow a government that you do not agree with. If the day came that the Neualtenburg Projekt became unvoluntary, you better believe I'm going to be right there with everyone else making sure we tear it down fast. But that isn't going to happen. Because I know I'm not the only one involved on the inside of the projekt that would work to keep that from happening.

So my reasons for being a part of this projekt are for experimental purposes only. For my part in it, I will be focusing solely on issues pertaining to SL, and RL issues that would *directly* affect SL. I believe that the day will come in our online lives that government will very much be a part of it, and I for one would love a part in shaping how it may come to be.

I'm too lazy to copy & paste:

Why discussing governments is so hard...

Also available at some General Forums near you

absolutely brilliant! a MUST read.

I came for the hot lesbians.....Im staying because every government needs an arguementative asshat.

Seriously though I enjoy all the different points of you that have made me question my own views. This is never going to be easy and or pretty ..then again no government is. If people that are from different cultures, educational backgrounds, and political views can come together and compromise on how a government should be built and run it can't be a bad thing.

Great post Pendari. I used to want a player-run government for the entirety of SL- but seeing some of the people that have come in recently.. I'm not sure the populace is up to the task.

The challenge from the Lindens interested me and I'm interested in the creation of governance.

I've done it for IT departments in RL. If you have different business areas sharing resources(bandwidth, servers, technitions etc), you need someway of agreeing requirements, priorities and settling disputes (Lucky those things dont apply in SL eh?). So the idea of supporting an SL attempt to put something in place was attractive.

I've thought of a few humorous reasons I could list for joining , but since my audience doesn't know me too well (and vice versa) I'll just say the real reasons which are:

1. Creativity
   
2. Politics
   

I'm quite passionate about both -not in an extremist way, but I like both very much. Music is my primary creative venue. I play guitar, keyboard and bass. I like politics for the philosophical debate as well as the sportslike nature of it. I follow politics like most guys follow football or baseball.