Request for Town Hall meeting

The following was sent to several Lindens requesting a Town Hall meeting - if you;d like to join in, feel free to send in a note of support, or "sign" by indicating your support in a response.

Dear [Philip, Robin, Pathfinder, Jeska, Blue, Jesse] Linden:

We were very interested to read Phillip Linden's recent comments about "zoning", "convenants" and "empowerment" of groups in SL. Such developments have the potential to dramatically change the SL experience for the better, but could also entail some unanticipated consequences.

We are writing to request that a town meeting be convened to discuss implementation of zoning/covenant tools, as this is an issue of widespread interest to the SL community.

We propose a panel format, with considerable time reserved at the end for Q&A and open dialogue. We would recommend that the panel include a number of large landowners/rentals managers; others who have experience in administering community agreements in SL; and a representative of Linden Labs who is involved in developing zoning/covenant tools. There are also some residents and groups actively discussing suggestions for new group tools that may be invited as well to attend. Of course, we also encourage active Linden participation/attendance in this forum.

We would like you to set up a date and place at your convenience for this panel, as soon as possible, so that there is ample time for mutual feedback and open discussion, well before these new tools are deployed, and thank you in advance for your willingness to discuss these issues with us.

Signed,
Cocoanut Koala
Gwyneth Llewellyn
Prokofy Neva
Justice Soothsayer

Sounds like a great idea and its time has definitely come.

Philosophically, I would lean towards something more democratic, such as a general participatory roundtable as I like the sanity check from participants who speak from the wisdom of the crowd, without any political constraints or carefully crafted agendas.

That being said, I think experimenting with a panel format is a good idea so we can compare and contrast the different approaches, especially as I think it will raise the bar for the next time we do have a general roundtable.

Let us know how we can support the event, perhaps you can supply us with a notecard we can share with our friends.