So much to do, so many things and opportunities :) I feel somehow as the cleaning maid with her broom, wiping away the cobwebs, and delighting in the little treasures that are found all the time :)
2006 will give us many new and exciting challenges, like these, just from the top of my head:
- Revamping the whole concept of Neualtenburg as a commercial, and eventually a business centre. Kendra's "tiny" experiment in Altenburg is an incredible success. I use the word "tiny" in the sense that it was not something done on a sim-wide scale. I think it's fair to say, in the interest of "open government" :) , that the Altenburg Gruppe, who runs that quarter of the city, with its handful of shops, and two areas for events (Cabaret and Esplanade), are able to pay for their tier costs in the
whole of SL (ie. not only the deed fees for N'burg). It's also the highest traffic area in Neualtenburg. All this without a telehub and without much advertising, and basically just Kendra energically setting it up on her own (with perhaps a little hand from yours truly on the events side — but I still hold most of the events at the Marktplatz!)
While, unlike others, I like the idea of "two centres" in a city (it creates dynamics which are interesting to follow), this also means that a model could be developed in a smaller scale (well, at the risk of the Altenburg Gruppe), and, having evaluated the model, replicate it on a much larger scale on the Marktplatz.
This, in turn, will highly likely inspire a whole lot of remodelations in the city. Besides the "two centres", most of Neualtenburg is really empty — people prefer to live in the outside anyway, away from the cramped places. Although they come to the city for events, discussions, meetings, and to shop. This is the experience we had over a year now — and the way we rezone the "inner city" will definitely take into account what we've learned in the past. I expect
big changes, and very likely the city centre will not be the place to live in, but the hub of activity. This might be even more the case with the second sim (see below).
- Suggestions are being made for different participation in Neualtenburg, which are not restricted to buying deeded land. This is a double challenge. On one side, it means a more complex accounting system that allows for "rents", or eventually "working for a place". From people volunteering to do websites, to hosting events, to helping with the constitution or the law-making system... suddenly all them popped up from the shadows and wish to participate... and not all are willing to "buy land". This is the second side of the issue: defining what "citizenship" in Neualtenburg means.
- The constitutional revision. After a year or so, we have tried out the current Constitution and found the many tiny quirks it has. As agreed on the last RA term, this new term will definitely tackle that challenge. It took about 6 weeks and 20 people to write the first working Constitution, a team energically lead by Ulrika. It was quite a feat! Now all it takes is to smooth the edges, fix the power structure where it wasn't working as expected, integrate new offices like the Treasury (and eventually the Foreign Office — see below), see how far we can go without disrupting the original ideas, but work within the framework to expand much beyond what we thought to be possible.
- Concentrating on wide-scale, long term projects, that last longer. We haven't heard about Seldon Metropolitan's project for the newspaper that was stopped for a while because of his illness (if Seldon is reading this, I do truly wish that you're feeling better!). I guess it's time to start working on the "free press" again. But there are more: the MoCA, the University (a project dear to Claude, the current leader of the RA, which I'm betting that he'll bring up soon again hehe :) ).
- Projecting our yearly budget (this new RA will finally have a budget to work with!)
- Planning the major events in Neualtenburg. We have now several experts in planning/running sequences of events over time — starting with Pendari and Kendra, but also Keltrien Baker. We're probably the only group in the whole of SL that plans with *6 months* in advance, and this year will plan *a whole year* in advance! Not even
Linden Lab does that :) :)
- Getting
finally the embassy in Isenland, and very likely other places in SL, which will work mostly as "trade posts" — a way to present Neualtenburg-styled content outside of Neualtenburg itself, at the cost of having others to bring their content into our city. But we also have the weird concept of a "Neualtenburg Franchise" to play with: a series of shops in the mainland to promote N'burg's wares, and to serve as "infohubs" on Neualtenburg. This year, as SL grows to perhaps half a million residents or more, we'd aim for the impossible in PR — have
all of them hear about us ;) What this means is that something akin to a Foreign Office (to handle promotion of N'burg in the rest of the virtual world) will slowly emerge, and we'll need to see how these concepts fit into our current model.
- Speaking of mainland... we have the expansion plans to consider, the 2nd sim, and an eventual change
back towards the mainland, when the new group tools with covenants get implemented.
- The website. Three things have had a slow pace of development in SL: animations, Neualtenburg :) and integration with the Web. After a year, we have almost the same number of animators (and don't forget Ulrika's contribution with her "Thriller" machinima!); Neualtenburg is finantially solid but did not grow much in size (compare us with the big land estate owners!); and we just have three major e-Commerce sites, and three search tools. While the Blogosphere expanded, the integration with the web was very slow. But Ulrika had shown the way a year ago, with vendors tied in to a website and the first voting booth for SL. We had the technology
first; we sadly did not capitalize on it. But SL was so slow on these three areas that we did not really "fall behind". It's time to lead the way again!
- Banking. For a while, Ulrika has incessantly posted successive revisions on the Bonds system (which are officially half-approved, but not implemented). Beyond a bonds system, we might consider other financial opportunities: creating an investment bank, with the City Government as a trusted guarantee. This is totally different from the current "investment opportunities" in SL, which are based upon trust
in a single person, or, in the case of Cyberland, having land as collateral. We
might be able to introduce a new model, just because we have an unique environment: one where a legal system with a balance of powers can oversee and audit a banking institution, making all necessary steps transparent enough, and which will be held accountable in case of any attempt of fraud. This is something utterly impossible elsewhere in SL.
- Exploring the concept of "SL companies with Neualtenburg incorporation". This, I believe, will be a turning point in SL this year. In mid-2004, people were aggressively
against any sort of super-structure that provided organisation, a legal system, and arbitration facilities. Right now, they're
crying for it — and this time, very loudly. Well, within our limitations, we can offer all these services. We might not be able to compete in exporting content, becoming a major hub of entertainment, or becoming a "player" in the real estate market, but one thing I'm sure of: we're the only group in SL that is able to provide a legal framework for corporations. Imagine a Wall Street in Neualtenburg (more likely a Bahnhofstrasse...) where you'd see, lined up, fronts for Dreamland, Ginko Financials, Hiro Queso, Cyberland, Nexcom, and all the other major groups that are pulling their hairs in despair for lack of a legal framework that allows them to deal with contracts, arbitration, and fair trials. They might not
like us much at this moment; but within a year, if we can properly manage our competitive advantage in the services area, they might not have another choice.
Also, this eventually will become the groundwork for others to copy & imitate Neualtenburg's model. Which would mean, in turn, that we would start to negotiate "agreements" between virtual governments, and prepare a forthcoming "virtual federation" :) Perhaps not yet in 2006, but who knows, this will eventually start to cross people's minds. Naturally, they'll use Neualtenburg as a model — both to imitate and to improve upon. Right now, they have thousands of posts in our threads to see what we did right and where we failed; what pitfalls to avoid, and what things to build upon. There is lots for anyone in SL to start with.
The most amazing of all of this is that when I write the word "we", it takes a different meaning as time goes on. "We" in the summer of 2004 was a group of 60 people, of which I think only 3 or 4 remain. "We" in late 2004 was a group of very eager, 15-20 citizens, who came up with novel ideas. "We" in the harsh winter and early spring of 2004/5 was a tiny group of stubborn citizens that made the move to a private island. "We" during the summer of 2005 was a different group — some who came back, some completely new, some oldtimers with new energy — that expanded the concept and made it grow. "We" in late 2005 was a 27-person-group, most of them having nothing to do with the original concepts, but that stuck to the framework that was created so long ago ("ages", in SL terms), and keep Neualtenburg alive. "We" in 2006 are a host of new, interested people, some already citizens, some close observers eager to find new ways of participating — and the City of Neualtenburg has to open its doors to them as well.
All of this was certainly unthinkable so long ago, but definitely a product of the vision of Ulrika and the ones who got the ball rolling. The intentions, apparently, hit the mark on the bullseye: a project set up the way Neualtenburg has been set up is able to sustain itself, despite people leaving and joining the City. The City, today, is definitely bigger than its individual citizens. I have to admit I'm proud of Ulrika's original vision.
I can't finish without echoing Frank Lardner's
words on this thread: "Even though individuals can have dramatic impact on the formation of a government, the continuation of that government depends on the combined actions of many and the structure of laws they create." And quoting Robin Linden's signature as well, who, in turn, quotes Gandhi: "You must Be the Change you wish to see in the world."
It's up to us now :)
.
. But, reall nice idea! Lets see if we can do it.
