SDF Past and Future

Hello. I was hoping to attract the attention of some of the SDF Freistadters (is that your new name?) over to this thread for a discussion. I applied for an account on your external forums to address you personally but have not yet heard back from the administrators. Personally, I think the probability of me receiving an account is small, which makes one wonder if the new name isn't meant to be ironic.

Anyways, the SDF actually predates N'burg by quite a bit. It was spawned as a group to put forward social-democratic ideals in a virtual world and later found a second life as faction within N'burg Phase I, II, and Freistadt. In fact, the city's factions are called factions (and not parties) as I wanted the terminology to match the SDF's moniker. (This has never been revealed until now, although it might have been obvious to some.)

In short, this group is open to all SL social democrats. In fact, I think it would be very interesting for existing social democrats to engage me in a dialogue to discuss how the current problem with the city and its IP does or does not conform to the ideals of social democrats. It could be enlightening.

The official SDF webpage can be found here. You have permission to use both logos and the platform for SDF related activities. The platform on that page is geared towards SL-wide SDF activities. When I get home, I'll post the N'burg-Phase-II-specific SDF information for you. The only thing I ask is that as a group you collectively try and agree on what the SDF platform is and adhere to its principles. With that said, I have no interest in engaging myself in your city's politics in any way whatsoever, so if you would like a dialogue, let's keep the discussion general.

If you don't feel it's safe to post in this forum, send me an email at [email]Ulrika.Zugzwang@gmail.com[/email]. This goes for anyone who wants to talk to me about anything for any reason.

~Ulrika~

I should mention as one of the original members and still quite dedicated to the SDF platform, that Phase III of the Neualtenburg Projekt --Port Neualtenburg will indeed be embracing the key principals of the SDF.

In general we support:

* Private enterprise, but regulated to protect the interests of workers, consumers, and small enterprise. We believe in ethical capitalism and seek to remove parasitic wealth extraction from the economy through the creation of artisan cooperatives and the use of taxation and regulation to discourage unethical practices.

--- This is infact at the heart of the Phase III goals. The formation of an artist's commune serving to support each other's commerce and teaching each other through collaborative effort while engaging in what we seek to make a living community.

* Environmental protection. We seek to protect the beauty of the sims, maintain open space, and enhance the quality of builds in Second Life through the use of covenants and themes.

--- by remaining on the main grid we are committed to the beautification of egalitarian Second Life as opposed to the more elite and sequestered private sims. Even New players with little money may join us as we charge for opening a business by commision of sales
and not unaffordable rates of rental. Sell nothing? Pay nothing.

* Antixenophobic and nonfundamentalist legislations (pro-choice, antiracist, antihomophobic). We believe that all avatars are equal and have a right to be heard.

--- all citizens of Phase III have an equal voice in airing concerns to the City. There is no "Huge Government Buerocracy" interceding between it's citizens and it's needs.

Aw, and here I thought that you might be starting a project to build the SDF-1. That would be a project I could get behind.

Now I'm disapointed.

As a matter of fact, Kendra just stated on Monday night, while we were setting up shop in the Port, that Phase III will be more of a Social Democratic experiment than Phase II was. So the questions about the SDF and its role in various projects is quite topical.

~Ulrika~

In SL, wouldn't environmental protection refer more to conservation of (server) resources than to zoning ordinances which enforce a specific appearance? I can understand if you do want to enforce a particular theme, but I'd hardly call that "environmental protection." The environment's ability to sustain itself doesn't seem to be related to whether the inhabitants build "ugly" or "beautiful" collections of prims, textures and scripts.

That would fall under quality, as in quality of scripts or quality of textures.

Unless you consider the environment as a whole as inextricable from the user base itself, which may require an as yet undefined ratio of "beautiful" prim collections as a fundamental to continued, long-term participation.

It easily could be. By these definitions, though, "environmental protection" in the outside would would also be synonymous with zoning ordinances. If a particular area were zoned for "abandoned factory and trash heap", than protecting this environment would require that the abandoned factory be kept as it... replenished with a new abandoned factory when it eventually rotted away. The garbage too, would have to be kept in place, and replenished if it disappeared or biodegraded.

However, environmental protection (in RL) seems to refer to protection of "that which exists before/aside from human development". Protection of those things aside from man-made constructions, and assuring the supply of those resources that the "environment" provides.... whether in oxygen production, biodiversity, open space or raw materials for activity/industry.

Just so, the "environment" in SL could certainly be defined as "what's around you", but I would say that "environmental protection" should be more narrowly construed to be "the protection of the environment's resources...bandwidth, perhaps open space, textures, trees and heightmaps which were originally included with the sim.

How 'bout SL Aesthetics Protection?

I think something like that would more accurately describe what the initiative is. It's a form of zoning ordinances, which certainly isn't a bad or a good thing.... it depends on the intentions of the person/group who's managing the space.