SL Corporations

Yeah LA Sucks hard, not full of people so much as caricatures of people.

So did you get to feel your welcoming earthquake yestarday? Im much closer to the epicenter than you were but from what I understand if was felt in San Diego and LA as well.

Now, I really like the idea of a player system of government, as well as courts and "lawyers". I know it would be much more satisfying for me as a non techie to be able to get employment and make some cash using my debate skills and being paid as a "lawyer" then as a bouncer. I wouldnt need to worry about passing a bar, just as SL architects dont need to worry about building codes.

I agree with the theoretical premise, from what I understand, that the Lindens would act as the federal branch while the sims would have the role of states. Unfortunatly crossing into another sim and purchasing goods or services would make any "crimes" become a federal matter if the model of the U.S. were adopted, and the solution of having the jurisdiction of where the transaction takes place would do nothing but enable sims to operate as corporate shelters similar to how Cheney and cronies use post office boxes in small Carribean nations as their "headquarters" for tax purposes, and allow all the crooks to do businesses in sims "safe" for them. Yes more problems in the solution, but I'd rather have a chance to be involved in shaping the landscape then be served a steaming pile of dung on a platter and be told to like it or leave.

As far as player involvement in governments and juries and such, it would probably be similar to RL where the majority live in blissful ignorance while a small minority with vested intrests take active part in the "process." You would also be able to cater to the Poly Sci types who would enjoy the process and not have vested interest, thereby opening up a new niche for new players to expand SL, a goal that (except for lag issues) would benefit EVERYONE in SL.

As far as oversite on corporations, you got me. Im in favor of each sim electing representatives to oversee any large scale arbitration on most any dispute, but as far as a body strictly to oversee corporations I dont think that would work. Maybe a new player rating of "trustworthiness" might help, and if you back the CEO or a treasurer of a corporation, you are wagering your money that this person is trustworthy and/or competent.

Also worth noting, I could be wrong about this, but since linden dollars have a RL value to them, any grand scale schemes to pilfer or fleece people out of their Linden cash could conceivably be met by RL federal wire fraud charges if not more. I think as long as there is a carefully worded warning/disclaimer that one is entering territory that can have RL consequences prior to committing to the corporate structure, most would be smart enough to not attempt to rob other players as no one needs federal charges stemming from a video game scam, and the potential RL profits really wouldnt cover the consultation with a competent RL lawyer to defend you from federal prosecution.

And Prok, I wasn't going tit for tat with you on Dead stories my man, I was illustrating that the gurus of the Hippie movement asserted their rights on their intellectual property with an example I WITNESSED to illustrate that hippie communes believe in business as well, and to try to dispell this crazy hippie stereotype that is so prevelant on the forums whenever ya'll talk shop.

No need to get so defensive, but since you brought it up, I am curious how you got 3 generations of drummers when the Dead only had 2 drummers... I assume you mean keyboard players and were confused as it was the Drummers in Spinal Tap who kept dying =)

Make Grilled Cheese Not War!

Everyone is affraid to make coproations in SL becuase it can't be policed. You can't hold one person responsible... Well, who do you hold responsible now? Somones ALT? or maybe even them? But who are they? They are no more then a couple bytes of data on a server in California and a few pixels on your screen. So lets stop acting like we need the SS to enforce rules.

I don't think we need to make corporations where people can hide behind. But i do know that we need some kind of business tools that fill the large gap the group tools leave.

The group tools are fine for what they were designed for, groups. A group of people can form a group and share similar ideas and have fun together.

Business tools. D-E-F-I-N-E what "business tools" would do. I can't leave this point alone, you keep wanting the Lindens to do everything for you, what are you on about?

There's only one thing we need in SL that isn't here that I can see and it is binding contracts.

Other than that, we're good to go. I'd like to see a resident make some website where you can install a prim as property of a player (corporate alt account) and then the website administrates payment of funds to people you put in your virtual group. That's a kind of management software, but it's built using what we have now in SL.

I think we HAVE to rise up, and stop asking LL for the things we are capable of doing ourselves. You want Havok 2? I don't propose we get that into LL by use of some third party website, but this we can manage.

I'd like to see a number of different websites offering a number of packages to business, kind of like Sage. Point is you don't need LL to make a new de-facto tool, we have the ability to do this today.

What's that, you don't want to make such a website? Can't afford it? Why not start up a union of business leaders. If you can show you represent 20 or so business leaders, each making a nice profit, then developers will be busting their pants to get products to you.

Come on people, this all exists already in real life. You want the 21st century? Try looking at the 21st century as your model.

I agree with you Jescure, but I adressed a few issues which were not yet possible in the thread under "feature suggestions" We still lack the collaborative building and permissions system that would make group projects easier

As for the alt account for holding group funds and such, that's mostly aesthetic. It's a problem with how SL represents accounts rather than a needed feature.

What I proposed in the other thread.. It esentially boils down to one account owning anouther account. An alt that could be transfered from within SL. Founding a group this account's inventory could be made available to the group members in a way that is similar to the library in inventories today. I don't propose that any business tools be a part of this. Just the direct access to all features of the acount through individual permissions set by anyone given permission by the primary controlling account. This account wouldn't have an avatar. It's representative would be that person who maintains it.

Any tools for managing this account could be scripted.. I see no reason why Linden Labs would need to create a system for managing business. Just provide us a way though LSL to do that ourself.


I've not considered everything but this is a general idea that I would love to see discussed.. Any ideas or feedback would be appriciated..

So what you'd really like Baba, is employee level access to an alt i.e. read only viewing of an inventory, or for some maybe write and read (you can get this now by giving mod rights to a person).

So the big development would be letting someone see another account's inventory contents and the keys to the items in the inventory so they can be accessed by LSL. If you could do that a business could build up it's corporate catalogue of stock.

That would be a sensible development I would endorse.

Well you probably said it a lot better than I could ;0 I get overly complexified at times..


The other thing I would like to see is accounts that are be objectified in world.. Something that can be access modified and transfered in world like anything else..

Just to be clear again from my last post, this account would not be an account with an avatar that you log into and go party at the clubs.. It would represent a group of people(or maybe even just one person) as a separate inventory, L$ account etc... This can be achieved to a point as Jescure mentioned, but it's rough around the edges. It lacks easy to manage permissions. It would require those who manage one set of permissions to have access to ALL permissions because of the need to log into the account to change things.

I figure if purchasing another account is the way people will have to go anyway, why not incorporate that in some way via this account "object" that is 80% normal account 20% central group control point.. That would have some value!