Guide for New Citizens

Introduction

Originally founded in 2004 as the City of Neualtenburg in the Anzere region of Second Life, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) is a community operated by and for its citizens. All are welcome to visit, explore, and become a part of our dynamic community.

Land ownership in the CDS means citizenship, with the right to vote, run for office, and have a say in the direction and projects of the regions. This guide explains how.

History

The Confederation of Democratic Simulators is the oldest democracy in Second Life. It began as a project chosen by Linden Lab to help create interest in the mainland snow regions. Founded in 2004, our first “home” was the Anzere region where we still have an infohub.

The City of Neualtenburg, as it was called then, was modelled after the northern Bavarian city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and the surrounding valley. After a year we moved to a privately owned region now called Neufreistadt. We have since grown and are now a six-region community.

For more background and history, read this overview on Second Life Wikia and explore this collection of links on Miscellaneous Details.

Land

Our six sims are loosely based on Germanic, Tuscan, Alpine, and Mediterranean themes, representing different historical periods. We are inclusive, diverse and multinational. Our common language is English, although other languages are spoken among our citizens.

Care is taken with architectural and environmental details to maintain a level of consistency with the agreed upon region theme. We have general covenants that applies to all CDS regions, as well as region-specific covenants.

Neufreistadt

The City of Neufreistadt (covenant, SLURL) is in the style of the town Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria. The townscape is dominated by mediaeval builds. Although the time period of the theme is indeterminate, the standard residential and/or commercial house is wooden framework, (German: “Fachwerk”), or in CDS jargon a “Fach”.

Colonia Nova

Colonia Nova (covenant, SLURL) is an ahistorical, southern-European themed sim (Italian/Greek/Spanish or generically northern-Mediterranean) featuring a shopping district, an amphitheatre, the public thermae and the seat of the CDS government, the Praetorium.

Alpine Meadow

This sim (covenant, SLURL) has a rural, alpine theme, with an indeterminate time period. All building styles are to resemble traditional alpine Europe. It is primarily residential, plus builds related to cultural, artistic and neighbourhood organisations. No commercial functions are permitted.

Monastery

The Monastery sim (covenant, SLURL) has a rural, alpine theme. It is a residential sim, with the exception of the Monastery itself, and so commercial functions are not permitted.

Locus Amoenus

Locus Amoenus (covenant, SLURL) is inspired by and modelled after rural Tuscany, with a large area of surrounding countryside. Its buildings are consistent with those of rural, timeless, pre-modern Tuscany; from post-Roman up to and including pre-WW1.

Friedsee

Friedsee (covenant, SLURL) is an alpine, central European, rural themed region, featuring a rustic 1920s era airport and public lake with an island. Buildings in this region resemble styles of alpine Europe and should aim to link visually with the styles of Monastery and Neufreistadt.

Governance

CDS is a real, working democracy, not a roleplay estate. We have a Constitution, a Code of Laws and three branches of government:

• the Chancellor and their team as executive power
• the Representative Assembly as legislative power
• the Scientific Council as a check and balance to the other branches of government, tasked with ensuring that the Constitution, Laws, Community Standards and Human Rights are upheld.

All branches of the government are bound to serve the public before themselves and to uphold the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, founding philosophy, Constitution, local laws, the Second Life Terms of Service and community standards without exception.

Citizens vote in regularly scheduled elections as well as run for the elected offices. Our government meetings and events are open to both citizens and visitors.

Chancellor

The Chancellor is the chief of the executive branch, and is neither a member of the Representative Assembly nor of the Scientific Council. The Chancellor is directly elected by the CDS citizens every six months. Most of the executive functions, especially financial matters, are concentrated in this role.

Every Chancellor inherits an executive team:

• Estate Managers
• Treasurer (Sudane/Rudeen)
• Estate Owner (Rudeen; an Alternate account controlled by Sudane)
• Public Information Officer
• CDSArchive Resident – aka ‘Archie’ (an Alternate account holding public objects like historical buildings, trees, Intans and so on).

Estate Managers

Estate managers are civil servants appointed by the Chancellor. They are experienced and skilled citizens who have full power over the estate tools. Banning griefers, region restarts, terraforming and managing land are only a few of their powers. Some but not all Estate Managers are also assigned to manage the rental website.

Estate Managers are normally the first people who contact new citizens and there are several information points within CDS where a citizen can reach out for Estate Managers in case help is needed.

Public Information Officer

The Public Information Officer, also assigned by the Chancellor, organises events and runs public relations. Some Chancellors assign them the role of Vice Chancellor, not to replace them if they resign or are impeached, but to act in their temporary absence.

Representative Assembly

The Representative Assembly consists of five members. It is elected every six months by the citizens of the CDS, and its responsibilities are:

• the creation and curation of legislation
• approval of the Chancellor’s budget
• appointment of one Representative Assembly member and two citizens-at-large to the Land Use Commission each term
  appointment of a Museum of Contemporary Art Curator each term
• approval of major changes within the estate
• the confirmation of new members to be appointed for the Scientific Council.

From amongst the Representative Assembly, the Leader of the Representative Assembly is elected. His/her function is to serve as the chairperson of Representative Assembly meetings which shall take place at least once per month. Traditionally the Leader drafts the agenda and proposes changes or updates to laws, but other Representative Assembly members may make these proposals as well.

Scientific Council

The Scientific Council is the judiciary of the CDS. It monitors the Representative Assembly legislation activities in order to certify their compliance with the Constitution. The Scientific Council’s role as organiser of the elections is very important, because this branch of government is defined as politically neutral. This is also the reason why the Scientific Council is traditionally responsible for moderating the CDS Forum or for moderating occuring conflicts between citizens. All Estate bans have to be reported to the Scientific Council where they are reviewed and final decisions made.

Its members are appointed by the Scientific Council itself and need to be confirmed by the Representative Assembly. They serve in the Scientific Council as long as they remain CDS citizens or resign by their own request. Scientific Council members can also be impeached by the rest of the Scientific Council or an impeachment can be requested by the Representative Assembly.

CDS Artisan Guild

CDS Artisan Guild is a governmental organization providing advice and skilled creations to the CDS community, its Representative Assembly and Executive Branch. The Artisan Guild exists to encourage and assist a high standard of excellence in the creative output of content within Second Life. It fosters the exchange of knowledge and mutual assistance between Guild members. Its mission is to ultimately address all creative skills applicable to Second Life. The group has three functions:

• expert advice to Representative Assembly and Executive when requested
• execute projects for content when so requested by the Executive 
• assist citizens with their building projects within CDS.

Citizenship

In general, citizenship and its related rights and responsibilities are directly bound on owning at least a small parcel in one of the CDS sims. It is not enough to be a CDS friend, visitor or partner of another CDS citizen. Some rights are bound to certain due dates. For example, to become an elected member of the Representative Assembly, you need to have been the owner of a parcel since a given time. Citizenship and all connected rights will cease when parcels are abandoned.

Rights and responsibilities

The following list gives an overview of the rights and responsibilities.

• Citizens may attend committee meetings, and voice opinions and make suggestions about how the CDS is run.
• Citizens in good standing can vote in elections.
• Citizens in good standing may run for government office or become part of the Executive team under the direction of the Chancellor.
• Citizens must read and comply with the covenants of the region that they are in.
• They must abide by the Declaration of Human Rights as noted in the CDS Constitution.

To qualify as a ‘citizen in good standing’, citizens must hold the title to their land for more than 28 days, and have tier paid in full.

Managing your land in the CDS

When you have purchased a parcel in the CDS, you will have control over most of the settings on it. This is more than many will have experienced before and is one of the differences between ‘renting’ and ‘owning’.

Here are some specific settings that you will immediately need to set on your land, and how to do them.

Click on the name of your parcel, available from the very top of your viewer where you will see the parcel name. This will open the ‘About Land’ information and options window.

1. General tab: Rename your parcel and give it a description – both optional.

2. Covenant tab: Read the General Rules of the CDS and find the link to the General Covenants and the Specific Covenants for the region you are in. You should read these covenants to be familiar with what is allowed and what is not allowed.

3. Objects tab: You can see your parcel ‘land capacity’ and ‘land impact’ (LI) for the parcel here. Click the small circle with an arrow to the right of Object Owners to see who owns the objects on your parcel. If there are objects owned by someone that you do not want there, click on the line with their name so that the line is highlighted, and then click the Return Objects button.

4. Options tab: This is the most important tab to attend to first. De-select the ‘Everyone’ option from Build. You can leave the Group build selected or not at your discretion. All other options are at your discretion.

5. Media tab: You can set Media-On-a-Prim (MOAP) options here.

6. Sound tab: Media ‘Restrict MOAP to this parcel’ must be selected according to our Covenants. This restricts the sounds of Media On A Prim from spamming the rest of the region. Other options are at your discretion. Most people will not restrict gesture and object sounds to the parcel as that will stop you from hearing the sounds of nature and other sounds like horses walking past etc., but it is up to you.

This is also the place where you can put the URL of music streams/radio URLs in the space at the top. There are many to choose from. Ask your friends or an Estate Manager for their favourites.

7. Access tab: You may prevent specific avatars from entering your land here, by banning them.

8. Experiences tab: If you have an item that can be used by ‘experience’, you can allow it or block it here, on your parcel. Many ‘experiences’ that are commonly used are already set by the Estate Managers for entire regions, such as AVsitter, and others.

9. Environment tab: You may customize the environmental settings for your parcel here.

If you are having difficulty understanding something on the About Land settings, CDS Estate Managers can assist.

Please note that terraforming can only be done by an Estate Manager. Contact the Chancellor to find out who might be available with the required skill level. Our covenants allow for a small amount of terraforming to aid in the placement of buildings, but you should do your best to make the building fit the land first, rather than the other way around.

Group registration process

A citizen in good standing may apply for group citizenship. The application is to be directed to the Chancellor via notecard with a copy to the Dean and must contain: citizen applicant’s login name, login names of any proposed group citizens and their group administrator status, group name and group key, parcel tierbox name and parcel ID to be deeded to the group, and the login name of the individual tierbox tenant to be set for each parcel.

Each individual group citizen must be the tenant for at least one tier box, no more than one individual may be a tierbox tenant, and a maximum number of five group citizens are allowed per group. Prim parcels and their tier boxes are locked to ensure that they are properly regulated; they are reserved to supplement the prims of small parcels. Ownership of a prim parcel does not qualify for citizenship, whether individually or through a group.

Campaigns and elections

A government term of office for the five members of the Representative Assembly and for the Chancellor is six months, so two terms a year: December 1 through May 31, and June 1 through November 30.

To be a candidate for a CDS office, you must be a citizen in good standing, that is you must own at least one CDS parcel and you must be current in payment of your tier. On a defined due date, you can declare your candidacy by submitting a notecard to the Scientific Council Dean with your name and the office you want to run for.

Election process

Every April and October, the qualification deadlines are set and the call for candidates is sent out by the Scientific Council. In April / May and October / November, respectively, the campaigns and the polling take place.

Sources of information about campaigns and elections are on the CDS Forum (branch “Scientific Council Announcements”) and the inworld CDS Group Messages. In case you missed them during your online times, go to the group’s info tab and check for them.

The election is conducted using the Single Transferable Vote. This is prescribed by CDSL 32-1 Election Bill (STV Quota). Polling only takes place when there are more candidates than seats to be assigned. When the number of candidates equals the number of seats to be assigned, the polling is skipped and the candidates are “acclaimed”. When there are fewer candidates than seats, the Scientific Council attempts to fill the empty seats by a by-election during the running legislature period.

Glossary

CDS	Confederation of Democratic Simulators
CN	Colonia Nova, one of the 6 CDS regions
EO	Estate Owner
EM	Estate Manager
GQT	Government Question Time
LA	Locus Amoenus, one of the 6 CDS regions
LRA	Leader of the Representative Assembly
MoCA	Museum of Contemporary Art
MON	Monastery, one of the 6 CDS regions
NFS	Neufreistadt. one of the 6 CDS regions
PIO	Public Information Officer