By Bixyl Shuftan
On Modnay May 13 at Noon SL time, several candidates for the Representative Assembly of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators met at the Colonia Nova Amphitheatre. Showing up were Rosie Gray, Emilia Avindar (Emilia Dagostino), MadmaxSoulLover Resident, and 20180414 Resident (Lyubov). Laura Azalee was delayed somewhat due to real life.
After a few minutes of waiting for latecomers, Lyubov (20180414) spoke first, "I have really enjoyed my time in CDS, and Second Life so far. It has been nearly a year in CDS already. I have felt very welcome here and inspired by what I have experienced. And this has made me want to do more, to not only create my own places and events, but also to participate in government (smile).
"It has been a learning experience. I make mistakes, and will continue to do so! But I feel like this is a special place, and we all have the same goals at heart, to make this a beautiful and enjoyable place to be. I have enjoyed my time on the RA and I feel like we do good work and create a positive impact. I would like to continue to do my part, through modernizing old laws and procedures and thinking ahead to our future. The impacts of new Second Life technologies, and also changing to adapt to the evolving economy and society in SL. I do have strong opinions! But I also try my best to learn from others' experiences and consider our community as a whole. I would appreciate the chance to continue to serve on the RA, to have your vote, and do my best. Thank you."
Next was MadmaxSoulLover, "Well first of all, Thank you all for coming today. And also thank you for not only allowing me into this unique yet very wonderful community of ours, but also allowing me this opportunity to participate in this process and hopefully with your votes, continue to participate further in our government and our future. I know I'm the newest member of our community but I'm learning not only of our history and laws but also our goals as a community and hope to help see them all grow and change as they need to. Thank you."
Emilia Dagostino (emilia.avindar) spoke, "Tthanks to our attendees, and to anyone who may read the transcript later, thank you for taking the time to give thought to this process, which is at the heart of what CDS represents. And inasmuch that we present ourselves to you here as candidates to be that representation for all Citizens of CDS, I have only this basic statement of my positions, which you may see in my profile.
"What approach shall I take? I like both stability and change. I prefer change in the sense of maintaining a fresh, well rendered environment as seen in the Viewer. I crave stability in the sense that we maintain the history and tradition of CDS. Most of all, I value Community, and I would like for us to be inclusive and diverse, and to be supportive of people here who might struggle.
"I present myself for RA, to be a reasoned voice of the Citizens of CDS who will expect me to represent them, as one of five members. ... Soro, my partner, is on the Scientific Council of CDS. We make our home here, too. ..."
Next was Rosie Gray. "I think everyone here knows me, and has likely been at meetings where I've been on the RA. So you know how I operate, pretty much! I think it's important that we have a government that functions here in the CDS. Aand to function, we need to participate, actively, something all of you know, as you all do! Anyway, I've wanted to work through the existing laws of the CDS, starting with the oldest ones, reviewing them, updating, and archiving old ones that are redundant now.
"This past term, we made some real progress with that, for which I thank my fellow outgoing RA members. ... So, I'm not sure what else I need to say, except for thank you for coming today, to my fellow candidates and to you in the audience."
After Rosie finished, there were questions from the audience. Pip Torok asked, "This is to the two who have been in theRA one term : What advice wd you have given your younger selves six monthe ago as you first entered the RA?" This wasRosie and Lyubov. Lyubov answered, "Myself? Patience! I think all will agree to this! (smile) It is still a learning process how Second Life works and CDS too, what the technology is capable of doing, what the community of CDS requires, and just the practical fact of how much time and effort doing anything here requires, and because we are all volunteers, doing this for our enjoyment, this also impacts how quickly things can be done." Rosie's answer was, "Well, I've been on the RA quite a few times now. So not sure that six months has made much difference to how I would/can do things. So, not really sure what else to say about that."
Cathy Sabre asked, "I know there has been an effort to update the graphical environment with mesh, which I applaud. Howdo you balance history with novelty?" Emilia answered, "Well, I will begin by thanking Rosie for paving the streets in town,and Sudane and Rosie for updating buildings. I totally approve of these changes, as a Citizen. The visual experience has come a long way, and Delia and others have added realism to natural settings. I like that we have a harmonic here, and the builds don't clash with our history and estate environments. We do let the LUC advise on many of the questions or challenges, and this is an excellent step, having that Land Use Committee."
Rosie's response was, "I think that it's important to remember the spirit of the history of the CDS, and honour the ideas of the founders, even in their what seems to be very crude building, from today's perspective. But I do not think that we need to keep the old buildings. Things have changed so much, if we don't continue to update and evolve, the sims would be nothing but a museum to old SL technology."
Lyubov spoke, "I strongly agree with Rosie's perspective. I appreciate the 'spirit,' but we do need to continue to update to remain relevant and not be a museum to old technology. And it is not only mesh objects, as rosie has shown with her work in the Forum. Using the three-part Materials textures does a great deal to completely refresh an old space. I would think that our founders used the best available methods capable at the time. And they might be disappointed if in the years since, that we have not continued to evolve off of their work."
Madmax crashed, and his answer was delayed, finally saying when he was able, "To be honest, I'm still figuring out my answer to that question. As I'm learning more and more about the community a learning what it has done in the history of it and also what it has planned for the future already." Emilia added, "We do have a handful of sites here that are worthy of preservation. The Monastery and the Temple of Minerva are a couple of my favorites. I'm grateful that Ranma Tardis preserves the Monastery, for instance. It's a real tribute to the longevity of CDS, and that some actually are patrons, and in fact all of us are."
Cathy followed up her question with, "Is there a time line for the renovation? As I remember this venue was extraordinary five years ago, but now it is outdated. Is there a plan to renovate all prim builds?" Rosie asked to answere that, "being on the LUC (smile). As you know, Cathy, it is the job of the LUC to look at the regions and make recommendations on what to update. Unfortunately this last six months hasn't been great with LUC meetings. It's been difficult to get everyone together for one reason or another. So, the region reviews haven't been proceeding that way. However, the work on the CN fishing village, and the forum/inner city of CN has been moving forward. So it's not as thought things aren't progressing. We DO need the LUC to be proactive, to review the regions and make the recommendations to the RA. Having said that, this amphitheatre has not come up as a project to renovate... yet."
It was shortly after that when the discussion came to an end.
As of the writing of this article, the polls are open in the CDS for the local citizens to vote, and will close tomorrow.
Bixyl Shuftan
