This text is a rough draft version about an ongoing project, the information may be out of date.
Alpine Meadow under construction in November 2007
Alpine Meadow is an administrative region of an over-arching government in SL, called Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS), currently comprising Locus Amoenus, Alpine Meadow, Colonia Nova and Neufreistadt. The sim is modelled as an alpine mountain slope
Among often quoted benefits of the remarkable feature of self-governance (through citizen participation) is that not only the 'chaos' of the mainland is absent but also that citizens can influence nearly every aspect of the sim's administration.
Self-governance[]
Like the other CDS sims, Alpine Meadow is self-governed. The main article about the government of Alpine Meadow can be found here (e.g. it shows how citizens elect their representatives or participate in government), but below is a list to give an impression of the wide variety of topics that comes into play in a sim that's run in this way:
- Government itself
- Who does what to get things done, and making sure no one has unlimited power (checks and balances)
- Having simple rules, laws, a constitution and even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Conflicts or unacceptable behaviour and resolving it in a fair way
- Encouraging creativity, engagement and activity for cool sims (!)
- Businesses, how to encourage them and keep it customer friendly too
- The philosophical
- Simplicity, management in detail (keep it fun, don't over intellectualize, if you do it, do it really good)
- RL expertise for certain jobs. maximizing SL participation
History[]
"Alpine Meadows and Farms" was the winning proposal in the sim design competition held from half-May through halfway June 2007. The competing proposals were Moor Fortress city Al-Andalus (by Michel Manen), Cycladic Greek village Nea Hora (Arria Perreault and Ulysse Alexandre) and the option of no expansion at that time. The proposal was written by Colonia Nova citizen Rose Springvale and a detailed version of it was planned by the the New Guild (see ToC). The final plan for Alpine Meadow was approved by the CDS Representative Assembly on 18 November 2007, when it was delivered four days later, landscaping began.
A historic aspect of Alpine Meadow is that it connected the existing two sims Neufreistadt and Colonia Nova.
The monastery, under construction (Sept. '07)
Culture, Arts and Education[]
While thinking about public buildings in Alpine Meadow, the idea of a monastery, run by an NGO arose.
Like the Kirche in Neufreistadt the monastery and the associated NGO will not be of a religious nature. Important aims of the romanesque building are to provide a public space for events and to add extra character to the sim. It is also possible that it will serve as a welcome area. The monastery consists of a central yard, a library at the left and chapel with a large tower at the right.
The NGO will maintain the monastery and possibly also organise events.
The driving force behind the project is Arria Perreault, other builders are Samantha Fuller and Tanoujin Milestone.
Historical dates[]
- Historical dates of 'sister sims'
- July 31 2004 Haney Linden launches project for communities wishing to preserve the snow sims
- September 12 2004 Proposal Approved
- September 20 2004 Land in Anzere
- November 14 2004 Provisional Government
- January 15-16 2005 First Elections
- January 30 2005 First RA Meeting
- April 21 2005 Private sim online
- August 7 2005 Guild Master Kendra Bancroft calls Guild general strike
- June 18 2006 Name Change to Neufreistadt
- October 15 2006 Second Sim, Colonia Nova, opens
- November 22 2007 Third Sim, Alpine Meadow, online
References[]
- Official Site of Neufreistadt and the CDS
- Official Forums of Neufreistadt and the CDS
- Wiki of the CDS including Neufreistadt (with legislation, transcripts of meetings, etc)
- Photos from the CDS sims
- Blog article: Some thoughts on why governments in SL are so hard to implement
- Blog article: SL's most hated project