By Ross Cheeseright & Ivan Rosel | 21/02/2018

Introduction

In the text of Decree 15, HoN Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli announced that he would bring an end to the funding of the nation, with all funding due to wrap up by the end of the year. The purpose of Operation: Treasury is to start exploring ways for Asgardia to develop its own funds.

Aim

To mobilize and organize a think-tank of volunteers from  the community with a view to source viable methods of funding Asgardia in both the pre and post formation of Parliament, and to help deliver the vehicles and services required for Asgardians to generate income and trade with one another.

Objectives

1. Operation: Treasury will seek to bring into the fold any Asgardians who think that it is something they might be able to help with.
2. This Operation will seek to explore, address and propose and implement both short-term and long-term solutions regarding the financing of the nation.
3. The operation will be comprised of independent citizens, parliamentary candidates and government candidates, but no current ranking officials or members of Asgardia NGO.
4. Within the scope of this operation will be the research and establishment of revenue-generating businesses or solutions, project proposals and reports.

Scope

As we are not currently permitted to raise funds on behalf of Asgardia, the think-tank will be limited to conducting research, making proposals or developing projects that have the involvement or the formal agreement of Asgardia’s copyright holders / Asgardia NGO.

Transparency

One of the primary goals will be the absolute transparency of the operation and every effort shall be made to share the details, costs, income and expenses of any projects that are run. Furthermore, all reports, investigations and research will be shared with the community, with Parliament and Asgardia NGO.

First Step

The first step we are taking is to notify the community of this think-tank and start to gather together volunteers so that we can conduct meetings and brainstorming sessions to come up with some solutions to the financial problems that we’re facing as a Nation.

How you can help

Salutations my fellow Asgardians,

Many of you have may have recently seen something about a 100 EURO fee circulating around on our Social Media 'outlets' and I have seen that it is causing some confusion so I wanted to write a blog to clear up that confusion a little.

What's going on?

On the Feb 01, 2018 Decree 14 was announced and attached to that decree was a special provision that incites a 100 EURO mandatory donation (fee) for those people willing to enter into Parliament. The purpose behind this fee is for those people running for Parliament to show that they're serious and that they're willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Is it for my Citizenship ID?

No. This has nothing to do with your registration as a Citizen. This is a fee for those people willing to get into Asgardian Politics.

Is it a scam?

It's common practice in many countries to have a fee for those people willing to join a parliament or a government to ensure that only serious candidates are applying. Furthermore, in the provision it states

" the money can be returned to you if you so choose, can be transformed into your registration fee for a candidacy to other bodies of government administration, or can be applied toward the purchase of Asgardia national currency – the Solar ."

So it's highly unlikely that this is a scam! Of course, if you're not comfortable with giving Asgardia your hard earned money, don't.

I have already donated, do I need to donate again?

No. Any money that you have donated so far is counted towards your total donations. So if you've already donated 100 Euros or more, then you're covered and can continue on your way to the top.

I don't have enough money for that, what can I do?

Official word from the CEC is that you are allowed to fund-raise money for your election campaign and when people are submitting donations, they need to clearly state on them that the donation is for your election campaign. This will then count towards your total. A good way to get support from your followers and share out any potential risk.

Where can I learn more?

Go and read all the information attached to decree 14 and make sure that you bookmark my blog to get regular information.

Support me:

I want to work hard for Asgardia, but I can't do that without your support. If you want to help me commit my time and energy, you can vote for me as a Government candidate or support me on Patreon .

Hello there my Fellow Asgardians,

Some of you eagle-eyed people may have noticed that my campaign profile has appeared under the "Government Candidate" section of the website, complete with a whole new campaign platform. Here's the rundown.

What happened?

Some time ago I announced that I was pulling out of the Parliamentary Elections. It had been decided at the highest levels that persons aged below 40 were not eligible to run for Parliament, after a hard-fought campaign and over 1,100 votes and a poll to petition the decision, it was upheld and my Parliamentary Election campaign came to an end.

When I pulled out of the running, it was not possible to vote for multiple candidates and there was no such thing as a Government candidate and honestly, I had no intentions of joining the Government race.

My decision was to leave the race and give back all those 1,100 votes to my supporters so that they could vote for someone that was actually eligible. I didn't want such an important vote simply being thrown away on someone that wasn't eligible.

Why are you running?

I have been working in Asgardia behind the scenes and I have been following the developments of the nation with a keen interest and I can see that there are a lot of areas that need people to drive action, results and fairness. Following the announcement of decree 14 and 15, I can see that in order for the nation to succeed, we're going to need to 'take the bull by the horns' and start to self organise.

I have seen, through recent communications, that there are going to be multiple positions in the Government that will need to be filled and I feel that I can bring a lot of skill and drive to the ministry of information and communication that will allow me to ensure better standards for Asgardians.

Furthermore, it seems like this ministry will be the perfect place to house my efforts to bring Virtual Reality to the nation and eventually, create a completely off-world VR ecosystem free from reliance on other nations for their internet superhighways.

Where can I find out more?

After re-submitting my profile for the new Government Candidate race, it seems that it was re-instated with all my original votes. I have completely overhauled my campaign page with new information befitting the post that I hope to attain in the future.

The profile can be seen here: https://asgardia.space/en/user/784722/profile/view/

If you'd like to support me (and you haven't already voted for me.) then please head over there and learn a little bit about me.

Let's build a nation!

Regards,

Ross Cheeseright

Government Candidate.

Hello Asgardians. I'm surprised with the lack of communication here, so I thought I'd start a conversation by saying hello and introducing myself.

Hello!

I'm Matthew, I live near Oxford, England. I work at the University of Oxford as a Research Software Engineer (aka "Code Monkey"!).

I'd like to see this Asgardia experiment have a positive attitude on how we perceive our fellow humans wherever they may live.

What do you do? And why are you here?

I've offer my candidacy for parliament on a generic platform designed to find the best of what it means to be human and to work to improve the lot of the human race in the future, sustainably and humanly. Now is the time in life to give back and be courageous, to use skills acquired in business and technology to address the injustices of many people on earth, create optimism for the future and purpose in peoples lives. Technology and resources are the key, used in the right way, to free humanity from, suffering, scarcity and drudgery. Humanity must expend it's horizons and ambitions for the future to honour all intelligence and contribute to the creation of a better universe for all sentient beings. Strive to be better.

https://asgardia.space/en/user/479830/profile/view/

Introduction

Asgardia has made an indirect statement on the age-limit for Parliamentary candidates. On the 24 ^th of December they have updated the website, splitting the candidates into two categories. Parliamentary candidates and Government Candidates.

I am disappointed that this has not been communicated in any meaningful way but their answer is clear: They will not be lowering the age to become a member of Parliament. It is good to finally have a resolution in this matter as it was a debate the drove on for a long time.

What does this mean for me

I have currently over 1,100 votes from people that wanted me to become a member of Parliament and to represent them in Parliament. I campaigned to become a member of Parliament so that I could put in time and effort to build up and shape the nation into something successful and I have been driven by your support and your wishes.

I have no intention of running for a position in Government at this time.

I cannot stress enough how disappointed I am that I cannot fulfil my promises to everyone and it is with a heavy heart that I officially announce the withdrawal of my campaign from the election race. I am truly grateful and humbled by your support and your belief in me.

However, at this time a decision has been made by the head of the nation and we must respect his decision in this matter.

The future

This is not the end of my participation in the Asgardia project, while I am bitterly disappointed in how the elections have been conducted I still have faith that Asgardia can learn from its mistakes and that more robust procedures can be put in place in the future.

This is just the Alpha stage of our nation and there is a long way to go yet and a lot of work still to be done.

I will be taking a step back from politics to focus my efforts on getting results for Asgardia just as I promised in my campaign. I will continue to study and work towards developing Virtual Reality and I will be looking to do what I can to find those other Asgardians who also want to get to work.

If the rules on Parliament change in the future, then I will start another campaign – I hope that I will be able to count on your support once again.

Thank you for everything, my fellow Asgardians.

Yours sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright

Salutations my fellow Asgardians,

It is tradition in my Fiancé’s country to celebrate Christmas on the 24 ^th of December, in mine, we do it on the 25 ^th but as she must live away from home, we decided to keep her traditions so that she can be reminded of home.

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about being a member of Asgardia is learning about all the different cultures, people and traditions that they have in their countries or communities.

Traditions are a funny thing and they’re deeply rooted in our cultures and our societies. At times, they can be more harmful than good – but in this case, eating good food, sharing gifts and strengthening our family bonds – This is a tradition that I can get behind.

As the year comes to an end, it has a funny way of making you reflect and so here are some of the highlights from year in Asgardia.

1. Debates, discussions and thinking about the future of Asgardia.
2. Running for Parliament and breaking the 1000 supporters mark.
3. Being interviewed by international newspapers.
4. The hype of the (successful) Satellite launch.
5. Reading all the news articles about us.

I’ve met some truly awesome people through this project. Every day I’ve had the privilege of having chats and discussions with people about the future and about Asgardia – there is never a dull moment when you’re a part of a community that dreams about the future.

Whatever traditions Asgardia has in the future or whatever your traditions are now it’s customary for people in my culture at this time of year to say, “Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.” and with it go genuine well wishes.

Have a good one.

Yours Sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright

To my dear supporters,

“Asgardia is a nation of dreamers” – so our new promotional video says, and since I joined Asgardia I have seen the dream slowly start to turn into a reality and it is upon that basis that I have formed my campaign.

As soon as it was (accidentally) announced that the age-limit for the Parliamentary elections was 18 and over, I joined the race without hesitation and started my campaign in earnest in the hopes that I could sit in Parliament and help take your dreams forward.

Since that time I have had the opportunity to meet more and more Asgardians and make friends with people from around the globe and it has truly amazed me that in spite of where we grew up or what challenges we face in our daily lives, so many people have been able to put aside their differences and to come together under this concept.

And though we have a lot of work to do, I’m fortunate enough to have seen a glimmer of the future of Asgardia.

I am overwhelmed that over one thousand of my fellow Asgardians that see the same potential that I see, feel that same about Asgardia as I do and who believe in my abilities to get the job done.

Whatever happens with the elections going forward, I’m proud that we can work together to make positive changes in the world even if it’s something as small as sharing our ideas and accepting one another’s cultures.

Thank you so much for all your support, let’s continue to challenge the status quo and turn this dream into our reality.

Yours sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright, Asgardian.

Hello my fellow Asgardians,

So the minimum age polls are now closed and in the short space of time that they were open, they generated 1,488 responses which is hundreds more than any petition managed to get in a 60 day period. The polls didn’t just generate votes, they also generated a whole heap of discussions on the various social networks with people voicing their opinions and arguments for both sides, however, regardless of what the differing opinions may be, the numbers don’t lie.

972 people - representing 65% of the votes - believe that, in some form or another, 40 years old is to high for the minimum-age to be eligible to run for Parliament.

I often tend to shy away from discussing the number of votes I have as that in itself can be seen as an inflammatory topic. So I preface this by saying that this is not a boast in any way, my intention is simply to give gravity to the situation.

I have now got over 800 votes. 450 votes more than the 2 ^nd place candidate – It clearly shows on my profile my age and despite this I have attracted such a majority of support.

The fact that I have attracted 30% of the total votes in District #1 should count for something when Dr. Ashurbeyli weighs up his options to make a decree of call a referendum – or not, as the case might be.

The final decision on how to proceed will rest in the hands of the head of the nation and either way the decision will draw its fair share of criticism but his is one of the burdens of calling yourself the head of the nation, you need to make tough choices along the way.

Right now, the scope should be thinking about the future – invalidating hundreds of candidates because of an arbitrary yard stick that doesn’t accurately reflect the will of the people is surely not the way to go.

Now we wait and see what happens next.

Hello there my fellow Asgardian Citizens,

The opinion poll that Civic Asgardia is running on the subject of the age-limit is running out time. It's due to expire on December 04, 2017. If you haven't yet voted, please do so. With enough voices all talking together as one, we can send a strong message to the Head of the Nation and ask him to use the powers outlined in the constitution to resolve this matter and allow people under the age of 40 to be duly elected in this Parliamentary election.

Link to the poll:

http://community.asgardia.com/polls/

Yours Sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright

November 28, 2017

The ongoing debate about “Minimum age.” Has raised some interesting points from the community and I would like to address some of them in this post.

18 Vs 40.

By far, one of the points that needs to be addressed is the ‘polarized maximum’ debate that, generally, takes one of the two following stances

1. “18 is far too young to run for parliament, they don’t have enough life experience!”
2. “We don’t want a bunch of old men running Parliament!”

It’s common for people to jump to extremes and generalisations when they’re making their arguments, that’s fine – making arguments succinctly isn’t a natural skill, it takes time to cultivate but this ‘polarization’ of views that draw on extremes needs to stop.

Just because someone is young, doesn’t mean that they don’t have skills to bring to the table. It certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t have experience in life or the ability to have cultivated some expertise in each field.

Just because someone is older does not mean that they don’t have the energy, passion or drive to represent. It also doesn’t mean that they’ve got no idea of how the digital world works.

Age, experience, skill, wisdom, passion – these things exist on a spectrum.

“Young people don’t know law”

The role of a member of Parliament might involve Proposing new laws and voting on legislation, but it doesn’t mean that you need to be a legal expert.

This is how laws are made in the united kingdom

1. An issue or problem emerges on the government’s agenda
2. Ideas for addressing an issue are considered
   1. Proposals are made on how to address the issue
3. Interested groups are consulted including ministers
4. Ministers agree which proposals to take forward.
5. Selected proposals are made into bills
   1. Highly specialised lawyers – called parliamentary counsel – work to translate the principles outlined in the governments proposal into detailed legislation.
6. Parliament considers and scrutinises bills
   1. To become law, a bill must be approved by MPs
7. The bill goes through several stages:
   1. First reading – read out in chambers and made available to parliament.
   2. Second reading – MPs discuss the main principles of a bill. MPs vote at the end of this stage, particularly if a bill is controversial.
   3. Committee stage – Bill is considered line-by-line by committees of MPs. Changes called “Amendments” are proposed and voted on.
   4. Report stage – The bill with amendments or changes is ‘reported’ to the house. All members can review the amended bill those not involved can suggest further changes.
   5. Third reading – MPs debate and vote on the bill in its final form.
8. Finally the bill is approved and then gets the Monarch’s (largely symbolic) seal of approval and it becomes an Act.

Parliamentarians do not write the law. Experts write the law – Parliament debate how that law would affect the people and they consider how it would affect the people that have elected them—the people that they’re representing.

Then, once the matter has been debated and the points have been put forward, the votes are made to accept the law or reject it.

The idea that Parliamentarians need to have training in law is not correct. We will require legal experts to create the ‘letter of the law’ while the parliament will decide the principles of it.

What is the rest of the world doing

In most countries, the minimum age is much less than it is in Asgardia, especially in constitutional monarchies. Generally, it’s accepted that as soon as you’re legally considered an adult, you’re allowed to run for a position.

Have a look at this list of other countries that don’t seem to have any issues with the minimum age being below 40:

1. Austsralia - 18
2. Austria - 18
3. Belgium - 21
4. Canada - 18
5. Denmark - 18
6. France - 18
7. Germany - 18
8. Japan - 25
9. Norway - 18
10. England - 18
11. Scotland - 16
12. United States – 25

And in many of these countries, people as young as 18 have been elected into their respective Parliaments.

It’s not constitutional to change it.

The argument that it’s not ‘constitutionally viable’ to change the current framework shows a lack of understanding of the mechanisms in the constitution. Some people make that argument that by changing the age-limit to 18, we’ll be breaking the constitution.

This isn’t true. The constitution contains mechanisms that allow the head of the nation to make progress for the nation in the absence of a parliament or legislation, they are as follows:

1. Article 46 of the constitution says:
   "In the absence of Asgardia’s laws and for the purposes of implementing the provisions of the Constitution before the election of the Parliament and the formation of the first Government, the Head of Nation shall issue necessary decrees that will remain in force until respective laws are adopted."
2. Article 45 says:
   "Proposals on amending the Constitution may be made by the Head of Nation, the Supreme Space Council, or the Parliament."
3. Article 44 says:
   "Asgardia’s Constitution may be amended by means of an electronic voting by Asgardian citizens – a referendum"

So it is wholly constitutional for these changes to be made by the head of the nation prior to the end of the election period.

Choice

The important thing here is that we allow Asgardians to choose their future. An adult should have the choice to run and a citizen should have the choice to support that person. Locking out a huge portion of our population due to what appears to be an arbitrary figure that is not consistent with the rest of the world is not good for Asgardia.

At this time, I would ask all my supporters to visit the following poll

http://community.asgardia.com/polls/

And select the following option: Extend and continue the elections as they are with everyone over 18 able to run and Head of Nation calls for a referendum to change the Member of Parliament minimum age in the Constitution.

This is our chance to have our voices heard.

Hello, my Fellow Asgardians and especially my supporters,

I wanted to let you know that I am getting your messages and I am not ignoring you. However, due to the volume of messages and the nature of the subject-matter, I thought that it would be best to write to you all at once.

I would like to start by saying that I am beyond honoured that almost 500 of you have decided to pick me to represent you making me the highest voted candidate in Asgardia. To have so many people place their trust in me to help create the Asgardia that they dream of spurred me on every day to work for our nation and I’m eternally thankful for that.

I have seen the news of the age-limit reversal. I am aware that this is very confusing, and it makes the future seem uncertain – Especially in regards of what will happen to your vote.

Today, a message was posted by Rebekah Burg, head of Civic Asgardia that outlines the official response. You can read it here: https://asgardia.space/en/blog/asgardia/20892-in-regards-to-the-age-limit-for-the-parliamentary-elections/

There are three main things to take away from it.

1. The ultimate decision will be down to Dr. Ashurbeyli.
2. They want us to keep campaigning to the end.
3. There is going to be a poll to allow us to express ourselves.

The fact of the matter is this: Your votes should mean something. If the age-limit for Parliament does not get dropped down from 40, then it is my intention to close my election campaign so that your votes will be released, and you can make a meaningful vote.

I will wait and see if anything comes from the poll. As Rebekah says – this will be a chance for them to ‘hear our voices’. If not, I will make an official announcement.

Until then, you have my thanks for your words of support and for putting your faith in me.

Sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright.

By Ross Cheeseright | November 11, 2017

Hello my fellow Asgardians,

As a Parliamentary Candidate, it’s important to me that people know what I have been working on in the realm of Asgardia and, so I am here with an update about the activities I have been undertaking for our great nation.

1. Communications Specialist
I continue my work for Civic Asgardia as a communications specialist where I am leading a small team of people who are tasked with the job of engaging and informing the community through the production of news articles and graphics.

This month was an especially busy month mainly due to the satellite launch and coverage of it. My team has been working on writing articles and creating graphics that help to keep citizens informed on the ‘goings on’.

Much of our work can be found on the Civic Asgardia official blog.

2. Personal Blog
It has been a very interesting month so far with a lot of things to discuss and this means that my blog has been very active. Most of my recent blogs have been concerning the parliamentary elections where I have been addressing questions from citizens, but some blogs have been discussing wider issues facing Asgardia such as ‘doomsday’ and ‘censorship versus moderation’.

Following my blog is a great way to keep informed about Asgardia and some of the issues that we’re facing.

3. Asgardia Systems
I have been working with several fellow Asgardians to investigate and write up proposals for systems that we can use to govern our nation from the perspective of Parliament. We have been investigating different forms of software and software services that we might be able to use to help manage the parliamentary duties.

A lot of work has gone into testing and understanding what our needs are for software.

1. It must have a way to track parliamentary participation, so you know that your elected officials are working.
2. It must be transparent so that citizens can view parliamentary sessions (we don’t want to be operating our government ‘behind closed doors’.)
3. It must have the capability to assign a ‘chairperson’ to moderate the flow of the meetings.
4. It must have a video-feed so that we can ensure that it’s the correct representative present at the meeting and not someone standing in by proxy.
5. It must be accessible for those people who cannot hear (Speech-to-text) and those that cannot speak (text-to-speech)

We also need other forms of software support such as a platform for holding official votes that tracks what member of parliament voted for what.

This is still in the early stages and we have not yet drawn up a proposal to submit to Asgardia, but we are working diligently on it. We don’t want to get to a stage where Parliament has been formed just to find that we can’t get to work.

4. Establishing a business
I have been further developing my Asgardia-based business. At the moment, I am looking for Asgardian graphic designers that can help me to create my product. I think that it’s important to source Asgardians for the work for obvious reasons.

Furthermore, I have been crafting my business proposal and business plan so that I can send it to projects@asgardia.space and hopefully make the business ‘official’ – however, there are still big questions about establishing a business in Asgardia that I have been struggling to get answers for.

Certain things just simply can’t be discussed until more robust ‘trading laws’ are developed and so progress isn’t moving as fast as I would like.

5. Campaigning
I have been working hard to share my message with Asgardian Citizens and I have started to gain some momentum in the Parliamentary Elections and thanks to those that have supported me, I have passed the first milestone of 100 votes. The support that I have received from my peers really gives me the energy to keep going and to keep working to build up Asgardia as a nation.

6. Helping other candidates
There are some people out there who have great energy, great intentions and really want to work for the nation, but they don’t have the know-how of running an election campaign or on how to market themselves. I have spent a lot of time discussing with these candidates ways that they can improve their platforms and I have also written a mini election guide that goes into detail about the basics of running a campaign.

7. Voices of Asgardia
I have been liaising with Asgardia’s #1 radio-station, Voices of Asgardia to help come up with a content strategy for the Elections and I was privileged enough to sit in on some of their meetings. They’re an incredibly professional group with real skills to get the job done and I am hopeful that we’ll see more awesome content coming out from them as they step up their operations. I highly recommend that if you don’t already listen, you should check them out and give them your support.

You can visit them at http://voicesofasgardia.com/

At first when I heard about this idea, I really didn't know whether to take seriously. The whole idea seemed, and probably still inside feels a little to far-fetched or to of a joke to ever come true, with how we Humans make the world work and all. Our constant distrust and mockery of anything new or forward thinking that called shake up or properly change the world in which we view it, both philosophically and physically has always been a problem for us, especially in these very uncertain times. But with this, when you peal back the layers, you really start to get a sense of the thought and commitment that's gone into hopefully making this amazing dream one day a reality. At least in governing and citizenship of course. The science itself obviously still needs more work, but I'm sure that it could be achieved. Whether or not it will be possible to do so 'without coursing' irreparable damage to the environment, which is one of the main fundamental reasons this mega project is being done in the first place, remains to be seem.

When I really started to read into this I figured that this new Asgardia may well have some true validity to it's plans and ambitions. So that's why I took the decision to become a citizen, among hundreds of thousands of others who shear in a unified belief that a 'form of utopia' in space, a cradle of mankind, is not out of reach.

So then, let's reach to the sky together.

By Ross Cheeseright, Parliamentary Candidate | November 19, 2017

Introduction

Moderation and Censorship are two different things that affect people in similar ways and we are in the unique position of doing much of our communication on the internet under groups controlled by Civic Asgardia.

Civic Asgardia does amazing work, there is no doubt about that. They’re juggling hundreds of things, spinning hundreds of plates and managing a community that’s hundreds of thousands strong and most of the time they do it seamlessly but there has been a lot of discussion recently about how moderation can easily become censorship under this current model.

Censorship

No-Censorship

I’m going to use America as an example here. The home of the free with the famed ‘free speech’. Let’s say that I wanted to write a book on gay romance. In America – I could go ahead and do that. I would be able to publish it, market it, sell it and profit from it. Good times. Freedom has prevailed.

Censorship

Now let’s move to a less tolerant society. I want to create some material promoting Gay rights but I can’t do that. Why? Because of state censorship. Gay rights are not recognised in this country and material promoting gay rights is prohibited and breaking that would result in fines, prison sentences or even lashings!

Other forms of censorship can be things like:

1. Blanking out / removing words
2. Deleting things from history (by removing references to them.)
3. Banning certain content.

So why have censorship at all?

Censorship ensures that our ‘ wider society’ operates by certain rules that are generally deemed ‘lawful’ or ‘acceptable’ to our society. Most countries have some form of censorship – take the film classification bodies, they may decide that a film is just too unsuitable and that it should not be allowed to be played or sold in the country but there are many other things that are designed to protect people

1. Banning hate speech
2. Banning of material promoting hate
3. Censorship of inappropriate materials
4. Control of what audiences see certain materials (e.g film classifications.)
5. Banning material that defraud/scam people.
6. There are a host of good reasons for a country to adopt ‘censorship’.

Moderation

Moderation performs a similar function to ‘Censorship’ in that it defines when, where and how something can be talked about (or not). Unlike censorship it’s not enforced by the ‘ wider society’ but rather groups and fractions within society.

Let’s take America as an example again. In America, free speech dictates that you’re allowed to talk about gay rights. That’s great. You can go out and do that. But let’s say that I have a gaming group dedicated to Pong and I have specified that in my group, we may only talk about Pong-related things.

If you come into my group and start talking about Gay Rights, then I’m going to moderate you and delete your post or give you a warning. If you keep talking about Gay Rights, then I’m going to remove you from the group.

Even though in the USA it’s completely allowed to openly discuss Gay Rights, those rules do not apply to the group. The Group has defined its own set of rules.

So why have moderation at all?

Moderation is incredibly important for groups and communities to ensure that people stay ‘on-topic’ and that people are confirming to an agreed set of standards for the select group. If your group was meant to be talking about Pong, but people came into the group and started talking about a wide range of random topic, then it’s going to completely ruin the group and cause chaos to the discussions there.

An established set of rules that everyone must ‘play by’ creates order and orderly discussion. It helps to compartmentalise the world’s information and create areas where more meaningful discussion and content can be found.

In Summary

Censorship generally relates to the laws and rules of the wider society and Moderation generally relates to the rules of micro-society.

The problem

With our current model, almost everything goes through Civic Asgardia’s groups, forums, websites and social networks. On these platforms, they have an overarching policy that governs how communications should be undertaken.

It might be that certain topics are not legally or constitutionally banned, but they might still be moderated in the groups where they’re taken down, banned or forced to be edited.

Why is this a problem? Because our ‘wider society’ exists in these groups. It’s where all our people congregate and communicate, and it means that the rules of moderation also function as the rules of censorship or the line between the two is intrinsically blurred.

While Civic Asgardia aren’t doing anything wrong by carrying out a highly important community function and moderating posts that aren’t fit for our groups – such as banning inappropriate material, removing spam, shutting down conspiracy threads and flat-earth theorists – There is also no arena for us to have open discourse that is constitutionally allowed (not illegal or banned by law).

Furthermore any ‘group’ of Asgardian Citizens needs to become ‘official’ before you can post about it in the Civic Asgardia Domain thus creating more pressure to operate within the existing social networks. This model prevents citizens from simply ‘coming together’.

The Solution?

I’ve put a lot of thought into this matter and it doesn’t seem like there is a simple solution to this problem due to the unique nature of our nation being digital. The ‘officiality’ of a group is incredibly important because we’re not tied down to a physical location.

In the physical realm of Earth, another country couldn’t spring up claiming to be America because we know where it is located, and we know its government and so on.

But, it could be possible for another ‘Asgardia’ to spring up out of nowhere and claim to be official. So, removing the ‘official’ stamp from groups just wouldn’t be practical and it seems to be a highly important measure to ensure the legitimacy of our society.

Simply Dropping moderation won’t work, either – Civic Asgardia are the gatekeepers of order and without them, the groups that we use would descend into chaos and that would be harmful to our communication, collaboration and public image.

I think that until Parliament is formed, any changes or proposals are impractical at best because we haven’t yet defined what should be censored from a /legal/ standpoint and so right now, operation under Civic Asgardia’s ‘rules of conduct’ seem to be the most viable short-term solution to ensure smooth communication and collaboration.

Then, when laws are implemented that outline what our ‘wider society’ should censor, more groups could be created that are less heavily moderated. Groups that have a ruleset that more closely mirrors our nation’s rules and laws.

Either way, I don’t see an answer to this debate arising any time soon.

About the Author
Ross Cheeseright is a Parliamentary Candidate , Asgardia Enthusiast and Volunteer for Civic Asgardia. His work has been featured several times and he has been interviewed by several national newspapers about his work in Asgardia. If you’d like to see more of his work, check out his blog .

By Ross Cheeseright, Parliamentary Candidate | November 11, 2017

Introduction

All around the world campaigns are used as a way for the many to pick the few. The purpose of a campaign is to connect with those many people and help them to understand why you should be chosen to represent them.

The purpose of this article is to help you prepare a successful campaign and to give you a checklist of things that you must do in order to achieve success.

Know the Requirements

When you enter into a campaign race, there will be certain requirements that you must meet in order to be eligible such as a minimum age, pre-existing support or nationality.

Asgardia’s requirements for running for parliament are as follows:

1. You do not need to physically reside in your electoral district, but prospective MPs are required to have fluency in the language of the district they are representing.
   1. Language proficiency will be assessed by the Central Election Committee.
2. You must have a fully completed campaign profile which you clearly describe your platform (we’ll talk about this later.) and the goals that you will try to accomplish.
3. Campaign profiles can be edited for 30 days prior to the conclusion of the elections, if a candidate changes their profile, voters will be notified and will have the right to give their votes to a different candidate.
4. You must provide a headshot photo
5. You must provide a CV/Resume
6. You must supply a copy of an official identification document
7. You must provide two recommendations.

You can learn more here: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/

Be Serious

It almost goes without saying that you shouldn’t be running in an election for fun . Should you achieve a positive outcome, you will be expected to work and to make good on the promises that you made to those that voted for you. You should be running only if you have a genuine desire to use your skills to help your community achieve incredible things.

Your campaign platform.

If you plan to run, then you must have a platform . A platform is a political plan on which you will base your campaign.

Step One
You need to identify the audience that you want to connect with. Is it a specific niche of voters? Is it people that strongly believe in something? Is it a certain Age group?

Step Two
You need to understand your audience and create a message that will resonate with them. Something that will speak to your audience and help you connect with them. For instance, former US President Barack Obama pushed his platform on ‘hope’ to people tired of the way things were and change with slogans like “Yes we can.” And “Change we can believe in”

Step Three
Find out which of your principles suits that message – find the commonality with what you want to achieve and what your target audience wants. For instance, if you want to focus on bringing education to the population and you’re targeting young voters you might find a lot of synergy there.

Step Four
Find a way to articulate your message in a way that is both specific enough to attract an audience but don’t get bogged down in being too precise or technical at this stage. Leave some room in your platform to make amendments and have positive debates.

When you write up your platform you should make sure that you're putting thought into it. You should take time to write it well and ensure that you're sharing the key values that you believe in and the key actions that you will take for your supporters.

This is your chance not only to share your platform, but also to show the world and the elections committee that you are a serious candidate.

Building Momentum

Now that you have a campaign, you know your target audience and you have a message or slogan that you can use to build up support, it’s time to get down to work.

Building campaign momentum and gathering support and votes is the hardest part of the campaign race and having a strategy on how you will do this is very important.

Here are some ideas of how you can build momentum:

1. Use Social Media to share messages of your campaign, connect with your audience and share your ‘message’ or ‘slogan’. Doing this will help people to become familiar with and build up trust. The more they trust you, the more likely they will be to vote for you.
2. Listen to your audience – As a candidate, it will be your job to represent your voters, of course you’ll need to put your message across, but you’ll also need to listen to their needs. Schedule sessions with your supporters to hear what they want.
   1. Make it easy for your voters to get in touch with you.
   2. Set up a Q&A session.
   3. “Go live.” On Facebook and invite people to come and ask you questions.
3. Meet people from your community and discuss matters with them on a personal level. That one person that you connect with could later bring you 10 voters.
4. Be active! People need to see you out there, being active and working. If they can see that you’re hard at work, then they’re more likely to believe that you’ll work hard for them.

Get support

You don’t need to run your campaign alone and you have finite energy to give. A great way to run a successful campaign is to have help from volunteers or staff. A good network of people to help share your message, get people engaging in the conversation, keeping track of everything, taking messages, gathering up questions will help you take your campaign to the next level without completely draining yourself.

It’s important to know your limits. Pushing yourself during a campaign period is normal, but don’t push yourself so far that you risk your health.

And that's about it for the basics! So get out there and start shaking hands and kissing babies as you make your way along your own campaign trail. If you have any questions, you can post them in the comments section below and I'll be happy to discuss.