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.

Green and Blue.

On an ever changing earth we need to be an ever evolving race.

We do not abandon the past, but forge into a future.

ASGARDIA is the future, and we are the next step.

Take my hand and together we leave the trees and forge our own legacy.

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.

By Ross Cheeseright | November 11, 2017

Introduction

Today, there have been a lot news posts and articles regarding a ‘Doomsday’ warning that was signed by 15,000 scientists. In their letter, they highlight several factors that show just how damaged the planet is.

The doomsday report maintains that if humanity continues as it is, we may alter the world to a point where it is no longer able to sustain life in the manner we know – This stark and harrowing warning has many Asgardian citizens saying: “We need to fix the planet, first.”

The problem

Some people have this idea in their heads that people looking to go to space are simply trying to ‘escape earth’ or to ‘look down on it from our position of relative safety’ but, this couldn’t be more wrong.

One of the biggest problems facing humanity today is… well… Humanity. Our populations are continuing to grow and we’re simply running out of room. We’re still consuming and we’re requiring a lot of natural resources to do it.

Amidst all that consumption, we need ways to power our cities and we need to drain the world’s fresh water sources to make sure that we have, plenty to drink and we need to shred all the forests for farmland to make sure that we have food to eat.

Being environmentally friendly is definitely a good way to be. It helps us to protect our environment. Switching to clean and renewable energy will ensure that we aren’t polluting and using up our resources. If everyone switched to a vegetarian diet, we’d be doing our bodies and the planet a huge favour and of course people should do everything they can to recycle and ensure that the wold is free from pollution.

But no matter what we do and how environmentally friendly we become our population will continue to increase and our consumption will continue to increase, and we’ll continue to make waste and pollute the world with our cities and bodies.

It’s simply not practical to ask people to stop having babies and become ‘one’ with nature overnight. We need to attack this problem from multiple angles.

Some companies are looking at clean energy. Some companies are looking at renewables. Countries are looking at reducing their pollution and ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions. Countries are looking at how waste can be more effectively managed. Some companies are looking at ways of making packaging less harmful to the environment. Countries and companies are looking at ways that we can be more responsible with water and – Like us – some countries and companies are looking at space for answers.

Space Solves one of our problems

Going to space will help us to solve the biggest problem of all – Population growth and consumption.

1. If we can populate other planets we’ll have a lot more room for our people.
2. If we can build ‘space cities’ or other orbital habitats, we’ll have more room.
3. If we start to mine asteroids for resources, we’ll be sparing our own (including fresh water.)
4. By ‘spreading out’ our population, we’ll dramatically reduce the impact on the planet.
5. By ‘terraforming’ other planets (such as the various plans for Mars) we’ll be able to grow many more acres of forests and house many more animals (or plants) for consumption.
6. Many of the technologies that come as a result of space research can help humanity.

Having the capability to go into space and settle other planets would be one of the best things that we could possibly do for the future of humanity and that is exactly where our primary focus should be.

Asgardia’s Goals

Asgardia has a focus on space. Its primary goals are.

1. Launch a Satellite into space (done)
2. Create a ‘network’ of Satellites in space
3. Create habitable platforms called Arks in space
4. Create ‘habitats’ on the moon.
5. Make space accessible for all
6. Challenge existing space legislation
7. Invest in space start-ups and new technology
8. Establish a nation that gains recognition from the UN
9. Unite humanity.
10. Protect the earth from threats from outer space (such as solar flares and rogue asteroids.)

None of these goals have a direct focus on solving the problem of earth, and as I state earlier, the problem needs to be tackled from multiple angles by multiple people. Simply saying “We need to live like druids now.” Isn’t going to fix anything.

We need a long term solution.

Our contribution to the problem will be related to our goals – and that means solutions that can be found through space exploration and settlement.

Does this mean that we don’t care about Earth?

Quite the opposite – Most Asgardians care a great deal about the planet and we should do what we can to help protect it. While we shouldn’t divert all our resources from ‘space’ into solving the immediate problems on earth, we should be environmentally conscious.

As a large population of people, we have a duty to ensure that we aren’t contributing to the problem.

Rather than diverting our resources, this can be supported through a range of environmentally conscious choices and policies.

1. Asgardia should, where possible, use ‘clean’ and renewable energy.
2. Asgardia should ensure that we have a robust environmental policy that supports environmentally sound practices (such as recycling and preservation of warter.)
3. Asgardia’s citizens should make every effort to be environmentally conscious so that we can lessen our impact on the world.
4. Asgardia should ensure that it doesn’t undertake any business or operations with businesses or persons that are operating in a way that is detrimental to the environment.
5. Asgardia should only source products and services from environmentally sound suppliers.

What can YOU do as a citizen of Asgardia to help?

There are a lot of things that you can do, personally, to help the environment in the short term.

1. Make sure that, whenever possible, you walk or ride a bike anywhere you can – in modern society, sometimes it’s necessary to drive but if you can avoid it, then you should. Every car that’s not on the road makes a difference, and with hundreds of thousands of Citizens, we could make a big difference.
2. Recycle as much as you can – there are huge problems with plastic finding its way to the ocean and natural resources being used up all the time – but by putting your trash into the right bin you can be reducing global pollution.
3. Picking items with the least possible packaging instantly helps to reduce waste.
4. Make your own compost by putting organic material into a compost bin. Doing this ensures that your waste isn’t going into some landfill somewhere and it will turn into a natural fertilizer that can be used for gardening or farming!
5. Be conscious of your water consumption – fix leaky taps, turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth try to be conservative when possible. Take showers instead of baths and so on.
6. Think carefully about what lighting you use, Compact Fluorescent lightbulbs last 10 times longer and use two-thirds less energy than conventional lightbulbs for example.
7. Turn off lights and unplug unused appliances. Make sure that you shut your computer down when not in use. Turn off your router when you go to bed. These might seem like small changes, but when millions of people do it, the impact is huge.

Conclusion.

No, Asgardia is not going to stop what we’re doing and divert all our attention into the planet to fix the environmental issues.

No, this doesn’t mean that we don’t care. The problem needs to be tackled on multiple fronts and we’re working on one of the most important ones.

No, this doesn’t mean that we don’t care of that we’re going to sit idly by and do nothing. We can be environmentally conscious and do what we can as a global community to prevent the problems from getting worse.

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 .

To my fellow Citizens of Asgardia,

With the successful launch of Asgardia-1, today is a truly historic moment for our nation. Today is the day that we will raise the standard of Asgardia high into the air and say to the world “We are here, and we are here to stay.” We are here not to imitate, but to innovate and to look to the stars for a brighter future for humanity.

Asgardia is the prototype for a nation of the future that seeks to challenge the pre-defined notion of what a nation is in a digital age where you can be more connected with someone thousands of miles away than someone who lives next door.

Asgardia is a nation that seeks to challenge the laws about space and to ensure access to all. Not just those powerful, established nations but to emerging nations and for the nations of the future which, like ours, might exist in the digital space.

To us, the Citizens, it also represents hope that by coming together and leaving our old conflicts behind us we’ll be able to find some peace and harmony in the world and imagine what wonders we would be capable of if more people came together this way.

Celebrations will be the theme of the next few days and I too shall revel in the good spirits; however, we must not forget that this is one single step on the path and there is much work to do and, so I say to all Asgardian Citizens – Now is the time to focus your efforts on our nation let’s use this momentum to create a movement that will see our nation become a reality.

Yours Sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright
Parliamentary Candidate

In Asgardia, we are part of a democracy; This means that the power is in the hands of the people through their right to vote.

Citizens vote for a representative that will hear their views and champion their cause. These representatives form something called a ‘Parliament’ and those elected representatives are called “Members of Parliaments” or MPs.

The ‘Parliamentary’ system can be traced far back into Ancient times when we were still tribal communities. These communities had councils whose decisions were scrutinised by village elders. And in ancient Athens male citizens over the age of 30 were freely allowed to participate in discussions and debates.

Today, in whatever form we find it in, the general idea of a parliament is to make sure that the citizens have a say in how the country is being run and that the ruling body or government is held accountable. It ensures that no one-person is in charge or above the law.

What is a Minister?

To understand the work of a member of Parliament and to understand why they’re important, we first need to briefly examine Asgardia’s Governmental structure.

In Asgardia, our leader is the Head of the Nation, Dr, Igor Ashurbeyli and he will select 12 Cabinet Ministers who will be responsible for coordinating the work of each Ministry.

A Ministry will have oversight of certain national functions. For example, the Ministry of Finance might be responsible for national budgets and spending. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs might be responsible for our international relations and dealing with matters of citizenship.

These ministers will make proposals, draft budgets and create new laws which will then be passed to Parliament for debate and review.

What is a Member of Parliament?

A member of parliament is someone that has been chosen by the citizens to represent their needs and to challenge the governments work and their main tasks revolve around:

1. Debating Issues
2. Making Laws
   1. Scrutinise proposed bills
   2. Request research.
   3. Raise the concerns of their supporters
   4. Debate & Propose changes.
   5. Amend the bill
   6. Vote on the bill
3. Looking at how the taxes are spent
   1. Scrutinising their use
   2. Proposing better options
   3. Raising the views and concerns of their supporters
4. Challenge the government’s work
   1. Debate the government’s work
   2. Raise concerns of the citizens
   3. Form committees to scrutinise the government
   4. Create reports with findings

A member of Parliament represents you

The primary focus of your elected members of parliament is to ensure that your voice is heard and that the views of the people are represented and acted upon and most of the time, you will be able to contact your representative directly by email, phone or other means.

In some established parliaments, it’s also possible to arrange to visit your MP in person to discuss your concerns with them, or to lobby them directly in their governmental headquarters, though something like this in a decentralised nation like Asgardia probably won’t be possible.

Participation & Communication are Vital.

When it comes to making new laws, deciding spending or establishing policy, the members of Parliament will be on hand to make sure that what the Government wants to do doesn’t go against the will of the people.

If you have not contacted your representative to explain your needs and feelings, then when laws and proposals are up for debate and scrutiny, they might not be able to represent you well.

Knowing who your representatives and contacting them are key to exercising your democratic powers.

About the author

I am a dedicated Citizen of Asgardia and I am currently campaigning to become a member of Parliament. If you wish to help me turn this dream into a reality, visit my Campaign Profile on Asgardia.Space: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

I have had another great question, this time from Asgardian Tierial and it addresses some great points about the future of Citizens in Asgardia.

The question:
“Good evening I have a few questions for you Ross please forgive my book of a message. You already have my vote, once I read threw your aspirations I completely agree with you on the matter for VR. I have always wanted to help make a safe VR ever since I saw the anime dot hack when I was twelve, and still want to but I have veered away from being able to get the requisite skills it would take to help you. I have spent my life so far in the military police  and private security sectors and I do not know where or how to start getting involved in making VR, my question is would you be able/ willing to help me find where to start? And my second question is for you as an PM for us citizens that don't have much to offer to the development of our great kingdom, do you think there will be a social gap between our groups of people who research and develop and those who just work? Here recently I keep asking myself what can I do to help further Asgardia, our kingdom meets all my ideals and dreams but I feel like I would be out of place or underclassed in an intellectually way since all I know is military police and security in a broad since if the term. ”

My Answer:
There are some great questions here, Tierial. First, let me thank you for your support in my campaign for parliament, it really means a lot to me to have the backing of hard-working and invested Asgardian Citizens such as yourself. I’m going to take some time here to write an in-depth response to your question, so I apologise in advance for the volume of it 😊

Getting Involved In VR.

In a previous question asked by ‘The Fabulous Pineapple’ I discuss the reasons why I am pushing VR for Asgardia and how I believe that it’s a really important technology that could provide us with a lot of benefits as a nation.

Asgardia needs to select things that it will ‘specialise in’ – things that it will invest in and become a global leader in.

Asteroid mining, space access, space investment, space law; These are the areas that Asgardia will naturally become specialised in, but I believe that for our decentralised nation, Virtual Reality is another future technology that we can ‘hang our hat on’ and become an ‘industry leader in’.

To become industry leaders, it will be important that our Asgardian Citizens are trained and educated in the development, application, and use of Virtual Reality.

So, to answer your question: I would, absolutely, be more than willing to help you get started with your journey into Virtual Reality. It is my hope that I will be able to share everything I learn and to collaborate with those that know more than I do to create training material for Asgardian Citizens who want to learn to develop VR.

I am by no means a skilled professional in Virtual Reality yet – but it is my aim to become one in time and I am more than happy to share what I know with my fellow citizens.

The Future of Asgardian Citizens.

This is a great question that shows a good level of thought about the future of the project.

A lot of the communication that comes ‘from the top’ speaks of ‘Space Start-ups’ and ‘innovators’ and ‘space professionals’. There is talk of how there is a $1million fund set aside for investment into these ventures, but there is little discussion about how important our ‘day-to-day’ citizens are and what Asgardia will be giving back to them.

In your question, you ask, “Will there be a social gap between our groups.” I honestly think that will not be the case. Asgardia might have set its sights on some good ways to do business and good ways to innovate and to reach towards its goals, but we’re about to elect a small army of 150 people who will be looking out for the needs of our Citizens.

The Asgardian Citizens are a hugely important part of our nation and while a small percentage of our citizens might become space start-ups, most of our citizens believe in Asgardia, they believe in the ideals and they believe in better . They will be looking to be a part of something that could offer them a brighter future and the chance to work with like-minded people.

The citizens directly contribute to the success of the nation, through their activity and in the future, though their donations and business ventures – Without Citizens, Asgardia would cease to exist as a nation and it certainly wouldn’t enter the UN.

Therefore, the elections are a vitally important part of the process so that we can elect those people with the passion, drive and capabilities to secure our future.

What can I do for Asgardia?

As a ‘normal’ Citizen of Asgardia, it’s easy to feel that you’re being ‘left behind’ when there is all this talk of space and innovation and that you don’t have anything that you can contribute to this cause.

But you would be dead wrong .

The Citizens of Asgardia are the most important resource that our nation has and there are a lot of things that you can do to help out the nation beyond creating a new kind of rocket-engine or figuring out how to bake bread in zero gravity.

Asgardia needs activity, it needs growth and it needs the passion of it’s people if it wants to survive. It needs people out there ‘on the street’.

I wrote a post a couple of days ago that I think you might enjoy reading. It addresses the question ‘What can you do for Asgardia.’

If you would like to support me, please visit my campaign page: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Earlier, Asgardian “The Fabulous Pineapple” asked a great question regarding my push for Virtual Reality. One of the things that I like most about Asgardia is that we have people that are willing to question things and to think logically and to look to the future of our nation.

I wanted to share my answer to this question with you all as it’s relates to a fundamental thing that I want to achieve that I think will have a huge benefit to Asgardia.

The question he asked was:

I like what you have to say, but how much will you rely on virtual reality? I think that virtual reality has immense benefits for every area of society, but a headset and a competent rig can cost $1600. In a few years, virtual reality might be affordable.

It sounds like you intend to create a virtual universe similar to the Oasis in Ready Player One. As cool as I find this, is this a realistic goal? Setting up a government in real life is hard enough, but the use of computers adds the challenges of glitches and poor code. In addition to this, a project similar to what you've proposed would be unrealistically expensive. Taking into account the aforementioned issues, how do you plan on building a virtual society, and when?

My big question is, when will this happen? If this is a long-term goal and you're not 100% committed yet, then I don't expect anything more than a confirmation that this an idea that is still in its early stages.

I love the VR idea, but I don't see it being realistic for at least another decade. That being said, you've still got my vote.

My answer:

Hello Fabulous Pineapple – this is a Fabulous question, allow me to break it down a little and give it my full attention. I’ll apologize in advance for the wall of text, but I just love a good discussion!

The Cost of VR.

Virtual Reality hardware is expensive, but it’s getting cheaper all the time. Many modern smartphones are VR compliant and you can get 60-fps 101-degree experience for $100. I fully see the cost of VR coming down as time goes on. In fact, China is creating a ‘VR Town’ called ‘Guizhou’ located in mid-western China.

A town dedicated to the production and development of VR will help to see the cost go down even further.

The Oasis

Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ is an incredibly well-written journey into a future with Virtual Reality at its core and like many science-fiction books that came before it makes plausible predictions based on what’s happening in the world.

I don’t have any personal plans to make ‘the oasis’ from ready player one, but I do believe that’s where the world is headed. Virtual Realities that exist on block-chain technologies and with the right conditions, Asgardia could be alongside them.

Is it a Realistic Goal?

Asgardia has ambitions for the future. We’re constantly working towards something that many people say isn’t realistic. To launch a satellite. To create an orbital network. To create orbital habitats and to have a space-fleet that defends the planet from outer-space threats.

Asgardia is about the future and it’s about investing in the future – there are technologies out right now such as AltSpaces that allow people to come together and socialize and collaborate in a virtual space and I don’t think that creating our own ‘virtual world’ is at all unrealistic.

Will it be expensive

Creating a good virtual world where we can go, train, learn, socialize, model things in virtual labs, watch a movie together will definitely not be cheap. It will take time, development, investment and it will require funds to maintain it, run the servers and provide some level of support to the ‘users’.

However; it’s a small price to pay compared to launching a rocket into space or buying up a piece of land and developing it into a society that will house hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition to that, it has the potential to make money through virtual tourism. If people would be able to use our servers and visit ‘virtual’ Asgardia or buy virtual art-work or come here to play our virtual games or see what life would be like in a future Asgardia or train at our virtual universities… we could actually generate income for our nation.

Computers add challenges.

Computers add challenges, but they solve many more challenges than they add. We wouldn’t be able to be having this conversation without a computer. Our Government and our nation are Digital – Adding a virtual layer on top of that will actually help .

A virtual world would help us to collaborate, it would help us to come together as a nation, it would help the parliament to work together and discuss issues, it would give us a place for people to come together and work together, a place to learn and a place to train by undertaking various simulations.

Train drivers use virtual Reality. Surgeons use virtual reality. Air-traffic controllers use virtual reality. Tank drivers use virtual reality.

I feel that as the technology develops, it’ll become increasingly valuable to our digital nation to become a virtual nation.

Is this a long-term goal?

I can’t make Virtual Reality a reality on my own. I can only push the agenda. It’s something that I’m personally committed to and something that I study. I know what’s coming for Virtual Reality and I know that it will benefit Asgardia.

I agree with your assessment, I think that VR will probably take another decade to fully mature – but I’d rather that Asgardia starts adopting and investing in the technology now and helping to develop it and guide it than picks it up in 10 years’ time.

Asgardia needs to make choices now about what it invests in. Asgardia and its citizens have the chance to be at the forefront of many future technologies. Asgardia could become one of the top nations for a space-related industry, science, and access. It could become one of the eminent authorities in space-law.

And, if people embrace VR, we could also become an authority in virtual reality technologies – something that shares huge synergies with a decentralised nation and really embraces the culture of Asgardia – No borders, a place where everyone can live, a place where people from all over the world can come together to achieve common goals.

What’s my plan?

I appreciate that VR won’t happen overnight and my initial goal is to show people the benefits of Virtual Reality.

1. I aim to create a ‘proof of concept’ called      ‘Asgard Island’ which will be a multi-user virtual-reality island where people can visit and hang out with their friends, chat, explore the island and watch movies together. This proof of concept will be built for smartphones that are Daydream / gearVR compatible.  I expect that this proof of concept will be completed this time next year.
2. I aim to produce research and commission studies into Virtual Reality so that I can show their benefits. I don’t      expect people to accept what I’m saying based on blind faith, I want to show people that it’s viable. These studies and research papers will be done throughout the year.
3. I will seek support from the ministry and from other MP’s to allow resources to be allocated to the use of and development of virtual reality. I can’t provide any time-scales on this because parliament isn’t formed yet and I don’t fully know what the processes will be.
4. I will aim to employ Asgardians with the requisite skills to begin to develop Virtual Reality solutions to come of our common problems. If all goes well, I will begin putting together a      plan for this in roughly 2 years and seeing what funding is available for this project.

Once we start to create VR solutions to common problems, if they prove to be a success, then we can further review the development of a VR world for Asgardians.

We need to start thinking about the future and what niches we want to be in as a nation, and my answer for that is VR for all the reasons that I have outlined.

My first priority, however, is the establishment of our Government, Parliament and the formation of our legal systems, financial systems, business systems and immediate citizen needs.

I am currently running for Parliament for District 1, if you would like to support my campaign and help me turn Asgardia from a collection of ideas into a reality, please visit my campaign page: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

By Ross Cheeseright, Parliamentary Candidate | October 30, 2017

I have had a lot of discussions with people about what they can do, as citizens, to help Asgardia grow and realize its goals and I thought it would be a good idea to write an article to share some of those ideas.

There are a lot of things going on in Asgardia right now. There is the election of local leaders and of members of parliament, the formation of the government, the satellite launch and a whole lot more.

It’s easy, as a citizen of Asgardia, to feel like you’re watching it happen from the sidelines and that you’re just an observer. People want to get involved and they want to take part, but they don’t have the time or the resources to dedicate themselves to joining the government.

However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Citizens of Asgardia are at the heart of the project. They’re the most important element of Asgardia. A nation without people is nothing.

Vote

Asgardia needs your attention in the elections. There are parliamentary candidates who want to work for you and who want to build up the 'Asgardia' we all dream of, but they’re struggling because not enough people are voting.

With your vote, you can shape the future of Asgardia. There are lots of different candidates with lots of different views on how to make Asgardia the best it can be – voting for the one that best represents your views would be a great way to support the development of the nation.

Visit the voting page for more information.

Spread the word

What was it that attracted you to join Asgardia? For me, it was the inclusive and forward-thinking nature of the project. The fact that scientists and people are trying to create something independent and open really appeals to me and I make sure to try and include my friends in this process.

Getting more people to join Asgardia would represent a huge boon to the nation. It would allow us to get more work done in less time and it would allow us to create a better global network. Spreading the word and helping people to understand the project is a great way to help the nation.

Participate

So much is going on in Asgardia. Elections, competitions, projects, discussions and general social fun. Getting involved will help the community of Asgardia thrive and grow. It will help to keep everyone interested and active. It will help people to forge new friendships and come together and bond.

Be passionate

Take pride in being an Asgardian. Passionately advocate for the Nation and help to generate that positive energy. Asgardia is a nation with noble goals and some patriotism for the nation will go a long way to helping build a positive image and an inclusive community of people. I’m not suggesting blind faith – but a positive attitude can go a long way.

Help new Asgardians

As we get new people coming in to test the waters and see what our community is about, they’ll need people to guide them. There is a lot of information out there on our website and our forums and it’s not always easy to find. And getting up to speed with the current state of the nation isn’t always easy.

However, the veteran Asgardians in the community can help here. They can provide information about what’s going on and even links to sources so that people can find out things for themselves. A great first impression for our new Asgardian citizens will do a lot of good.

Start a business

Asgardia is open to business! They want to fund start-up businesses, especially those that have an interest in space-related industry. What better way to support Asgardia than to take advantage of its $1 million in start-up funding fund?

Starting a business in the Asgardian ecosystem would be a great way to support the nation, helping to put Asgardia on the map as one of the forward-thinking nations and helping the nation to become profitable and sustainable.

Send an email to projects@asgardia.space to get more information on starting a business.

Donate

If you simply don’t have time, but you’d love to support the growth of the nation, Asgardia now allows its citizens to donate their hard-earned money. The money generated by the donations will go towards helping to fund future projects and as some special thanks, you also get some digital rewards for your efforts, including a 6-month subscription to ROOM: The Space Journal worth$56.

To learn more, or make a donation to Asgardia, visit the donation page on Asgardia.space

A quick note from the author:
I am currently running for Parliament. If you want to help create a movement that will see Asgardia become a reality, support me and together we can raise the standard of our nation.

Introduction

Hello my fellow Asgardians, I am Ross Cheeseright, 34 years old and geographically located in the South of England. I am a businessman running a small digital marketing company, a family man raising a young family and a student undertaking a degree in software engineering.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about myself and my race to become a member of the Asgardian Parliament.

Mission Statement

This is a vitally important time for Asgardia and the results of this election will shape the months and years that are to come. It is of paramount importance that the people we elect now are those that have the drive and the passion to get down to work and build the nation that we all dream of.

It is my mission to become elected as a member of parliament and carry the standard of the citizens of Asgardia and to put in the work and effort that is required to build the nation, establish the laws and make sure that everyone is informed every step of the way.

I ask that all Asgardians who believe as I do and who feel as I feel, to support me so that we can work together to turn Asgardia from a dream into a reality.

Previous Work for Asgardia

I believe that our words must become actions and our actions must produce results and I have put my money and time where my mouth is.

1. I have been running in the Local Leadership elections.
2. I have been interviewed by two national newspapers regarding Asgardia
3. I have been featured on the editor’s choice of Asgardia.space multiple times
4. I write a blog that outlined regular updates on my progress and regular news updates
5. I am establishing a not for profit business within Asgardia that aims to raise funds for Asgardia and funding for research projects.
6. I am leading a small team of reporters working as a volunteer for civic.asgardia’s communications department.
7. I am building a proof of concept ‘virtual reality’ simulation called “Asgardia Island.” Which I am to be a multi-use island to prove the benefits of VR for Asgardia.

How I will serve Asgardia’s Citizens.

1. As much as possible, I will be completely transparent. I will openly share details of my work, struggles, triumphs, budget spending, Salary and non-sensitive communications.
2. I will hold regular meetings and live-streams so that I can create a truly ‘two-way’ dialog with my supporters. Unlike governmental representatives of today, I will aspire to be a model of the future taking your views and concerns in real-time.
3. I will push a strong digital agenda that focusses on utilizing the strengths of Virtual Reality to enable us to better collaborate, train, share ideas, run simulations, and bond.
4. I will make sure that we don’t lose focus on ‘everyday’ Asgardian Citizens – There is a lot of focus on the next innovators and space start-ups, but there are much more people in Asgardia that just want to be a part of something noble, fair and driven to the future.
5. I will work to build the community and strengthen the public image of Asgardia. There are a lot of people out there who still don’t understand who we are and what we do.
6. I will undertake every effort to start finding those people that want to work to build up Asgardia and empower them with whatever support, tools and funding that is at our disposal.

Why am I pushing Virtual Reality Technology?

Virtual Reality is an emerging technology that gives people amazing capabilities and opportunities that they might not otherwise have access to. I plan to leverage this technology to ‘Centralize’ Asgardia for the following reasons:

1. The International community insists that we have a ‘defined territory’ and a ‘permanent population’ but there is no more land available on Earth, it’s all been claimed by other powers. With Virtual Reality, we’ll be able to create a world that all Asgardians will have access to and will be able to have a virtual home upon and symbolically and technically prove that we’re a people who exist within a defined territory.
2. With Virtual Reality, Asgardia will be able to create schools, training facilities, entertainment, theatres, art, gather together to hold concerts, enjoy live stand-up performances. It will give our people a place to gather and live.
3. Virtual Reality will provide a source of income – By creating a virtual world, we will have something to offer to the international community. People will be able to visit our virtual world to undertake ‘long distance study’ at our universities, to visit our art installations, to play our games, to buy our services and all this will help to generate income for our people and our nation.
4. A Virtual World is a good ‘test’ for us as a population. By using a virtual world we’ll start to be able to understand what life is going to be like living together, without having to spend billions on floating platforms or buying land. We can test government, legal practices, trace and simulate a whole host of other activities of daily living.

I am still only just learning about how to create a virtual reality, but I know that there are a lot of skilled people out there that I can organize to bring this technology to benefit us.

How can you support me?

If you wish to help me to create a strong and stable Asgardia, visit my Campaign Profile on Asgardia.Space: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Fellow Asgardians,

There have been some developments in the past few days and the minimum running age for parliament has been dropped from 40 to 18 and so, without further delay, I would like to take this opportunity to officially announce my candidacy for Parliament.

I would ask all of those who believe in Asgardia and all of those who feel as I do to lend me your support so that together, we can work on changing Asgardia from a dream into a reality.

You can see the full details of my campaign and vote for me on the following link:

https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Let us create a movement that will ensure the success of our nation!

Yours sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright
Parliamentary Candidate.

I have seen a lot of discussion about this recently and I have seen people discussing it in-depth and I also know that this will be a polarizing issue for many Asgardians, but I would like to address it none-the-less and give you my perspective on it.

Asgardian Earth Settlements.

The argument in question is “Should Asgardia make settling on earth a priority?” the ‘yes’ camp suggest that Asgardians should buy up land on Earth and start to colonise it and move Asgardians around the world to settle in this “Asgardian Country” on earth. The concept itself has had many suggestions from taking up space somewhere in ‘international waters’ to creating landmasses – such as is seen in Dubai.

Why can’t we do this?

There are a lot of reasons that we won’t be able to do this, and I feel that I could write a blog entry for each one, but for now, I will summarise the reasons in a list.

1. Land is incredibly rare and expensive.
2. Almost all land in the world is owned, Asgardia would struggle to take it and declare independence.
3. We would need a huge mass of land to house 100,000 – 300,000+ people.
4. It would take years to build a city from scratch. Building a modern metropolis would take 25+ years of production.
5. We lack the current organisation or infrastructure to build a city. We don’t have a parliament, we don’t have laws, we don’t know if we have the specialists required or enough people willing to construct it.
6. It would cost a fortune to build – Saudi Arabia have recently pledged 500 billion dollars to build a modern city (and it already owns the land.)
7. We wouldn’t be able to protect it from outside threats.
8. It would make Asgardia more of a threat to current populations
9. It does not mirror the ideals of Asgardia the dream is space and to protect the planet, not to settle on it.
10. The logistics of getting people to move to a new country is just staggering. Who’s going to pay for the relocation costs? Who’s going to decide where people live? Who’s going to decide what jobs people do?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you actually start looking into the details of what would be required to create a brand-new settlement on earth, the ‘todo’ list starts to become staggering. Finding and contracting companies, managing the budget, purchasing the construction materials, paying the labour, handling environmental studies, making sure we won’t affect wildlife. I can’t state enough just how much effort would go into this venture.

Most cities today have been built up from small settlements over a long period of time and the more modern cities – such as those being built in china and the proposed Neom from Saudi Arabia – are backed by huge wealthy and established governments.

So what’s the alternative?

The alternatives to trying to centralise our community into a nation on earth are to embrace the concept of a decentralised digital nation.

We live in a time when people are increasingly connected. A time where people can instantaneously collaborate and communicate from anywhere on the planet. Technology is giving us the tools we need to quietly and effortlessly step over the domains imposed on earth.

Using a ‘digital first’ solution for Asgardia and having people embrace this as a ‘digital nation’ would have many benefits.

1. It’s becoming increasingly affordable to use digital technologies.
2. Smartphones are helping to boost the connected population of the world.
3. The Internet allows us to access knowledge and information freely.
4. Asgardia has already positioned itself as a digital nation.
5. Asgardia is already working across borders with people from all over the world.
6. Our currency, SOLAR will be a blockchain based crypto currency.
7. Once we have our network of satellites in space, we’ll have full control over our information giving us true independence.
8. Each citizen in our nation can enjoy the status quo of living in their own country – including working, healthcare, edication (and so on)
9. Everyone can stay where they are, there won’t be any upheaval.
10. Logistically, it is a lot easier to manage a digital nation than it is a physical nation as each person’s host nation is already catering for their physical needs.
11. A digital nation is more inclusive, if we made a physical nation people might not be able to afford to move to live there, some people might not want to move to live there. A digital nation ensures access to everyone.

A Virtual Nation.

My ideal solution would be to take the digital nation one step further and create a Virtual Nation . I have spoken at length in my previous blogs about the benefits a virtual nation could bring to Asgardia. It would allow people to come together, to collaborate, co-operate and on a much more personal level than the current digital tools we have.

It would allow us to create and share works of art using virtual-reality painting tools. It would allow us to create universities, training simulations, cinemas to go and watch movies with our friends – it would give us access to a lot of things that we take for granted in the physical space.

It would provide people with a symbolic ‘space’ in the virtual Asgardia that they could call home and invite friends over to, even just to sit and talk with their colleagues would be a novelty.

And it would allow us to enjoy these things at a fraction of the cost of a physical land-mass.

Furthermore, it’s in keeping with Asgardia’s vision. A Virtual nation could, in the future, be hosted on Asgardia’s orbital network, Allowing us to symbolically ‘live’ in our own territory in space. Much as the current “Asgardia-1” is going to symbolize our ‘territory’.

About the Author

I an active Asgardian Citizen currently volunteering as a communications specialist for civic Asgardia. I have been featured on the editor’s picks several times, interviewed by several international newspapers about my work in Asgardia and I am currently running for parliament. If you’d like to see more of my posts, you can add me on Asgardia.space as a friend, or check my blog feed .