Hello Asgardia!

Here is a friendly reminder about online safety.

Asgardia will never contact you to learn your account details. We will not message or email you to request money. No one should ever ask for your password.

Asgardia: the Space Nation is free for everyone to participate in. Donations are only accepted through the donations page on the Asgardia.space website.

Similar to any secure online business transactions, never share your login information with anyone.

Cheers!

Rebekah Berg

Head of Community Affairs

NGO Asgardia

Hello, Asgardia!

Welcome to the second installment of Let’s Talk, Asgardia! Today, I would like to address some of the questions and concerns from the community regarding leadership elections that are currently under way. I am going to focus on how the community itself can participate in this process and ensure that the leaders they think are best are elected.

Participation Equality

On June 13, 2017, elections for leadership began. In these elections, Asgardians can nominate themselves and vote for others.

FUN FACT:

As of July 8, 2017, there were more than 5,000 leadership nominations!

The leadership positions are open for all Asgardian citizens. Leaders need to show the community what they can do in their position as a leader. They need to become involved in the community online and in person. Unlike many countries around the world, where there is a cost associated with running in an election, signing up to run in Asgardia is free. In Asgardia, everyone has equal footing and an equal chance to prove to the community that they are the best person for the job.

FUN FACTS:

In order to remain impartial, those who are employed by NGO Asgardia, as well as the National Community Managers (formerly Chapter Advocates), are disqualified from running in the leadership elections.

Also leaders at the Trendsetter and Ambassador levels are disqualified from volunteering with Civic.Asgardia; this allows them to devote more time to leading their regions.

How to Evaluate a Leadership Candidate

Are they using their real name? Are they displaying their real picture?

We welcome transparency in Asgardia and are striving to make a responsible society. As with any real government or elected position, community leaders in Asgardia must be accessible, and they must be real. This is not a popularity contest. These leaders will be expected to sign important documents with their real name, and to engage with real-world people and businesses to help build Asgardia. If they want to be leaders, people must show their face and use their real names.

What type of content is included in their campaign posts?

Asgardia is a fledgling nation. It needs community leaders with vision and drive, leaders who can help to create a solid foundation that withstands the test of time and that supports Asgardia’s case for statehood to the United Nations. Our first leaders are breaking ground to lead us into the future by supporting Asgardian citizens globally and within their local area. Whether an elected leaders works within a single city or whether they represent an entire country, community leaders build Asgardia.

Is the candidate located in your relevant area?

Debutant level candidates can only be supported by voters within 300km of their location. While Asgardians can vote for Strategist, Trendsetter and Ambassador  candidates anywhere in the world, voters must remember that if leaders are far away, they may not consider your local needs when elected.

Questions to Ask Leadership Candidates

(What we want to learn about people by asking these questions.)

What types of topics have they discussed on the Asgardia forums and social media outlets?

Leaders must be able to engage with the local community constructively and professionally. They need to be aware of local concerns and ideas, and be able to provide feedback and suggestions that will help Asgardia in a positive manner.

Are they skilled in both English and their local language(s)?

Like the United Nations, Asgardia must have an operational language, which is currently English. Leaders must be able to understand the policies and processes in order to enact them within their areas. Also, they must be able to lobby effectively for their local citizens.

Do you feel they can professionally represent your area to both Asgardia and to the public?

Successful leaders must convey not only confidence, but also must communicate the goals of Asgardia to its citizens and the public. Leaders will be an important part of how the public perceives Asgardia.

How conversant are they in Asgardia policy and procedure?

While representing your area, your leader must understand Asgardia’s history and culture. Use common sense as you evaluate their ability to properly answer questions about Asgardia and its policies and procedures.

What are their plans to help Asgardia grow?

Asgardia grows through member support. Leaders help engage and mobilise citizens in their communities. Ask questions and learn how your candidate plans to help Asgardia become a successful nation, a helpful nation, a long-lasting nation. Use your own judgement in evaluating if these goals are realistic and in line with the core concept of Asgardia.

How will they encourage local members to gather and participate in Asgardia?

Asgardia is a virtual nation, but it is made up of real people. In-person events and responsible management of resources are important in the expansion of our nation. Ask direct questions to find out what they have planned in this area.

What potential do you anticipate for business growth, fund-raising, professional accreditation, and community development grants?

A strong leader needs to grasp many aspects of the community. Nation-building is more than politics. A candidate must have a plan to work with Asgardian businesses. They should have ideas about how to generate revenue and how to encourage citizens to help Asgardia grow.

Have they responded to questions from the community previously?

Leaders themselves grow and evolve. Look at your candidate’s behavior online over the past few months. Find their posts in the forums. Look to see if their behavior matches their statement of intent.

For Next Time

If you have any suggestions for a future Let’s Talk, Asgardia!, please leave a message for me here or send a comment to your national chapter or center.

Cheers!

Rebekah Berg

Head of Community Affairs

NGO Asgardia

Hello Asgardia!

We wanted to let everyone know that the automatic removal process is now up and running. Which means that if you no longer want to be a member of Asgardia you can log into your profile and now click on 'Delete Account' at the bottom of the screen.

What this means:

• Your account will be locked from logging in
  • Your personal data will be removed from our database
  • Your personal profile on the website and on forum will no longer be viewable
  • Your email address will be flagged as an account that was removed
  • Your votes on the national symbols will be removed
  • Your agreement to the Constitution will be removed
  • Your posts on your personal blog will be removed
    Your Candidate profile will be removed (if applicable)
  • Your posts on the forum will be removed
  • Your username will remain but still be associated with your locked account
• 
  

If you change your mind and would like to be restored, you will need to email citizens@asgardia.space with the request. They will restore your account and provide a temporary password for you to log in. Once you re-log in you will need to input your personal data and reaffirm your agreement to the Constitution.

We ask for your patience as there may still be bugs in the system that we are trying to fix but are endeavoring to provide this convenience for you.

Kind regards,
Rebekah Berg
Head of Community Affairs
NGO Asgardia

Hello Asgardia!

We have a couple of public service announcements for you today.

The team has gone through the satellite files and removed some due to violations of copyright and trademark. Please check your upload to see if it was part of this action. If so, you have until July 20 to upload a file to be included on Asgardia-1 at launch. Otherwise, it will not be uploaded until November when it is deployed.

We are very concerned by the amount of petitions that we have had to reject due to petitioners not submitting properly. Some of the most common mistakes are:

- no real name and picture attached to the petitioners profile
- not listing who the petition will need to be sent to once it has been completed

Please see the Head of Community Affairs blog post on Effective Petitioning that was posted for the community's information here: https://asgardia.space/…/asgard…/7163-effective-petitioning/

It is important for the community to be able to use this system so we ask the petitioners to please follow these steps so their voices and opinions can be heard.

Thank you!

Hello Asgardia!

Welcome to the first installment in my series of Let’s Talk Asgardia! Today I want to address some of the confusion in regards to the Asgardia-1 satellite and the upload limits to its database.

About Asgardia-1 Satellite
Asgardia Citizens and the Satellite
Limits and Types of Data Storage

About Asgardia-1

The Asgardia-1 satellite was entirely funded by Head of Nation Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli. It was manufactured in cooperation between Asgardia and Nanoracks LLC by NearSpace Launch Inc . NanoRacks LLC is providing end-to-end launch services for Asgardia-1 satellite.

Asgardia-1 is a “2U” CubeSat, it’s dimensions are 10 x 10 x 20 cm (3.94 X 3.94 x 7.87 in) and weighs approximately 2.8 kg (6.17 lbs). It will have four deployable solar arrays and will primarily be a data storage satellite with a solid state drive of 0.5 terabytes (500 gigabytes or 500,000 megabytes apprx).

FUN FACT:

A CubeSat belongs to a category of nanosatellites (1-10 kg/2-22lbs). It is made of a cube structure (thus the name CubeSat) and each cube has size 10 x 10 x 10 cm (3.94 X 3.94 X 3.94 in).

About the launch and deployment of Asgardia-1

The scheduled date for the launch of Asgardia-1 is set for Fall 2017. Even though there is a preliminary launch schedule for some months to come, spaceflight is still an experimental domain and it is traditional to announce launch dates much closer to the launch.

Asgardia-1 will be part of a payload included in an Orbital ATK Antares rocket carrying the ninth Cygnus cargo vehicle to the International Space Station. The launch will be from the NASA Wallops Flight Center in Chincoteague Island, Virginia USA.

FUN FACT:

Asgardia-1 was originally planned to be part of a Space X payload launching out of Cape Canaveral, Florida later in the year. Since an opportunity for an earlier launch presented itself the Head of Nation decided to advance the launch.

The cargo vehicle will deliver Asgardia-1 to the ISS and stay as a part of the ISS assembly for a period of approximately 2 months. After the de-docking it will fly further up to perform another part of experimental programme. This will include deployment of Asgardia-1.

FUN FACT:

Once deployed, Asgardia-1 will have an approximate orbital period (the time it takes for it to circle the Earth) of 92.57 minutes. It will be travelling at about 7.8 kilometers per second (or 4.85 miles per second) which would be 28,000 kilometers per hour (or 17,500 miles per hour).

Asgardia citizens and Asgardia-1

Asgardia-1 will contain a database of all Asgardian legal documents and symbols, the adopted the Declaration of Unity and the Constitution of Asgardia, as well as the personal files submitted by Asgardia citizens. The database will be given to NanoRacks on 04 August, 0001 (20 July 2017) where it we will uploaded onto Asgardia-1 prior to launch.

After launch, there will be times in which the database onboard Asgardia-1 will be able to be updated. The first time it will happen is after the deployment, or in other words not before November 2017.

Before and after launch, all Asgardian citizens (up to the first 1.5 million) who have accepted the Constitution of Asgardia will be allowed to upload their files to the www.asgardia.space website for free to be added to the database that will be added to and updated on Asgardia-1.

After that free storage will not be offered.

FUN FACT:

All the files which Asgardia people have uploaded will be permanently be kept on Asgardia satellites thus providing a continuous virtual presence of all people of Asgardia in space.

Limits and Types of Data Storage

There are currently three amounts of virtual upload space being provided to Asgardia citizens.

1. The first 100,000 citizens can submit up to 500KB per-person to Asgardia-1. (Those whose certificate of Asgardia number is between 1 and 100,000)
2. The next 400,000 citizens can submit up to 200KB. (Starting with number 100 001 of certificate of Asgardia ad counting the next 400 000 people)
3. The next million citizens after that to register and accept the Constitution can submit up to 100KB each.

After that, free storage will be closed.

Determining Your Storage Amount

Seeing your storage amount you are in is quite easy. First log into asgardia.space profile. Go to the satellite upload page and on the bottom left corner, above the upload button, it will show you the amount of upload space you have been provided or on the ‘Upload Your File’ page after you click on the ‘upload file’ button.

EDIT: I earlier stated that you can confirm your upload limit by checking your Asgardia ID number, this was incorrect. My apologies! What is displayed above the upload button or on the upload page are where you can confirm your upload amount.

Types of files and copyrights

You can upload four different types of files to the website.

Text files must be in .txt format.
Image files can be any image type but remember some types are larger than others
Video files must be in .mp4 format
Audio files can be either .mp3 or .aac format

All material uploaded must be either be your own or copyright free material. Asgardia respects copyrights, trademark rights, other intellectual property rights. Any files found violating that will be deleted from the site upon discovery.

In case of the copyright violation it will be a responsibility of a person to face any legal consequences. Asgardia is providing storage space with clearly identified conditions of how to use it. Violation of the rules is under the responsibility of each user.

Private or not private?

Currently, there is a contest being run that you can enter when you upload your file to the Asgardia.space website. It allows you to post your file publicly to be voted on by pressing ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ and the one with the most ‘like’ votes will win expanded space. These will always be public.

However, if you choose not to enter the contest, you will have three options. Public will show your file to the public, including ones not logged into the Asgardia.space website. Friends only will display only to those you have added to your friends. Private is just that, private and no one can see the file except the moderation teams.

I hope that this first installment of Let’s Talk has cleared up any questions the community has about the satellite. If I have missed anything, please email your questions to citizens@asgardia.space and they will be able to answer them for you!

Cheers,

Rebekah Berg

Head of Community Affairs

NGO Asgardia

Hello Asgardia!

Due to the notice that went out letting leadership candidates on Asgard 7, 0001 / June 24, 2017 several candidates removed their candidacy from all positions and found that they could not reapply to just one position. We have enabled it so that those affected should be able to reapply their candidacy.

Please note, if you remove your candidacy after this time you will need to wait until the next election cycle to apply to run again.

Good luck candidates!

Good day Asgardia!

We would like to let you know that if you are currently experiencing technical difficulties on the candidate screen please email a detailed report and screenshots of your issue to elections@asgardia.space . This will allow us to investigate the problems in a more timely manner.

Hello Asgardia,

A letter went out last night to all persons who signed up to participate in the leadership elections. This is the text that was sent out to them:

Dear (Member Name),

Nominating Yourself
Please remember that anyone can submit his or her candidacy, but you must only submit for one level at a time. If you have applied for more than one level of leadership, please go back and pick only one. Candidates are given a week to select one level, and if no selection is made, all of the candidate’s applications will be deleted.
Your candidacy will appear on the website once you have completed all of the required fields in your profile, uploaded your personal photo, and the text of your platform has been verified. In addition, if you’re submitting for the level of Trendsetter, you must send you CV/resume, and for the level of Ambassador, you must send your CV/resume plus two references to elections@asgardia.space.

Debutant Rights
Debutants (10 votes) have the right to elect leaders at the higher levels; be selected as a leader for a higher level, submit petitions to higher leaders; support the petitions of their group; apply for grants and scholarships, and submit proposals to higher levels; set the price for licenses to the businesses or products of third-party members of their group; determine the level of openness of the group and the prices for accreditation of third-party groups or members of his/her group.

Strategist Rights
Strategists (100 votes) have the right to elect Trendsetters and Ambassadors; be elected as such; submit petitions directly to Trendsetter or Ambassador-level leaders; support the petitions of their own group; apply for grants and scholarships, and submit proposals to Trendsetters or higher levels; support grants and scholarships sent to Trendsetters or above, set the price for licenses to the businesses or products of third-party members of their group; determine the level of openness of the group and the prices for accreditation of third-party groups or members of his/her group.

Questions?
Please email any questions or concerns to elections@asgardia.space.

Sincerely,
The Asgardia Team

EDIT: THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF ASGARD 6, 0001/JUNE 22, 2017 TO REFLECT THE NEW PETITION PROCESS

1. Decide what your petition is about.  Make sure you are not creating a repeat petition by checking the petitions subforum.  If a petition like the one you want to make exists get involved with that one rather than creating your own.  Repeat petitions will be deleted.
2. Create a statement of intent.  Be clear in the statement of what you are asking to be changed, why you are asking for it to be changed, how you want it to be changed, and where it would need to be changed. Make it to the point and try to keep anecdotal opinions out of it.
   1. Try to avoid "I believe that.." or "It's our opinion that.".
   2. Do include "It should be this because of this reasoning." or "It would benefit this part to say this instead of this for this reason."  Petitions without clear evidence backing them up will not be considered.
3. Verify who and where it will need to be submitted. Does it go to the Head of Nation, or Parliament, or to a Ministry?
   1. Once you have, please list it on the petition so once it has been completed it can be immediately sent to the correct department or persons.
4. Get a second opinion.  Show it to a friend and get them to double check it for clarity, spelling and grammar.
5. Post your petition to gather signatures! You can post your petition through the official Asgardia Petition Submission Page .
   1. Please ensure your real name is visible and your profile picture is of a real person - all petitions submitted under pseudonyms and none real pictures will be immediately rejected.
   2. You can submit a picture with your petition, be sure it is relevant to your petition or do not submit one at all, it is your choice.
   3. You will receive a notice letting you know when your petition has passed the petition moderation process.
   4. You can see all of the petitions posted on the Petitions Page .
6. Promote your petition!  You can promote your petition however you want, either online through the Petitions forum or the Facebook thread created for it in the Asgardia General Facebook group or in person. But remember to be polite and considerate of other Asgardia citizens when discussing your petition with them. Also, please do not spam other people's threads with links to your petitions, posting once should be enough and when asked you could post it again.
7. Once you have 1000 signatures, your petition will be closed and forwarded to the appropriate office/Ministry. Have patience for a referendum to be called!  These will not happen overnight but as petitions are reviewed and verified referendums will be opened for voting to the citizens of Asgardia. More information on this process will be released when it is available.

Good day Asgardia!

Civic Asgardia has put together a 'Stay Safe at Asgardia Gatherings' document for all Asgardia members planning on getting together this Unity Day weekend or in future with other Asgardia member they may be meeting around the world.

First meetings can be exciting, especially with a bold new future ahead of us in creating our great nation. However safety is important and we must approach these meetings wisely and with much thought. It is our hope that this document will help make them go safely and smoothly for all.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BydyXO59FB2GQUNxS3ZoTkRkTzQ/view

Share Your Community, Share Your Unity!

Share Your World By tagging #AsgardiaUnityDay0001 this Unity Day weekend!

Tweet, Instagram, or post on our forums to share a pic of you at home, near a local landmark, in your neighborhood, or with other Asgardians using the hashtag:

#AsgardiaUnityDay0001

You never know, you might see your Unity Day picture shared through the Facebook page or on the website!

Let's celebrate Unity Day 0001!

Hello Asgardia!

Asgardia is growing every day. New members join our nation, they talk in our forums, they share ideas in our Facebook and Twitter groups. Many Asgardians want to volunteer their skills and knowledge help us grow.

Civic.Asgardia manages community involvement for NGO Asgardia. The larger organization handles space programs, business affairs, and nation-building. Civic.Asgardia handles volunteer management, project management, social media, and other community functions.

Volunteer applications for most technical, scholarly, governmental, or business positions are directed to staff at the NGO. Applications for community positions in our community area are processed by Civic.Asardia. NOTE: Asgardia does not possess nor is it planning space habitats at this time. Our primary focus in community management and business planning.

Civic sponsors regular rounds of recruiting for new volunteers. These are planned to occur every few months. Notices are posted in the Forum and in the Facebook groups. We will post vacancies for specific positions that need assistance, such as Social Media Specialist or Events Assistant.

Please understand that Civic is operated by volunteers. To keep our recruiting process efficient, we process applications in batches during the recruiting rounds.

While we accept volunteer applications at any time, if you contact us between recruiting rounds we will add your application to our files. If we need help, we review those pending applications individually and may interview people as needed.

For best results, it is suggested that members wait for a recruiting round to be announced so that each person may apply for the specific position that best matches their qualifications.

To help us process your application promptly, be sure to include the following information:

• Legal Name, in English
• Member ID
• Email address
• Specific Position applying for, or describe the type of duties you can offer
• Country of residence
• Year of birth
• Primary and secondary languages in which you are fluent
• Attached CV in English is requested

Please note that the official language for Asgardia is English. We support 11 other languages, but our daily business is conducted in English. Strong fluency and communication skills in English are needed for all volunteers.

Thank you for your interest in helping Asgardia: the Space Nation succeed.

Sincerely,

Rebekah Berg, Head of Community Affairs, NGO Asgardia

Nikari Steve Miller, Administrative Coordinator, Civic.Asgardia

Hello everyone who gave feedback on the Constitution Draft!

We are so incredibly amazed by the amount of feedback we received on the constitution draft. There were some amazing discussions on the thread and it made it quite challenging for the compilation team to get them together in time for the deadline.

However, Official Asgardia wants to acknowledge in person everybody who contributed to the discussions by listing publicly everyone who gave feedback by listing their full name and their country they currently reside in. However, we would never do this without your permission. So please, if you commented on the constitution draft discussion thread with feedback and suggestions, please let us know in this thread if we can do so as soon as you can! We will compare against the constitution draft discussion thread to confirm and pass your name along to the legal team.

EDIT:

Please remember this thread is for everyone who commented and gave feedback on the constitution draft to give us permission to publicly post their real name and country in a thank you for contributing to the conversation. If you did not contribute, then there is no need for consent or comment. Thank you!

However, if you did contribute but do not consent, we will not include you in the thank you.

Kind regards,
Rebekah Berg
Head of Community Affairs
NGO Asgardia

Good day Asgardians!

New in the Chronicles, Head of Nation Igor Ashurbeyli congratulates President Aleksandar Vučić of the Republic of Serbia for his recent election.

https://asgardia.space/en/page/chronicles/Letter-to-President-of-Serbia

Kind regards,
Rebekah Berg
Head of Community Affairs
NGO Asgardia

Hey Asgardians!

Do you have twitter? We'll be sharing an announcement in Hong Kong on June 13th! Before then, we want all Asgardians to tell us why they joined #VoicesOfAsgardia. Join the conversation on Twitter!

Did you know we had TWO official twitters? Follow @AsgardiaSpace for space news and Asgardia news boosts! Follow @CivicAsgardia for Asgardia news and community updates!

https://twitter.com/AsgardiaSpace/status/867077674954498048

Kind regards,
Rebekah Berg
Head of Community Affairs
NGO Asgardia

Good day Asgardia!

We now have the constitution draft translated into Spanish for those of our community who speak that language. You can find a link to it on the constitution draft announcement page here:

https://asgardia.space/en/page/chronicles/Asgardia-Constitution-Draft

Also, please remember, all feedback on the constitution draft must be given on the Facebook or forum posts created for it.

You can find the Facebook thread here: https://www.facebook.com/asgardia.space/posts/1900756953536202

You can find the forum thread here: https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/constitution-132/topic/discussion-of-the-draft-constitution-5379/

Feedback compilation by the volunteer team will be completed on May 28, 2017 in order to give the legal teams time to incorporate any accepted changes into the version to be voted upon.

Kind regards,
Rebekah Berg
Head of Community Affairs
NGO Asgardia