CDS Communications Commission
Report and Legislative Proposal Package
1. Meetings. The Communications Commission met three times in SL, once in Locus Amoenus and twice in Al Andalus Alhambra, once at a Euro-friendly time (Friday at 10 am SLT), once on a weekend (Saturday at 2 pm SLT) and once at a US-friendly time (Tuesday at 6 pm SLT). Twelve distinct avatars attended: I attended three times as chair, Delia Lake attended three times, and Rose Springvale attended twice. Each meeting ran for at least the scheduled one hour. Chatlogs have beem posted on the forum:
http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2953
http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2954
http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2957
Each attendee received a copy of my communications proposal by notecard. The text is on the forum here:
http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2890
All were informed that the proposal was a discussion starter only, and that the goal of each session was to draw suggestions from the attendees.
2. Summary. The following represents top-level consensus points from the sessions:
a. Focus on In-World Communications. In strong contrast to my proposal, almost all of the discussion focused on communications to persons present in the CDS regions, and in using in-world tools to encourage more people to come to the CDS. The only exceptions were Tor Karlsvalt and Arria Perreault, who spoke positively of using Facebook, and Arria Perreault and Lilith Ivory, who spoke positively of Flickr.
b. Separate Governmental and Non Governmental Communications. Initially raised by Arria Perrault at the first session, this idea was widely endorsed at the third session. For clarity of message, governmental transparency, and assurance that essential governmental communications take first priority, many supported an arrangement by which the communications duties of the CDS government be both few and clear, with other matters left to regional commissions, merchants and volunteers acting on their own.
c. Enable Open Communication. As a corollary of item (b), particularly at the second session, discussion focused on opening group notices to general citizen use, subject to guidelines, with assistance for non-English speakers and oversight by the Executive.
3. Legislative Proposal. The following are distinct and separable proposals for discussion and adoption by the RA, but are presented as one Public Information Act, parallelling NL5-5, Treasurer Act.
Public Information Act
This Act clarifies the duties of the Chancellor pursuant to Article II, Section 2(c) of the Constitution. The Chancellor shall be responsible for overseeing the production and maintenance of publicity and public information with respect to the actions, policies and history of the CDS government. In order to ensure no one is overburdened, and that obligations pursuant to this law are met in a timely fashion, this authority may and should be delegated, in whole or in part, to a Public Information Team. Pursuant to the Constitution, however, the Chancellor retains the responsibility for the performance of these duties.
a. The Chencellor shall designate a Public Information Team, with individual duties specified in writing and made publicly available at the beginning of each term. Functions including maintenance of the calendar, group event notice supervision, inworld physical information source (kiosks, magazines, handouts, etc.) development and maintenance, shall each be assigned to a named individual reporting regularly to the Chancellor.
b. The Chancellor shall be responsible for ensuring that all information about the CDS made publicly available within the CDS regions is current and up to date at all times.
c. The Chancellor shall arrange for information kiosks to be deployed and maintaned at high-traffic points in each CDS region. These kiosks are to include, at minimum, maps of each region identifying the purpose and ownership of each building; brief and uncontroversial information about the origins and purpose of the CDS; and a pictorial guide to the CDS as a whole. This information also shall be made available in a simple package which can be distributed to visitors, new citizens or other interested parties.
d. The Chancellor shall ensure that group subscribers for the CDS inworld group are available at a broad range of public sites within the CDS, and at all official events. Posting access to this group shall be open to all citizens. Guidelines for use of the group should follow those for the current Al Andalus group, included below. The Chancellor shall designate a member of the Public Information Team to be responsible for oversight of notice policy, and for assisting any citizen who may have content concerns or language difficulties, to post notices in conformity with the guidelines. Use of the group by citizens, within the guidelines, for any event which might be of general interest, shall be strongly encouraged.
e. Passwords for all official media channels shall be held by the Chancellor and appropriate members of the Public Information Team, the LRA and the Dean of the SC. Under no circumstances shall these passwords be known only to one person. At the beginning of their term, the Chancellor shall change all passwords and immediately notify the LRA and the Dean of the SC of the new passwords for the term.
f. All informational, public relations and other promotional activities not specifically assigned to the Chancellor under this Act shall be the responsibility of citizens, acting as individuals or through regional, trade or other non-governmental associations.
