The new Guild wishes to announce the beginning of the new sim proposal process. The main thing is don't panic! This will be done in a measured and well defined way and the faculty will help any citizen who wishes to develop a plan.
The kick-off for the process will be at the amphitheater on Saturday 7 April at 8 AM SLT in the Colonia Nova Amphitheater. Guild faculty members Moon Adamant, DNate Mars, and Jon Seattle will be available to answer questions about the process and help you get started.
We project that the process (phase 1 and 2.) will take about five weeks. Following the kickoff meeting, at 10 AM SLT, we will hold the regular Guild Advisory Board meeting. All are invited to attend. We expect to set the detailed calendar for the competition at that meeting.
Here is the description of the process from the Guild charter. Note that this process is designed to help us design and evaluate one or more proposals with the help of the community. There is no "winner", and the final decision to implement a project is made by the RA, not the guild.
-- From the Guild charter:
Note that while this uses competition this is intentionally not a winner-take-all process. Stronger proposals are often the synthesis of multiple of points of view. The goal is to keep the public involved and providing feedback, not only on finished proposals but at every stage of the process.
Also we will, over time, need more than one sim proposal, so why not keep the ones we are not implementing immediately under development for future efforts?
Phase 1.
1. The New Guild sponsors a competition for sim proposals submitted by one or more teams. Proposals are not required to include details models, schedules, and budgets at this phase but must include this detail before final approval in phase 2.
2. Without evaluating individual proposals, the faculty of the Guild will provide feedback on the technical feasibility and issues in the implementation of each proposal. Proposers may change their proposals in response to this feedback.
3. The New Guild establishes an area for public display of the work being developed by each team.
Phase 2.
1. All citizens are allowed to vote on the proposals over a period of several weeks. Proposers can and are invited to change their proposals in response to new ideas and public feedback. Voting is continuous during this period: citizens can move their vote token from one proposal to another.
2. Proposers can merge their proposals with that of others. In fact this may be one of the best approaches to gain votes. Collaboration and negotiation, not just competition is rewarded.
3. Proposals must go beyond defining themes and include models of the landscape and architecture; concrete plans for implementation; initial project budgets and schedules. The faculty will be required to comment on the feasibility of any plan given available resources.
4. At the end of the process we select the most popular proposal(s) to implement. However this process is designed to allow more than one good proposal to emerge and that proposal can start off the next round.
. . .
Implementation may depend on RA approval. It is quite possible that the RA may not want to sponsor a proposal, in which case we can loop back and extend phase 2 to make corrections.