Whee! *giddy with glee*

I've got a hammer, anyone have any nails?

Thank you John Smith for the link to the original gun control discussion on Rachel's blog where Bill began putting together "Freedom".
http://web.archive.org/web/20030110154114/www.rachellucas.com/archives/000218.html#00021
I love the ending where Bill said:"From the Revolution until today, the choice for full freedom with all its accompanying excesses and failures is a profoundly well-reasoned, moral and ethical choice, and the result has been national and personal success unparalled in the history of this world. I am proud to be a member of such a magnificent group of people. I hope to God I can give back as much as I owe."
Then Rachel said:
"So there you have the words of a true patriot and a great man. I wish I had written it myself. Thank you, Bill, for letting me post your words here. It's a genuine honor."

May Ejectia be one way that we can each "give back"!

Sincerely,
Rick Hall

MadMonk: I have some nails here.

But remember... when all you have is a hammer, *everything* begins to resemble a nail.

{sphinx mode: OFF}

And if anyone is still unconvinced that this doesn't work it does.

Here are a few (random) examples:

A woman on Kim's site read a comment from a stranger about his son being good at playing the oboe. The boy didn't have an oboe, nor could the father afford to buy him one. She did (a fine one, that she no longer needed). She sent it to a stranger.

A man who worked as a security guard had his gun break. Another "stranger" lent him one... no strings attached, "pay me for it if you get the money or return it when you can... take as long as you need."

I sold my gun (mortgage won over that battle). A week later a friend gave me one to replace it. "Here," he said, "I can't stand the idea that you'd be without one."

A man who had never owned a gun before not only volunteered for dangerous missions in Iraq (as a civilian, so no metals or rewards when he was seriously wounded--TWICE), not only bought a gun and learned to use it (mentored by another "stranger" found on the web), he saved a woman's life by rescuing her from an attacker. (He also has read everything of Nock's he can get his hands on.)

I could go on and on with examples. Those are just the few off the top of my head, and don't include all the kindnesses and rescues Kim and I have experienced personally from the good people we met online--these include offers of support, growing food for us (for FREE!), and all sorts of incredible acts of generosity.

Good people aren't in short supply. They are everywhere, when you look for them. Present any issue or problem, express any need, and they will jump at the chance to help you. Some may even be heroes waiting to happen.

There is a world that sill operates on a handshake, where there is no small print.

Alright, technically, what are we looking at here? Somehow we have to actually build this thing and I'm eager to get my hands on some code.

Who else out there has the ability to help? Where to we start to collaborate on the construction?

We'll need to start some type of communication center first to facilitate the construction.

When it comes to online information, I'm a swiss army knife. Just aim me at something, I'll go nuts. :)

Web development, writing, and online information management are my bread and butter!

Yep, Mrs. DT.

My grandfather had a couple of Springfield '03 match rifles that he'd competed with. He was very good - placed at Camp Perry a couple of times.

When WW2 was gearing up the English population had been thoroughly disarmed. They needed guns - any kind of guns - for their home guard.

Grandad made a couple of engraved brass plates that he screwed to the stocks, explaining that these were prized rifles and asking that they be returned at wars end.

Most of the guns sent to england for that reason were dumped in the north sea in 46. But those two came home.

I find the idea of Ejectia exciting. I would like to participate. Unfortunately, one of things I know how to do is manage and facilitate large bureaucracies. It strikes me as unlikely that Ejectia will be free, unless you the owner are quite wealthy. If this project attains popularity, bandwidth could become non-negligible.

I imagine people will want to provide video demonstrations of their particular specialties. Videos take a lot of space!

I also wonder how the site will be managed. Tit for tat will only work if someone has the power to truly strike back. How will the city-state deal with spammers and trolls? Will the city-state allow anonymous posters and contributors (equivalent to having the gates open at all hours)?

Or will there be a gate under careful guard that only admits those who can prove they have legitimate business in the city?

And perhaps most importantly, who here is a graphic artist who can make some kick-ass sketchings and renders of the city and and forums? 'Cause some sweet graphical representation will go a long way towards making the city livable =)

Also of note -- a city is a city because of its community. Communities grow and thrive by having communal events.

It is not enough to just have a place like Wikipedia where info is stored. Wikipedia is nice, and it has a community, but it is a far cry from being able to be called an organized city-state. The bonds of honor and mutual respect that I feel are being sought are forged through regular and personal interactions, both serious and trivial. How will these community-building events be organized, managed, and executed?

I'm on board with helping out here in whatever capacity my limited intellect can muster. Standard PHP/SQL/CSS/Java stuff. I'm not sufficiently equipped to lead the charge, but if anybody starts building a machine and finds they need such a cog, let me know, even if it's just for testing purposes.

The bonds of honor and mutual respect that I feel are being sought are forged through regular and personal interactions, both serious and trivial. How will these community-building events be organized, managed, and executed?

I do believe that's what we're here to work on figuring out... we've made some starts on past threads here since Bill first mentioned the idea.

Unfortunately, my computer skills are limited to Google-fu, but I'm happy to throw my hat in with Silvermine in offering editorial help and resource-hunting.

Wow...coding and I do not agree. I'm one of those Arts and Humanities guys!

Does Ejectia! need an Anthem? ;)

I love the idea - it will take some time. I am in.

Even if by the end of the post I hadn't forgotten the misery of a newly born head cold - I would be in.

A city needs graphics - and that's what I do.

Bookmarked!

Like growing a crystal, you need a seed, something for people to tack the product of their skills onto. A starting point. Where will you begin?

All of these ideas are off the cuff and very unedited so bare with me:

It seems that the first thing that will be needed is a central location for the programmers and techheads and organizational specialists to get together and start hammering out a blueprint for Ejectia. As Bill said, we Westerners are great at thinking something out to completion before driving the first nail (or bracketing our first if statement... whatever).

Also, Richard's points are all valid, especially the funding aspect. Maybe ad-based revenue would be sufficient to maintain the community but someone with far greater financial skill than I will have to make that call.

One thing I was thinking was having each user's profile include things like talents and to what degree they were interested in sharing those talents. Then people could search through a database of locations and talents and find the thing that they were interested in learning a source for it in their area.

Actually, now that I'm going I find I need to stop. There are too many ideas and it is time to sit and see how this is all going to be constructed.

Any thoughts on a personal/spiritual improvement area, like maybe a church or a gym?

I can help people get in physical shape if they can help me get in mental shape.

I just graduated with a CS degree. I am looking for a job, so I don't know how much time I'll have. But, I could help.

Hmmm, btw, this ejectia sounds a lot like the open source community.

I'll lay down a brick to help build Ejectia: I bugle for military funerals. There are too few live buglers for all the requests made by loved ones of fallen veterans and those killed in action. If you need a bugler for a military funeral or want to become one, click on my user name to go to Bugles Across America.org, a non-profit volunteer organization endorsed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Anyone can join: you don't have to be former military, just a brass player (or a brass player supporter).

I'm in for helping as needed. I generally have lots of time to read online, and can help as needed with just about anything, although maybe not at a very in-depth level. I also have lots and lots of opinions. :)

Sounds like a great project. Let's not reinvent the wheel though.

What open-source software can be used for this?

Alternatively, what about just bypassing that and creating our own city-state in a larger virtual universe that already exists (e.g. Second Life)?

Dear Fargin,

Please forgive my late response -- as you can see I had a lot on the plate these last few days.

Can you re-email me? Your offer to play at my Dad's location was so unbelieveably moving and I am desperately sorry I dropped the response to you.

Christopher Ross,
I'm bare with you, dude!
But my wife is looking at me funny.

No worries! Dougman hasn't made his appearance yet, but his presence is already felt.

I'm starting to see myself as the village idiot to Dougman's scapegoat.

Hey, every village needs one...

Right?

UM/Paul, Chase,
Did you get my reply? There's nothing in my "sent items" file so I'm not sure it went out. Sorry about my email add confusion.

Well as we've established, step 1 is organizing. If anybody has extra web space sitting around which could be used to setup a forum, that would probably be best. Failing that, a Google Group or something like it might work (Google Groups seems to be broken right now, I can't seem to make one). Once we're organized, we can go from there. Something of this scale will no doubt necessitate some serious organizational skills, which are probably well beyond those possessed by a software engineer such as myself. I would assume we'll need to break down into smaller groups at some point, identify basic needs, and then see what existing software we can use and what we'll have to write ourselves.

...but that's all secondary, and I'm getting side tracked. First and foremost, communication. Newsgroup/mailing lists, forums, we need something. In the spirit of this community of skills, what do people have and what do people know, and can we use it?

Bill,
An Instalanche already? That tells me that Glenn has been lurking.
Come on Glenn!
Join the fray!

I have little to offer. But I'm a good "pointer".

Here:

www.onecosmos.blogspot.com

Find the moral underpinning for this society. Read the archives. Find out that, as a thinking, logical person, you're not mentally ill if you believe in an Eternal Being.

Plus, it's really a fun place; a little den of Raccoons that raid the wild godhead and bring back tasty tidbits for the whole gang.

The trick with successful software projects is to get something working.
It doesn't have to be much of anything. It just has to work.
One simple thing is enough. If it works.

Then you pick the next feature and make that work too. Sometimes you have to rebuild the earlier features to keep them working but thats ok. The big thing is it has to work.

At every baby step, it has to work.

The other trick is you ***can*** over-plan. Don't try to plan too far ahead with software. Plans change so don't build a feature if you're not going to use it today. Build it tomorrow if you end up needing it.

Let the users see it working, and frequently. They will make you change it. They will make it better. They will tell you what feature they want next.

Robert Martin has a great book 'Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#' I doubt that ejectia will be built in C# but this book shows the way to build software that works. Its clear and refreshing technical reading that explains the why instead of just the trivial hows you find in all to many technical books.

C, SQL, HTML, C#, ASP, java, x86, perl... you name it I've been writing in it to keep fed.

I can help.

I'd suggest compiling a list of features we want. Then decomposing them into smaller features and taking a pass at ordering them. This ordered feature list should be very fluid. Breaking a feature into several component features should be easy.

Thats the start of a 'design'

Now what tools can we use? Where will ejectia be hosted? Unix, Windows, what flavor? What tools can we put on the server? Database? Any known limits? Is there someplace else were we can host a source control system? Which one?(not sure it really matters) What will the main language be? What sort of automated test tools do we want to use?

Its funny that so many questions can be critical and yet not matter at the same time. Its critical to pick one of each. Which one matters a great deal less.

Would it be beneficial to organize around technical disciplines or subject matter? A specific list of experts in a given field to go to when a need arises.

I seriously wish I could help, but my newly minted mechanical engineering degree is of far too little use in the virtual world to be helpful here. I have a pretty thorough humanities education, so if you need an amateur philosopher of law, politics, or science, an amateur economist, or amateur theologian, let me know. Other potentially useful "skills" include experience using many 3D CAD packages, an acquaintance with poetry and literature, and the near-miraculous ability to cook.

I will certainly be contributing to the discussions surrounding how Ejectia! should work, though.

I am an attorney. I help folks decide issues of contractual governance and relationships. I don't mean that I work for the government; I help disorganized groups of folks (usually shareholders, but also beneficiaries of a trust, family members, etc.) decide how they will arrange their affairs in relation to making decisions in the future. They can't know what problems will need to be solved; all they can know is the process by which they will solve them to best achieve a fair result.

I can't help with coding, but at some level the ability of Ejectia! to govern itself will have to be built into the code.

Some thoughts on Design:
1) No anonymity. Some people feel very strongly about this, but if there is strong anonymity, there can be no retaliation. An anonymous civilization quickly devolves to "Screw the other guy."

It should also be noted, that without an provable identity, there cannot be forgiveness either.

2. The power to retaliate. Someone must have it; but it cannot be tyrannical. It cannot be built into the system that "the Administrator" can ban people; the power to retaliate must ultimately rest with the citizens as a whole (even if the Admins take responsibility for retaliation, the Admins must also be subject to retaliation if they step out of line).

Some thoughts on "Is this a good idea?":

Honestly, I don't know. Bill, you really had me until you go the bit about "What do you know?/Can you teach it." Frankly, I'm not sure it follows that the Remnant should band together to ... teach each other handy-crafts. Yeah, it's nice that I'm an attorney, but there's plenty of attorneys out there (just like there's plenty of friendly martial arts instructors, math tutors, engineers, etc.). They don't have to be members of the Remnant to be good teachers, and selecting for members of the Remnant won't necessarily get you the best aeronautics teachers. I can tell you truly that my Corp Law professor from law school is a much better teacher than I.

Put simply, if I want to learn how to play the guitar, I'm going to ask the best guitar teacher I know, not a Remnantian (heh, new word) who happens to be decent at playing the guitar.

But maybe Ejectia will be a good place to build, if not for the purpose you imagine. I see it more as a meeting hall for a very special purpose; a place where "new Bill Whittles" can be found. A place where folks who find "You Are Not Alone" to resonate with them can meet and have discussions quite apart from any given Bill Whittle post. I think this company would be worthy company; that it will be heartwarming to know that people of good character can be found at this time, and this place. Ejectia! will not replace the city in which I live, but perhaps it will be where I go when otherwise I would sit alone and wonder why the world is so eff'in screwed up. Instead of posting to a blog that no one reads, I'll post twice - once to the blog, in case a lost Remnantian stumbles upon it, and once to Ejectia, where I know at least of few souls of like mind will see it and respond. That would be nice.

Last thoughts: How large is the Remnant? How large could it be?

The Prisoner's Dilemma (and the reasons by Tit-for-Tat works) is a little tricker than 2+2, but it's not rocket science. With applied practice, I think most people could learn it, understand it, and really use it as a guide in their daily actions. Perhaps the "one in a thousand" is simply the people who figure it out on their own. But we aren't alone any more. We can compile the best ways to explain our intuitive grasp of this concept. We can make a central compilation of best practices for how to awaken someone to this understanding. This library would be the heart of Ejectia!, for within it would be the key to rebuilding the Remnant itself; even should all of them die.

One in a thousand may be the "natural" rate of the Remnant - but I bet we can do better.

Me, I help pass out the guns.

Over on the Forum -- see above -- every once in a while we have a saddeningly typical request: there's somebody -- not quite always female -- with no firearms experience, who has an abusive ex or stalker, who just won't leave her (or, rarely, him) alone.

So we do what we can -- free training, an appropriate carry gun at dealer cost, you know: the obvious.

My areas of expertise are Math teaching (up to algebra) and classroom management. I have some expertise in dealing with troublesome children, but I don't know about teaching it. It doesn't seem to be in demand on the Internet. Thanks to whoever it was who suggested I join the Buglers Across America organization or whatever it's called. I play Taps at the school flag ceremony every day, and I get numerous comments from parents.

Mac Callum,
Today is a day for introductions so I'll just say Hi.
But reading your comment,
I'm so confused!
Another day, another time

D4/Stan

Christopher Ross, silvermine, Richard, Gary C. Schorer, Others wishing to join the Information Architects Guild (name temporarily proposed) please add your names

Welcome! Unquiet Mind - My background: 20 years of design of database, group ware, work flow and operations analysis applications - I lack the organizational skills to organize and manage anything of the scale this could get to, but I am pretty good at the whole design big idea thing - that is why you find your name on this list Richard -.

I have not been involved with e!3 too long, but have been participating for the past few weeks as Bill has be floating trial balloons.

Please respond in the comments at will but I if everybody who thinks they have something to contribute to the Information Architects Guild would seen me their an email you feel comfortable with sharing to unquietmind42@aol.com, I will try to compile a list as we grow and post it to the comments every so often. Please proved you name\nic and email and indicate if you are OK with publication of your email address.

This may be the extent of my coordinator role but I just don't want to miss the initial wave of energy Bill's ejectia initiative has generated.

This should be a ton of fun fellow techno geeks. We have a lot to contribute here to enable ejectia to spread its wings and fly. ;-)

BTW: If we screw anything up we can always BLAME Dougman!

Unquiet Mind

Let's start simple. Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. In each category, you'll find the numerous disciplines we have now just begun to scratch the surface. For you movie fans, yes, we have the fifth element. The most important. Love.

Interestingly, people can find like minded people and disciplines in much the same way as E-harmony does. If you don't know where to go, we could have a yellow pages type directory. Categories. Did someone say Librarian?

But we should remember that along with the technical aspects of the foundation, come the societal as well. The golden rules.

I will propose the first. Which for me is the second, Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Tempered of course with the understanding that I sometimes get angry with myself.

Dear HScott:

I just updated the entry page. If you have not read it, take a look. I think you might be a very good choice to help us get the right software on the site.

I own the domain, but the sad fact is I have no idea how to install anything there.

I completely agree with what has been said: let's get some simple things working over at the new site. Once the core modules are actually working, we can worry about adding chrome.

This is great fun!

Do not hesitate to e-mail me with a request for whatever any of you need.

Roger, you may have something there. I am a "Resident" (user) of Second Life myself; in fact, today is my first "rezday" (the first anniversary of the date I joined).

SL is unique in that it's all (95%+) user-created; there are innumerable organizations, corporations, and other groups that have established their own "islands" (tracts of virtual land) on the "Grid" (the virtual world as it exists). And if there's room there for the Goreans, the furries, and the neo-Victorians, why shouldn't there be room for the Ejectians?

Virtual land can be acquired; all it takes is money to buy it and money to maintain it. (The money in question is both real US dollars and the virtual currency of the world, the Linden Dollar; one may be freely converted to the other.) For my part, I have experience dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the world; raising buildings, writing scripts, organizing groups, and many other aspects of life "in-world." And I can teach these things to people who want to learn them, or point them to others I know who can.

Yes, the city-state exists and will always exist in our minds. But how wonderful an idea to have it exist in the Metaverse as well...

Thanks for baring with me before guys. (I owe you one for that daddyquatro!)

I'm in on the guild or whatever other method of organizing the techno side of the project is being used. I have limited space for a forum but probably can't handle the bandwidth anything related to Bill Whittle will generate.

I'm well versed in anything .net and System i, good with SQL, and can quickly get up to pace with pretty much any other standard development environment given a few weeks.

HScott is right, the first step it deciding on technologies. Once we're all on the same page there, we can start to organize based on talents and figure out exactly what the next steps are.

I'm not of much use in the tech department, as such.

But let the S hit the F, and I have proven that I can help keep 'em fed, sheltered, watered, cleaned and in some semblence of order.

And, I can keep the wolf from the door.

Ideas though, I can do. Some years of executive experience at the Fortune 1000 level; I've had to make those River Kwai plans for entire departments, from concept to budget to execution and operation.

My greatest contribution may be adding my $0.01 from time to time, and correspondingly witholding the other penny.

And knowing when one action or the other is called for.

Like the Remnant itself, those calls aren't required, until they're required. I do pretty good, then.

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Subject: Information Architects Guild Members List

A few procedural items:

Please include Information Architects Guild in the subject line.

If you can organize your submissions using four attributes below it would be appreciated. Please keep it pithy to fit a table presentation.

Name, Email Address, OK to post Email Addres to ejectia comments (Y\N), Background\Other.

I do not possess skills that translate online. I will be willing to donate some cash to the cause if the need arises.

I am the admin of the 2A Forum, which, as the name implies, was originally intended to discuss Second Amendment (2A, get it?) issues. We have over a thousand good, helpful people that are involved in all sorts of USEFUL endeavors. There are discussions all the time about the benefits of various firearms, what to do when the SHTF (the "S" hits the fan). "What is in YOUR bug-out bag", etc.

We encourage our younger members and we step up with time and money when others need our help. We meet each other often (for regional "shoots") and we I know many, many by name AND face. We love and we fight. We are a gun community like no other.

While it is a small outpost, I would love it if we would become a part of this growing city-state.

Top of my Things to Do List at the moment- set up a dedicated e-mail for this little project.

The only thing leaping to my forebrain at this particular moment in time for what I can contribute is to start a basic draft of a FAQ-slash-code-of-conduct file; a condensed version of what this place is, what's expected of members, and general do's and don'ts. Since we still haven't worked out what the exact system of moderation is going to be, this is going to be a spirit-of more than letter-of thing than anything else.

a)Are there any objections to me setting down to that as my project for tomorrow?

b)Should I share here, e-mail to Bill and GHS, or (when Google groups is back) post it to some sort of Social Software group?

It's exciting to see all the people with different skills stepping up to work on building this virtual world.

I mentioned that we might be able to get off the ground more quickly if we considered building upon the technologies developed elsewhere (i.e. not reinventing the wheel).

Erbo mentioned that he's familiar with "Second Life" which is the biggest virtual world environment (I think).

What if we start by setting up a "base camp" there? What I mean is that it could provide us with the tools and infrastructure to start implementing some of the ideas that were mentioned (hall of heroes, etc.).

It might also be helpful if we put together a Wiki with information.

My tech skills are pretty minimal - does anyone here know about this stuff?

Bill (aka Kirk), what do you think? ;-)

This all seems like the beginnings of hubris to me, but it's been my experience that attempts to galvanize like-minded segments of the population, such as these, create a lot of memetic turbulence in their (often somewhat cataclysmic) wake, and I'm all in favor of staving off entropy for a little while longer.

I've decided to take some initiative and started a mailing list that you are all welcome to use. You can find more information about it at http://www.fuerve.com/ejectia. It's a good potential platform for scoping out the initial problems.

For what it's worth, I'm a fairly adequate coder, a reasonably good if somewhat novice software engineer, I've got a ton of experience with online communities, I've dabbled in intentional social groupings such as these (for better or worse), and I'm not actually interested in self-identifying as a part of any particular polis, preferring to exercise my right to my own identity. I've got little interest in identifying with the author's concept. What is more important to me is that such concepts be given room to grow and come to their natural explosive end.

So, I've taken a step and created a resource. Please feel welcome to use it.

forums > wiki

you cant delete other peoples contributions on a forum.

a wiki will be a prime target for vandalism and mass deletion.

forums are easily moderated.

the chatroom should also be fully logged, or have an optional command to turn on/off logging so that important information isnt lost.

LabRat,
It seems to me that you are most qualified for that task.

I've been reading...
forever.
But never commented 'till last week.
Let me know if I can help.
"mynic"@hotmail.com

Oh,
Never got to answer your question the other night.
Santana, Boston, Eagles.

What can I say? I'm a kid of the 70's.

D4/Stan

I'm not sure why, but my original comment didn't post. Anyway, I've set up a mailing list, and you can find information about it at http://www.fuerve.com/ejectia. It's just a portal page that give you information about how to subscribe to the mailing list. It may provide an easier forum for discussion.

Otto Gass,
"daddyquatro, I expect that this will pass all too soon - that is, the acceleration with more ideas and more people will make for a vast spread in my ability to keep track. This one is what, four, five days old? Hell, over at LGF they'll chew up 10 a day with hundreds of comments before I blink. Tough going, to catch Einstein's train.

Well, I hope to see you in orbit once in a while anyway."

You sir, are a prophet. Can't keep up here.

Hope to see you around.

Sorry, alexa kim, you're the one who spun the wax.

About the site, whomever puts this together might use a Content Management System. I like drupal.org, but there are probably better out there for the better skilled (like Hscott). They're systems which control forums, sites, sometimes Wikis, chatrooms, and so on... Good way to figure out which is which: http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

About me:
Eric Forhan, Maryland -- CSG artist using a game engine for a simulations company. Done some dabblin' in webpage making.
I'm not sure how much I can help, though if the 3D game idea comes to fruition I may have a few ideas.

Limited cyber-skills here, but lots of real life, professional artist experience - hence the nickname.

My only thought at this point (germane to the start-up) is how to fund this enterprise. Will our intrepid pilot need help?

It might be advantageous to think up some sort of plan for moving this into self-sufficiency (band-width) wise while also marketing it (viral-wise) to the un-initiated. Although after reading the last essay any possible 'Remnant' uninitiated shouldn't need an additional reminder to action.

Alright, I'll try posting one more time. Third time's a charm :) This keeps eating my posts.

I started a mailing list that you are all welcome to use. I've got a little portal to it up on my webspace, which is available by clicking on my name. Please feel welcome to use it. It may prove more user-friendly than this comments page.

Okay folks,

As of now for purposes of this my e-mail is labrat.ejectia@gmail.com .

Dinner soon and then I think we're gonna crash as far as real productivity goes... we put the final nail in the final picket on our fence today (YEAH!), and we are WHUPPED.

I say ditch the chat room.

They just become echo chambers, and if you run them long enough, tired rehashes of the same discussion points, over and over.

Keep this to the point.

The polis Ejectia is beginning to fill with like-minded thinkers. People are coming out of the woodwork to declare themselves. Greetings to all who were previously silent. If things keep rolling like this, we'll be discussing our first colony within a fortnight. Britain would be my first choice. God knows they need the help. I rather savor the historical irony. And, no, I don't mean to slight the Aussies. We know you're out there, mates.

I think the people who are lamenting the fact that the skills they have don't translate well into VR are missing the point that we all still have to wander around in the real world from time to time. Those skills are still pretty important.

Me? Um...operate (and probably do most of the engineering for, though not licensed or anything) a power plant or most large stationary machinery, a random collection of computer programming and operation skills, the various things that anyone would get just from having spent 8 years in the Navy and 4 of that aboard ship, some project management and QA, and mostly pretty good ability to identify abuse of statistics, which seems to be a really valuable skill these days. Also math and physics.

Oh, and I've had actual training in instructional techniques.

Sign me up for helping with the site. I'm experienced with MediaWiki, so I know how to set it up, configure, admin, and do all sorts of cool tweaks. I'd love to help set that up.

Question for any and all: if I were inclined to take Bill's suggestion and email directly somebody else, how would I do that? I type my email address into the comment bar everytime, but it goes nowhere for anybody else to see that I can detect. Am I missing the obvious?

GIS is my current skillset...does ejectia want a virtual digital navigable map?

Good at many things, master of none but my own destiny.

I will pitch in where I see a need.

Two things.

First... don't leave out the kids. The kids want to count. The kids want to help. The kids are OK.

Second... I want to be a mechanical engineer and I've wasted too many years being a secretary, supporting people who won't act and think for themselves, and taking shit from my father who thinks a woman can't hack it. Who needs a bright, decent, grateful, hardworking woman as an apprentice or something?

I suppose, to complement my previous post, I should post the actual subscription address of the mailing list. If anybody is interested in taking the discussion off of this comments page and into a more user-friendly format, please feel free to subscribe by sending an email to ejectia-subscribe@topica.com

Lance,
Even though I've already given out my email on another thread (spambots haven't found me yet) I suggest a free email account and giving a handle. Then you can be "handle"@freemail.com.

But you raise an excellent point. Unless someone goes to the trouble of posting their address, in some round about fashion, how do we connect?
"D4"@hotmail.com

D4/Stan

All,
I'm still not completely sold on the name Chase Lounge for Ejectia's Premier Bar & Grill. Not yet anyway. As thrilled as I am to have my name over the door, this is a democracy. And a gathering place this BIG should be as big as its name. That being said, I propose we do another one of those Vote Button Thingys that was used to decide the E!3 Motto: Ad astera volemus sella tonanti. Drop your ideas in the suggestion box here: chase5mile@gmail.com. Even the lame ones.

Speaking of lame ones, the current Staff (me) of said Lounge is just that. Very. Lame. So I'm posting a Help Wanted sign in the window. Inquire Within. Who are we looking for? You! Yes, YOU! As Mayor Whittle mentioned earlier, we need the talent. As an example, I'm looking for:

Contractors (designers). - Unquietmind! Want the job?

Bouncers (moderators) GHS?

Day Shift Manager. (I asked Chad Vader, but he's busy.)

Maintenance Crew. (Dirty job. Someone's gotta do it.)

Thanks to Otto Gass, we finally have a working Restroom. So that's where I'll be for awhile. Reading Bill's Essay.

Thanks!
- The Chase Lounge Management

Chase,

I'll empty the spittoons and wax the brass.

sigh...

I would like to see brief bios (names withheld) of the older and more experienced members, specifically detailing where they went wrong or right in their journey up to the present time.

What kept ya?

I'm in.

Rethinker.

What kept ya?

I'm in.

Rethinker.

Forum over Wiki,
Save truly great posts in "The Library of Ejectandria" have them voted on to be posted there.
see www.thefiringline.com for a great example.

My other idea? Use Greek and Roman Motifs to really make this FEEL like a city.

All we need now is a Homestone. but that's a different Conversation.

Anonymous Coward,
Huh?
I call.
You show me yours
and I'll show you mine.

Well I am pretty near helpless with these computer things. What do I know how to do that I can teach?
I've been handloading ammunition for better than forty years, have taught dozens of people that craft. I'm not sure how well that will work in a virtual city but I'm willing to try if anyone is interested.
It can be handy having one's own ammunition factory in the rec room.

Wine and song.
My stock(s) in trade.
Anything I can contribute.
Sounds like it starts with treating others the way you want to be treated. And when they don't treat you right, THEN you just do unto others.

It's late, and I've not read all
the comments.
Maybe I can be a sounding board as I've no specialized field.
Well I do know a good horse when I see one. :)

Daddyquatro, Chase, et al;

I'll be happy to help with the pick-em-up tasks as needed, whenever I'm in... Only thing I might balk at doing is cleaning that big window looking out at you-know-what, though I do love the view of the galaxy beyond...

Can ya' hear me through that oak door, Chase???

(Hope he sees this money I'm leaving for the draft Sam Adams...)

Just an old put out to pasture warrior here offering up anything I can.

I was sent here by Miss Ladybug.

Visit my blog and look for my email in the Profile section.

Paul A.
That's what you get for being on the other side of the world.
But just think, you get to come home just in time for sticky season! Love ATL. Lived there for 3 years.

Now I live in Houston.

You have no idea from sticky.

Daddyquatro,

ATL is OK, and usually fairly "bearable" from the stcky standpoint, and I know from a project in your town how that place can be...

Not pickin' at all, but I'll be in Hong Kong/Shenzhen in July, and that's going to probably redefine sticky in my mind... Find 'em on a globe, and notice how close to infamous places (conflicts past) I'll be.

Not complainin' tho' -- Chase's IS air conditioned, right? And, hey... that Help Wanted sign sure improved the view, strategically placed as it is...

You can count another guy who likes to write but never has time anymore as part of the team.

Virtual world skills: I haven't written a line of code in over 20 years (anyone remember a thing called FORTRAN?), but I still write scopes, business cases, technical white papers, user instructions, and if someone else builds the test environment I can do unit testing and documentation.

Real world skills: Logistics/inventory/financial analyst who is also a certified firearms instructor. I primarily teach children to shoot clay targets, but I can teach every aspect of the shooting sports from safety to reloading.

I humbly volunteer for service.....

I'd like to point out that meeting together, while not necessarily easy physically is quite doable virtually. Although you quipped on Second Life before I would like to suggest that there be part of Ejectia in Second Life. I have some land that I am not using that I would be glad to contribute to the cause.

I'm in Bill, and look forward to it.

I'm in.

I think (as some of the others have said already) that the key to the Ejectia project needs to be the development and spread of the cornerstone virtues. The exchange of knowledge is an important part of this, but should be the means to the larger end.

My own skills are finance/retirement planning, reasoned discussion with people who disagree, and (in the near future) agent-based computer modeling. (I'm entering a PhD program which will touch on that as part of the larger PoliSci program.)

(My blog is "Critical Mastiff," but it's sadly been defunct for a few months now. My old posts are still up; a few of them are even half-decent.)

I second the idea of a forum; a Wiki is a great supplement, but it can't be the center of a community, and a chatroom moves too fast and leaves too little paper trail to be policed properly.

FreeBBS or some kind of php equivalent is out there in a packaged form, I know it, and I'm sure someone here must be experienced with setting it up.

I have been lurking from the beginning and have not posted until now. Thank you for your essays and all of your work. It is appreciated and respected more than you can imagine. I like the idea of ejectia but I am, of course, skeptical.

I have been a hobbyist in user generated content from their beginning as MUDs and have followed it to the current iterations like Secondlife and Wiki's. I manage my own training/tutorial MUD that teaches others how to create their own Worlds (text based version of secondlife). I am a project manager at heart and have seen numerous startups (ideas like this) fail due to a lack of management. The task of focusing such an idea into something useable is.. herculean. Managing such a project isn't a hobby or a second job. It is a career choice. Before I would be willing to invest my time I want to be sure there is management in place to make this work. What is your business plan? How much time do you and others have to invest? I know you are overwhelmed right now... could you handle that for years?

I have spent years of my free time on my own project (tbaMUD) with very little reward. In fact, this "hobby" has often taken priority over my career. Such projects require sacrifice and I'm not sure I would wish the amount of sacrifice I have paid for my project onto anyone else.

Enough rambling, I have many more thoughts on the topic if anyone is interested. And I also just happen to be a pilot... going by my SL name.

Bill, as honored as I'd be to bugle for your dad's service, I was not the one who offered. I live on the East coast and my resources are limited. But you don't need me, personally: there are literally over 5,000 other buglers available to take that mission gratis. Click on my user name again and go to the site I referred to earlier.

Thanks to your dad for his service to our country. Any of us at Bugles Across America would be honored to serve him free of charge.

When I first read these wonderful posts, I didn't think there was much I could offer. However, I support myself by a virtual clothing store in Second Life. I am a long way away from owning a full Sim but I do have a tract of virtual land that could theoretically be used as a base camp as mentioned above. I would encourage anyone reading this who is in Second Life or joining it please send me an IM in world and we can at least lay the groundwork for laying the groundwork!

I am employed as a manager of chat room moderators for a medium sized company's online community. I have helped craft the rules for that community, so I could help come up with some kind of rules of the road or code of conduct for any chat or message boards that you have. I could also help train moderators; maybe we could call it the Ejectia National Guard. Oh, and my husband is in the real world National Guard and is an amateur military historian. Knowing the history of the sort of people that know how to sacrifice for the sake of others could be very useful :)

I have also been told I am a decent fiction writer, so any 'flavor text' I could help with. I am also not averse to pitching in some real world money to get this party started.

**UPDATE**

First step seems to be MANAGING the ARCHITECTURE. So, anyone with experience in the upper-level organization of something like Ejectia! , will you please email me at bill@ejectejecteject.com and put ARCHITECTURE in the header. That way we can start a more focused conversation on how to break this down as far as what software applications we need. We can then put out a call for the people to implement that software later.

I always thought I wasn't alone out here. It's good to find proof of that. But I still think it's too little, too late. God I hope I'm wrong. I am retired military and still work for the Government, stationed over in Korea. Not sure what I can offer, but will be happy to help. My expertise is in aircraft maintenance (management, not turning wrenches), logistics (like getting you to a war), and now I negotiate international agreements. Flown around the world (as cargo), and have been to a few places I would rather forget. At least I never had the displeasure of being shot at. Doubt I have much too offer, but if you do need some distributed web space, I have my own site (unused) that I just keep for email service. I imagine if you want to keep things free, you will need to borrow bandwidth, so I can help if you need it. Not much, but if we all put up a little bandwidth/storage space here and there, then maybe it will add up.

Oh, although english is my only language, I can always appeal to my very wonderful spouse to get anything translated into/out of Japanese (her native language).

My profession and hobby is space. Profession in the form of satellite operations, hobby in the form of possibilities, technical requirements, and presenting them to others.

I am an amateur metal lathe worker, and have some knack of fix-it-around-the-house things, though I've never tried to teach it.

Oh, and I forgot to add this: To those of you who are chary of having a chat room, just let me say that they can be very helpful in community building. Yes, I do have a bit of a bias, since I manage people who moderate chat rooms professionally, but still, they *can* be a lot of fun for the members. You can log them for the papertrail concept. A community is best served by having both static (message boards, Wiki, email, etc) AND dynamic (chat) interactions.

Just one moderator's opinion :)

and since the email doesn't post automatically, here's mine m.happydragon -at- gmail -dot- com

Also, we need a flag or heraldic shield. Or both.

Blog(s)
Chat(s)
Organized posts

I wonder if ejectia would be better served as a portal.

What if we designed ejecta as the starting place to find blogs and chats and ... data put up by ejectia citizens.

Ejectia the portal, as I'm imagining it, would provides single sign-on(citizenship) and a directory of citizen provided resources(the map Mr W is thinking of)

This would distribute the 'functionality' across the net and allow individuals and groups to work on their own sub-section of ejectia.

Ejectia would be the glue, the thread that binds our little community together. The substance would be the citizens and their collective works. Ejectia would be the government.

"We the people of the Ejectia, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United Web Sites of Ejectia."

What do you want your government to do?

*Security(from spam/trolls)
*Create and Organize roads
*Establish and Enforce any laws
... (help me out here)

Whittle, you magnificent bastard. I would have never guessed The Prisoner's Dilemma would be the Big Idea. I had the top of my head blown off by that idea about 20 years ago, and have been an amateur of game theory, the evolution of cooperation, Axelrod, Trivers, Maynard Smith, et al, ever since. That's probably the closest thing to any expertise I'd have to offer, and tilling in those fields must wait until the land is cleared, so for now:

If voting is still open on the first three modules, I'd vote for a forum before (definitely not instead of) a wiki.

Your blog, it goes without saying.

Chat rooms are valuable, but ephemeral. They are the water coolers, kitchen tables, and living room couches of the community. You can run chat rooms 24/7, but the late shift will never meet day shift. A wiki would be the archive, the academy, even the gymnasium, but always seeking to gather the permanent things.

But the agora (greek for roman forum), the marketplace of ideas where people can set up stalls, post bills, hawk their cognitive wares, even nail up the occassional theses, this seems to require something between a chat room and a wiki.

Asking for four modules right off sounds like mission creep, so if it's three at first, I can wait for wiki.

Lastly, I was tremendously glad to see the line, "that envelope marked 'Remnant' is sealed inside every heart". Sounds like the best insurance against elitism.

Bill,

This is a tremendous idea! Sign me up. May I suggest a library and reader's circle? Glad to coordinate and host.

Best,

MHH

I already recieved an IM from another member of Secondlife so I decided to start a group there to gauge the interest and bounce some ideas around. Just search for the group "ejectia" if you are interested.

I'm in.

Most developed skill: high-end custom furniture builder.

Other devloped skills: High school "shop" teacher, chiropractic physician, cook.

After a night sleeping on this….

1) Not just a Portal but a Blog hosting site.
a) You can offset the cost by selling advertising space. I’ve noticed alot of us have blogs.

2) A Forum for Posting messages .

3) A Chat Room for social interaction, (which a lot of comments sections in blogs and forums turn into)

4) Meat world social Groups. People meeting in local areas. I’m in PHX, AZ USA. Anyone else?

Big Question: Citizenship? What defines it? what is required of it? How can it be stripped away? How can it be granted?

I'm not an idea man, but I can build databases from scratch. No doubt we'll need to manage data. Once someone knows what data we need to manage, let me know. CV, resume, list of accomplishments available.

I am definitely in, here in northwest Michigan.

Although I am unsure where my strengths come into play, as a pro snowboarder/skier/photographer.

Some of my primary skills include:
Movement analysis,
First responder training, wilderness survival skills, evasive driving techniques, heavy equipment operator.

I'm a bit far away, here in the mitten of Michigan, but I hope to be of some assistance.

Feel free to email me:

silvermine.blog+ejectia@gmail.com

The 'can you teach it?' question started me thinking about the Ejectia University module, some type of old-fashioned red schoolhouse structure where we can teach and learn from each other. I love the idea of church/synagogue etc to promote the values we all hold so dear.

After I graduated college (Emory BA in Theater & Film Studies) I interviewed for Teach For America to teach poetry to elementary students. What I learned through that process is that I was far more interested in teaching them how to write poetry than in what TFA wanted me to do which was to teach them how to read it. Yes, a sonnet has 14 lines, blah blah blah. In my 'trial' class I had a roomful of students on the edge of their seats as they each created their own poem. Sure, some of them probably had diaries and journals full of writings, but the pure joy they exhibited was a great reward. (I ended up not doing TFA in order to write my first novel...don't ask...I won't bore you with the specifics).

The point of this, is that we are all teachers of something and students of everything and I, for one, am proud and blessed to be a part of you all.

Anyone know what 'teachers of something and students of everything' is in Latin? Ejectia University could use a motto of it's own.

In case my email address doesn't transmit for this it's pasalomon-at-hotmail.com.

Englishman in Madrid, Spain, calling. Over. Can you hear me? Over. The line's a bit faint. Over. Roger that. Over. Skills are minimal (Spanish / French / Italian languages + I make a decent Spanish Tortilla.) but willing to share. Over.
Have set up secret receiver and waiting for next transmission. Over and Out.

I will offer my english (MA) and financial (Series 7/66) skills to any who wish them.

A very small thought --

One useful resource to draw on, which a few commenters have already noted, is fluency in languages.

Could we have a list, perhaps, of people fluent in more than one language, who can contribute their expertise? (I'll start... English and Hebrew. My wife can add Russian and French to the list.)

It seems clear that the working language of Ejectia will be English; Mayor Whittle's essays tend to self-select for that. But being able to reach out to the non-English-speaking Remnants ought to be important.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

Krashen Byrne, your 1250A post is sobering indeed, and very wise. Will we build something other than an echo chamber? With Bill as a catalyst, the ignition temperature is very high. I'm optimistic.

I don't think it will be an echo chamber. I see one thing that ejectia can do is provide a way for people to network with