Introduction
3rd Wind is a virtual community created by ex-members of 3rd Rock Grid—a retired property of Stichting Cultural Harbour. It operates as a semi-autonomous creative enclave within the Opensim community.
3rd Wind supplies private virtual land for its residents and manages public community spaces. The community hosts performing artists, speakers, art exhibitions, discussion panels and other events, and is home to the Nuna Gallery and to Starfleet Infinity, a highly organised roleplay group.
The 3rd Wind Community is embedded in ZetaWorlds. It adheres to the TOS (Terms of Service) of that entity. As such it interfaces with an extant population and shares the provided currency (Gloebits), technical admin and commerce of its host.
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Founding principles
3rd Wind supports arts and education initiatives. It is a virtual community with members from around the globe. As a virtual community it aspires to principles of kindness, empathy, inclusion and support. It tasks participating members to apply these principles in personal and public interactions.
3rd Wind is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where members are free of discrimination and harassment, and no such behaviours will be tolerated. Any depiction of child pornography, or sexual or violent activities with Child Avatars is strictly prohibited.
Community Membership
A member is defined as a person/avatar who participates in community affairs through land ownership, asset contribution and/or active and sustained engagement with the Community.
Members who want a say in Community affairs should become registered. To become a registered member go to JOIN and add your name to the list on the form supplied. Members will be allocated an identity number for voting and fiscal activities, to protect their privacy.
All 3rd Wind Community members are encouraged to attend meetings so that they have a say in the Community’s activities, discussing and voting on such decisions as may be required. Voting on financial issues is limited to those holding a financial stake in the Community through patronage or land ownership.
Privacy
3rd Wind respects and protects the privacy of its members. It does not collect personal data other than a nominated email account. Transactional records (generated in land purchase and patronage) and voting choices will be anonymised through issuance of a unique ID number.
Steering Committee
A 3rd Wind Steering Committee runs the day-to-day tasks of managing group resources including the financial business of the Community; liaising with the host (ZetaWorlds); allocating land and other assets; arbitrating disagreements, and representing the Community according to its collective/majority wishes.
3rd Wind Community meetings are held monthly on the second Saturday of every month at midday in the Sirocco (region) town hall. These meetings provide a forum to table reports and financials, discuss issues and raise concerns. Concerns can also be raised with members of the Steering Committee at any time.
The Steering Committee comprises two administrators (appointees) from the administration pool, and three elected officials. The three elected officials are community representatives chosen by the community to act in its interest—a total of five members, ensuring a controlling majority is elected by the community.
Elections for all three positions are conducted annually (June/July). Only the primary avatars of registered members can stand for election and vote in them. Voting is conducted with member IDs to protect privacy, and is open to scrutiny. There is no limit to the number of terms a Community member may serve in an elected role.
In the event of misconduct by a committee member, that person can be dismissed by a four to one committee vote on a motion of no confidence. This executive power is only to be used where failure to take this action will cause operational or reputational damage to the Community.
Accounting Transparency
3rd Wind collects funds from income streams into a nominated community account which acts as the “owner” of the services purchased from ZetaWorlds. This account is used to pay for the virtual hosting of the Community. Rental, patronage and spending transactions are tracked by the Steering Committee. These accounts are available for membership scrutiny on request and a general summary of fiscal activity will be reported at monthly Community meetings.
Cultural Harbour Foundation
Cultural Harbour is an arts/education funding project that directs surplus funds in 3rd Wind’s income balance sheet to creative enterprise and education initiatives. This programme is administered by a subcommittee drawn from the Steering Committee. The Cultural Harbour Foundation has adopted criteria commonly used in social funding. It actively supports visual arts; musical and performing arts; literary initiatives; and programmes for advanced learning including classes and lectures. Recipients of funding are selectively chosen—this is not a blanket grant for all performers and initiatives. More information is available here
Disputes Between Community Members
The Steering Committee will settle disputes with commonsense and application of the founding principles. If no resolution is found, the dispute will be passed to ZetasWorlds’ resolution process, if this is deemed appropriate. If the dispute is not resolved through either process, the Steering Committee will make a judgement that is binding on all parties. The Steering Committee reserves the right to evict from the Community any member who refuses to comply with a judgement. Any money paid in advance for land by an evicted tenant will be refunded on eviction. An evicted member will have their assets returned to their inventories.
Disputes Between Members and Third Parties
External disputes will be handled by the hosting grid. Any persons in breach of the host’s TOS will be directed to ZetaWorlds for action.
Community Eviction
3rd Wind retains the right to evict anyone in serious breach of its principles regardless of their standing in relation to ZetaWorlds’ TOS. It will try to resolve issues of poor conduct through counselling or arbitration, where that is possible. Eviction from the Community is an extreme resort and may include banning.
Rental Arrears
3rd Wind retains the right to evict tenants from property who fall into rental arrears where no acceptable plan for restitution is offered. Rental in arrears after 14 days—without extenuating circumstances—will result in a return of property to the owner. The empty region or parcel will be made available for re-lease.
Intellectual Property (IP) Rights
3rd Wind supports the rights of creators to their Intellectual Property. Any creator who identifies their work appearing in 3rd Wind estates in ways that are an infringement of their Intellectual Property Rights should contact a member of the steering committee to have the work investigated. The steering committee will act to take down work that is a breach of IP.
Third party claims of IP infringement (claims made by those who are not the creators of the disputed content) require compelling proof, beyond personal suspicion or noted similarity between items. The steering committee will not act on rumour or supposition.
3rd Wind seeks to make its environment a safe harbour for the creative people in virtual worlds.