Inter

Inter-City Cooperation - A Suggested Framework

by Mayor Winfield, September 24, 2000

There has been much discussion about inter-city cooperation of late within our realm upon Chesapeake. We know there are at least 26 towns between the two facets of Felucca and Trammel. It is most comforting to see such great enthusiasm between people in a time when many of us are riding and gating around the realm looking for our friends in new and old places.

UOC Towns Listing

There are ways upon which our realm can cooperate. Much has to do with the use of etheral sky-boards, meetings, and news services.

In this article, I suggest measures to aid us all collectively--our 26 cities and towns and the many guilds among us. I truly believe a common framework between all of us will help us cooperate in total. New ideas come about each week for enhanced cooperation, and thus we need to stay organized in a way to add such ideas to our common framework.

UO Chesapeake holds the official list of towns on Chesapeake.

Cooperation I say? The cooperation I refer to is in its purest sense. There will be rivalries between towns, guilds, and soon factions. Cooperation in the purest sense here, though, is the spirit of Chesapeake being the finest group of people the entire multi-shard realm has known. Each of our contributions aid in this, whether rival, villain, or friend. Simple organization is a key. That is what I suggest in the following lines.

Why do I care about inter-city cooperation? PaxLair recently established the goal and objective to Promote the well-being and progress of all cities and towns on all facets of our realm as one of three overarching PaxLair objectives. I also care that "lean-forward" ideas of how people can work together can be readily adopted by our community. There are no single answers and there is no exact solution. Here, in this article, I offer some of these ideas which may aid cities and many people within our community.

Usage of Boards

PaxLair Menu

I suggest the following structure on usage of skyboards to aid us. Each city could establish these places prominently upon their skypages so our citizens and visitors may rapidly cooperate.

As an example, I have added five board access points on the PaxLair "Boards" location in the ether. This will aid people coming to PaxLair in quickly reading and discussing the latest about many cities, including PaxLair. With this type of cross-connection between our cities, we may all quickly obtain and offer information each day or week.

I describe five etheral boards below:

The Multi-City Forum -- for the main place to communicate between our cities and towns when we can not do so in person, report news quickly and informally, and announce and track events (there is a wonderful events listing system which allows the event planner to immediately publish and update information... there is even a sign-up sheet for each event). [OOC note: this is an In-Character only board... tis a challenge for all of us to turn all our thoughts into in-character based discussions]

Multi-City Forum

Multi-City Events Listing
The Wandering Dreamer Event Discussion Board -- for all cities to focus on cooperation in events. There will be overlap with the Multi-City Forum in announcements and events tracking, however, the Wandering Dreamer is the place to discuss specific details, brainstorming, and more. Then one may bring the announcements to the news services and the Multi-City Forum for all to see.

Wandering Dreamer Events Cooperation Board
The UOC Discussion Board -- the combined place for very open and general discussions across the shard. UOC has other boards too and when walking to the UOC board, one will see the other boards for further discussions. [OOC: The UOC Discussion Board is visited by many people and can be a central place for faster-paced discussions.]

UOC Discussion Board
The Individual Town Board -- Most towns retain their own town-focused internal discussion board. Some towns have moved entirely to the Multi-City Forum though as their main place of communicating when they can not meet directly in the realm.
The MyUO Boards -- the boards with one of the widest readership in all of the realms across all shards. Here, one may read and contribute to many aspects of the realm from development to questing. The "Role-playing" board is particularly useful for our cities and towns. [OOC: MyUO Boards are a great entry point into discussing items of interest with OSI and gathering interest from inside and outside the Chesapeake shard.]

MyUO Boards

Meetings and Navigation Between Towns and Cities

26 tables for 26 Chesapeake Towns

As we all know, there are many cities now and many weekly meetings. PaxLair's Weekly Meetings on Wednesdays at 9 in the eve by the Eastern Sky are becoming the time and place for all cities and their representatives to come together face-to-face.

The personal conduct of business and sharing of information is vital to all of us seeking cooperation within the realm. We are all busy people these days building our cities and guilds, laying siege to various towns and groups, adventuring in old and new perilous places, and creating the necessary materials for adventurers and combatants alike.

To aid in navigation to the many wonderful towns, 26 tables exist atop the Mage Tower in PaxLair, each to hold a Felucca rune to a Felucca city or town, or a point on Felucca where one may easily cross over to the Trammel facet to visit a Trammel city or town. These runes can be placed upon the tables at the weekly PaxLair meetings.

Hopefully, people will be available after the Wednesday meeting to take a tour of a city or town presenting their rune, as was done recently in Nidaros.

News Services

We all know the need for publicity, recording of events and quests, and getting concrete information to a wide audience. There are several very credible places which publish news or create news about much in the realm. Here are a few which have proved to be very useful for a wide variety of Chesapeake cities.

I suggest each city and town create prominent access points on their skypages for these vital news services.

UO Chesapeake Daily News -- the Premier News and Information Service of the Chesapeake Shard. UOC Daily News has fabulous features from daily news reports and quest threads to character, guild, and town registries. There are also additional skyboards for more specific discussions.

UO Chesapeake Daily News
UOSS Chesapeake News -- the Premier Service for education, news, tips, and how-to's regarding our realm. UOSS provides the complete source of guides for all people fighting, crafting, and adventuring.

UOSS News Service
UO Vault -- the Premier News for a very wide audience across all shards. This classic service provides regular information for all adventurers within Britannia and other realms.

UOVault News Service
UO Britannia News Network -- the Premier Official News Service of Britannia. BNN is the place to come for audio and written updates on much that is happening within the realm. This news service has carefully crafted and balanced reports to aid quest-seekers and adventurers.

Britannia News Network

Conclusion

Of course, there are many other services, skyboards, and locations of interest to many people in our realm. There is a challenge and responsibility, though, for the leadership of our cities and towns; we should provide the simplest means for our citizens to reach people in other cities/towns and stay current on happenings throughout the realm.

This is why I offered a consolidation of some key information entry-points in this article.

Skyboards for rapid inter-city cooperation.
A weekly meeting for the necessary face-to-face discussions and runes to all the cities and towns on Chesapeake.
Several news services to publicize our cities and towns and to keep the whole multi-realm universe informed.

I thank you all for listening to this old man. I am completely dedicated to advancing and enhancing our cooperation so each of us may offer simplicity and service to our citizens, adventurers, and combatants.

Regards,

Winfield, Mayor of PaxLair