The Database: Introduction

The Talossan Database or just Database is a series of PHP scripts and MySQL tables storing legislative information about the Kingdom of Talossa.

It was initially begun in late 2000 by Marti-Pair Furxheir and quickly began replacing the various tools Secretary of State Daviu Focteir used to manage the Clark and the votes on the Clark.

By early 2001, the Clark was already officially published via the Database and Ziu members could vote using it rather early in the process, even if most still voted on Wittenberg. And yet, the official tally of the votes was store in the database by Daviu in his last months of operation.

Granted, back then, most of the operations had to be done by Marti-Pair himself, but Daviu could already do a lot of the  work a Secretary of State had to do : Create the Clark, activate or deactivate the voting, enter bills into the database, update the list of Cosa Members and Senators, etc…

By the time the next election occurred, in July 2001, not only was voting online for the election allowed, but the results of the election were calculated and published using the database, the same as for the most recent election, using earlier versions of the same scripts.

The database was used until June 2004 when, a few weeks about the creation of the Republic, the creator of the database left the Kingdom for the Republic, and was only brought back online in the last trimester of 2013 when Marti-Pair returned to the Kingdom.

Back in 2001-2004, a low immigration rate meant that most citizens using the database had been present during it’s initial development but in 2013, rare are the citizens from that era that are still active and vocal today, leaving a gap in the collective knowledge and possibly creating fear in the mind of Talossans.

At Preßeu Zespenat, we thought it was time to get deep into the bowels of the Database and the mind of its creator so that citizens of today could form their own enlightened opinions of a system which looks dense, complicated and cold so they can see the beauty hidden within it.

Over the next few months, we will work with Marti-Pair Furxheir to help reveal the innermost secrets of the Database while trying to simplify it’s structure so that every Talossan can have an idea of what it is.

Each month, we will focus on either a single page or a single table of the Database until that system will hold no secrets for our readers.

Marti-Pair already assured us that Preßeu Zespenat will get full access to the details of the database, with the exception of the few pieces that are strictly confidential (such as citizen email addresses and private votes), while using equivalent data which is public in nature (such as votes from the first 45 Cosas).