The Cupertino Alliance has officially completed the acquisition of Micronear from the Berry Empire. with the passing of the motion Acquisition of MicroNear by the Cupertino Alliance. MicroNear, a service that aims to provide a list of nearby micronations, was first conceived by Berry Empire’s Redberry, since he was trying to do an actual physical diplomatic visit. He then realized “that it’s extremely hard and there’s no such tool yet.”
The Berry Empire came into contact with the Cupertino Alliance after Jayden Lycon viewed the project and messaged Redberry, inquiring about a partnership with the Cupertino Alliance Factbook. This later led to the admission of the then-Berry Kingdom in July 2021. Redberry states that:
We were looking for an organization so we could connect with other micronations more easily and the CA seemed the most professional. The CA, indeed, is a really professional organization and a great community.
Redberry, November 2021
He also found that the CA was a perfect place for the project to expand. With the previous partnership between MicroNear and the CA, MicroNear gained many early adopters and their valuable feedback. Relating to the relationship between the CA and participation in MicroNear, Redberry clarified that you do not need to be in the Cupertino Alliance to participate in MicroNear.
I don’t think we can require such thing from the participants while staying 100% neutral. All alliances have their principles, and the principles are always slightly different – I don’t think it would benefit the micronations nor the alliance.
Redberry, November 2021
Relating to privacy, he states that data integrity was the hardest part of development, ensuring that the communications between the server and users, as well as data in the server, were and continue to be fully encrypted. Redberry understands the valuable right to privacy and states that MicroNear can only display the location of a micronation and additional location data if it is allowed by its holder. The developers can only see the things that anyone else can see. No, this means that they can’t see your location if you do not opt-in to this feature.
Relating to other endeavours, the Berry Empire monitors radio frequencies and focused on rocket development. They reached a milestone with the successful launches of the Berry-1 and Berry-2 reusable rockets, as well as estimated that the Berry-1 rocket flew to a height of about 1km. Additionally, the Berry Kingdom is also developing the app “Flag Creator”, an app to design flags.
The final acquisition motion was voted by Parliament on 2 November 2021, with 9 supporting, 5 rejecting, and 3 abstaining.