esoteriic.com

If I had enough money I'd set one up. The best known micronation is Sealand, an old WWII sea fort in International waters. Although sovereignty is disputed, no formal acceptance of sovereignty, there is no formal acknowledgment that Sealand is British. The imagination can run wild with ideals about what to do if you had your own Sealand.

Forvik

Another interesting example of a micronation is Forvik. A small island that is part of the Shetland islands, north east of Scotland. This micronation's creator claims that the Shetland islands never officially became part of Scotland or the UK. Hence his island plus the rest of the Shetlands can declare themselves as independent. While this claim is contentious and perhaps baseless it is at least an interesting idea and one that makes you think. It can serve as inspiration if nothing else.

Forvik offers citizenship to its micronation and in the future may offer passports, driving licenses / vehicle registration, bank accounts and the list goes on. The Forvik creator has even created a currency which can claim to be the only currency pegged to Gold. I like his creativity, I'd probably mimic similar decisions if I had my own micronation too.

Seasteading

Much more reputable than the above micronation of Forvik is the new Seasteading Institute that aims to consider all aspects of building a micronation at sea. I'd wager that this was heavily inspired by Sealand. The goal is to build self-sustainable and self-governing platforms at sea which are free from the rules of any one particular government. Naturally, they will be under scrutiny from international law but as are all countries (in theory at least). I think the idea is really cool and is something that I'm following. From their site:

"The Seasteading Institute was founded in 2008 by activist, software engineer and political economic theorist Patri Friedman, grandson of Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, and technology entrepreneur, investor and Philanthropist Peter Thiel."

My Micronation

I haven't developed a flag, national anthem or 'cool' name for my micronation yet (details will be forthcoming) but I have, at least, thought about how I'd run it. The problem is getting a balance of idealism and practically. The latter is likely to win over idealism in many cases but that's not to say that there isn't, or can't, be an overall objective or preferred style of living. Given that we are talking about micronations then we are implicitly assuming 'nations' with very small amounts of citizenship (0-20?). This would perhaps be something like a group of friends of a commune of (presumably) like-minded people. A setting such as Necker Island (owned by Richard Branson) would be ideal, as are the proposed ideas from the Seasteading Institute.

From a practical point of view there must be housing and utilities. I'd probably install a few computer servers and provide web hosting, which could be one way to generate income. There won't be much scope for industry in a micronation and there probably won't be much in the way of tourism. I'd aim to be as self-sustainable as possible: generate my own electricity and grow my own food. Disconnecting from the rest of the world isn't desirable, so I'd rely upon outside sources for some food and income.

Naturally the idea of living by my own rules is appealing, acceptance as a resident or citizen to my nation wouldn't be easy. The short/naive answer would be only trusted friends but I'd be more keen to promote it as a haven for smart and productive people. If people can prove their worth by their effectiveness and skillfulness in their line of work then I'd willing to consider their citizenship.

Philosophical discussion will be mandatory as will rejection of the current Western status quo. I'll also state that utopia isn't possible, conflict will always arise and nothing can be perfect, but that doesn't mean we should give up and accept the lowest common denominator. I suggest the use of ideals to guide the nation but to resort to pragmatism in every case. This might be the suggest method of modern governance but given the stagnant form of modern politics I'm in serious doubt. The folks over at the Seasteading Institute seem to be of a similar ilk.