Cecilia Delacroix gives a poetry reading at the Chilbo Summer Fair 2008.

Yesterday, two exciting events at the Chilbo Summer Fair - Cecilia Delacroix gave a poetry reading of her Seasons Cycle in the Shells plaza, and accepted our invitation to become the official Poet of Chilbo!

Chilbo residents and visitors listen intently to Cecilia’s poetry in the Shells Plaza.

Cecilia has christened two of our public venues with their first ever performances, and donated the beautiful images to the Shrubbery Amphitheatre background, so we are very pleased indeed to have her with us. If any Chilbo resident needs to commission our Poet, please contact Cecilia Delacroix!

Rezago Kokorin leads the Virtual Artists Alliance Workshop in the Chilbo Sandbox.

Later that evening, Rezago Kokorin gave a presentation in the Chilbo Sandbox at the Virtual Artists Alliance Workshop. The premise of these sessions is simple: the host introduces a concept or technique that can be applied to building in Second Life, and the remainder of the session is dedicated to experimentation, using the concept or technique for artistic application.

Chilbo resident Kim Link asks a question while Rezago looks on.

Chilbo residents and guests took the scripts Rezago provided and began practicing the various techniques he discussed, asked questions, and learned about creating prims that are responsive to an avatar’s proximity. Rezago will be leading another workshop next Tuesday in the same place - be sure to join us!

Chilbo Summer Fair!

August 16 - August 31 - in and around Chilbo & neighboring sims

The Chilbo Summer Fair was conceived as an idea to celebrate our community - an excuse for everyone to get together and have fun and invite friends!

Please check the Chilbo Summer Fair Planning Wiki for the possible schedule changes.

Chilbo Summer Fair Scheduled Events!

August 16 - August 31 - in and around Chilbo & neighboring sims

Open throughout the Fair:

Chilbo Fairgrounds: rides and fun!
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/15/65/65
Ferris Wheel , Go-Cart Race Track, Boat Ride, Avatar Cannonball, Skydive Ride, Bouncy Castle, The Dormouse’s Tea Party Ride

Exhibits & Builds:

• The Maze - SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/16/29/65
• FlowerBall (Douglas Story interactive art) - above the Nature Preserve & Boat Ride - SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/202/61/53
• AIDS Memorial Quilt - SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/145/80/59

Scheduled events:

Saturday, August 16

11AM SLT - Walking Tour: The History of Chilbo - Fleep Tuque
Location: Starting at the Town Hall
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/112/230/121

Join us for a walking tour of the Chilbo sim! We’ll poke into the nooks and crannies of the community, visit the places and spaces where Chilbo began, and explore the hidden treasures and artifacts of our community’s history!

12 PM SLT - FlowerBall Reception
The tour will finish up at the FlowerBall, an interactive art build that was voted one of the “Ten Best Art Installations of 2007″ by New World Notes. The charming, witty, and extremely attractive co-creators Douglas Story and Desdemona Enfield will be on hand to answer your questions - and hell….maybe musician Aldomanutio Abruzzo if we can get him to come by.
If you do visit, be sure to follow the annoying directions - you’ll get a much better experience if you do. Also - scripters take note: there’s a great deal of complex and interesting scripting involved in the pre-loading of the music clips that makes them play smoothly. Desdemona’s achievement is that you don’t notice all this.
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/166/45/68

1pm SLT - Presentation: HIV 101: What is HIV and How Does it Attack the Immune System? - Lizzette Zenovka
Location: SL HIV Education & Prevention Center
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/130/80/60

3PM SLT - Go Kart Race - START YOUR ENGINES!!!
Location: Chilbo Fairgrounds
SLurl:

Join us for a smashing good time at the Go Kart racetrack in the fairgrounds! Contestants will compete for the best time around the track, feel free to practice ahead of time, but all scores will be reset before the race! First Prize: $1000L Second Prize: $500L Third Prize: $250L

4PM SLT - Poetry Reading - Cecilia Delacroix
Location: Chilbo Shells Plaza
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/80/100/116

On Tuesday evening, Poet Cecilia Delacroix will perform some of her favorite works in the Chilbo Shells Plaza. Cecilia previously gave a reading centered on a nature/seasonal theme in the Shrubbery Amphitheatre, and is memorialized there for donating the lovely backdrop of images that graces the area behind the stage. Beyond her poetry, Ceclia also enjoys wine, jazz, and running many art galleries in Islandia’s canal district in Second Life. Please join us to celebrate her latest poetry!

6 PM SLT - Virtual Artists Alliance workshop
Location: Chilbo Sandbox
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/197/20/93

Led by Rezago Kokorin, the premise of these sessions is simple: the host introduces a concept or technique that can be applied to building in Second Life, and the remainder of the session is dedicated to experimentation, using the concept or technique for artistic application. Rezago is an accomplished sculptor and photographer in both realities. The workshop sessions are very open and feature a lot of sharing of knowledge among the participants. It’s always interesting to see the variety of creations from a group of people all starting from the same point. Join us for some fun with the prims in the sandbox.

3 PM SLT - Virtual Worlds Day Panel - Fleep Tuque
Location: Shrubbery Amphitheatre
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/167/129/109

This panel will feature a discussion about the current state of virtual worlds and how they may evolve in the future. What do we hope to see? What would be a “bad” outcome? Panelists: Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, Olando7 DeCosta

Noon SLT - How does reading inspire your virtual life? (about 50 minutes)
Location: Shrubbery Amphitheatre
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/167/129/109

Olando7 Decosta (Roland Legrand) is not a professional philosopher, though he graduated in philosophy, but he still feels the urge to read some philosophers when he tries to make sense of his life as a Second Life resident. Olando7 will present some of his favorite thinkers in this context (Derrida, Deleuze&Guattari, Baudrillard) during 15/max. 20 minutes, and invites the audience to share their favorite philosophers and writers (also fiction!) and how reading throws some light on their virtual experiences.

Time TBD - Second Life Community-Building: What We’ve Learned - Tara Yeats
Location: Shrubbery Amphitheatre
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/167/129/109

This panel will take a look at some lessons learned that can make - or break - communities in Second Life. Potential focus on emerging plans for Mainland zoning and how that may impact existing communities and new ones. Panelists: TBA

6 PM SLT - Virtual Artists Alliance workshop
Location: Chilbo Sandbox
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/197/20/93

Led by Rezago Kokorin, the premise of these sessions is simple: the host introduces a concept or technique that can be applied to building in Second Life, and the remainder of the session is dedicated to experimentation, using the concept or technique for artistic application. Rezago is an accomplished sculptor and photographer in both realities. The workshop sessions are very open and feature a lot of sharing of knowledge among the participants. It’s always interesting to see the variety of creations from a group of people all starting from the same point. Join us for some fun with the prims in the sandbox.

Time TBA - Music in the Shrubbery - Tara Yeats/Leslee McCarey hosting
Location: Shrubbery Amphitheatre
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/167/129/109

Live performers throughout the day. Schedule to come.

Chilbo Town Hall Meeting Minutes - 7/13/08

In Attendance:   Fleep Tuque, Cosimo Urbanowicz, Monarchy Republic, Malburns Writer, Corcosman Voom, Tommy Brouwer, Emru Rau, Gem Blue, Tara Yeats, Gann McGann, Ra Deemster, Kim Link, Ryan Snook, Felicity Parx

-=  ACTION ITEMS  =-

1.  Send a friend request to anyone listed above who isn’t already connected to you!

2.  If your profile is not yet included on the Chilbo blog at http://www.chilbo.org/blog/residents/ - please contact Fleep asap to be included.  All active members of the community are asked to participate, as this helps new residents and visitors get to know us and find people who share common interests.

3.  If you can make it to Tampa, FL for the Second Life Community Convention, Fleep and Wainbrave will be in attandance and want to meet other Chilbo residents!   Register at:  http://slconvention.org

4.  If you have artistic items you’d like you sell, contact Emru Rau.

5.  If you have other items you’ve created that you’d be willing to sell, please set up a stall in the Chilbo Farmers Market so it gets more use/traffic!

6.  Visit the new Chilbo Planning Wiki to see how you can help contribute to the Chilbo Summer Fair, August 16 - 31st.  http://chilbo.wikispaces.com (Also linked from the main Chilbo website at http://chilbo.org)

7.  Residents with pictures and snapshots of Chilbo or activities in Chilbo, please contact Tommy Brouwer and Malburns Writer, they need images for an “Illustrated History of Chilbo” project they are working on.

8.  A new automated Bike Tour has been set up in front of the Chilbo Town Hall plaza.  Please send feedback to Fleep Tuque, she’ll be working on an improved version soon.

NEXT TOWN HALL:   SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2008  @  11:30AM  SLT

-= Town Hall Summary =-

1.  Introductions - Welcome new members!

2.  Community Reports

- ARTISTS:  Corcosman reported on the Art scene in Chilbo, suggests visiting Chilbo resident Douglas Story’s installation “EVil Nemesis” at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chi/118/36/22

- BUSINESS:  Emru Rau is interested in seeing more commercial activity from residents in the sim.  Discussed the use of the Farmers Market stalls, residents should include more things they’ve created for sale there, possibly opening another store on Chilbo Main Street for selling our things?  Emru would like to display artistic items for sale by his garden in Mujigae.

- EDUCATION:  Several classes have used the GUILD Academy in Chilbo for courses, and the Second Life Education Community Conference has used Chilbo as a temporary Headquarters leading up to the SL Community Convention in Tampa, FL this year.

- NONPROFITS:  Liz wasn’t at the meeting, not sure how the SL HIV Center is doing, hope to get an update at the next meeting.

3.  Donating Tier to Chilbo

- To donate tier to Chilbo, you must have a Premium account which you can sign up for at the main SL website http://secondlife.com.   In your account information, choose the level of “tier” you wish to have and select that option on the website.

- Then come into Second Life and go to Edit - Groups - Chilbo Community Building Project - Info button - Land tab - and type in the amount of tier you wish to donate (it will show you your maximum amount).

- IMPORTANT!!  If you ever wish to remove your tier contribution, please give us as much advance notice as possible so we can be sure to cover it if it is being used to support land we own.  Thanks!

4.  Chilbo Summer Fair

- Fleep has had some personal obligations come up preventing her from doing a good job organizing the Fair.  She asked for someone(s?) to volunteer to take over the organization.

- A wiki site has been created to allow the community to collaboratively plan for the fair.  The major building is mostly done down in Madhupak.

- The dates of the Fair were pushed back to August 16 - 31

5.  Chilbo in Other Virtual Worlds?

- A place on the Chilbo website will be created to include links or pointers to Chilbo residents/places in other virtual worlds.

6.  Communication on the Blog/Community Notices

- Chilbo residents can request an account on the blog and/or the ability to send Group Notices.  All communications through these methods should be a) spell checked  b) professional language (nothing inappropriate for work) and c) used to communicate things of interest to the community in moderation (an announcement and one reminder, for example).  We want to avoid spamming the community or sending/writing communications that don’t reflect well on the community, so professionalism is encouraged.

7.  Other/Announcements?

- Tommy Brouwer and Malburns Writer both are looking for images of Chilbo to include in some future community projects.  If you have pictures, snapshots etc. of Chilbo or activities in Chilbo, please contact them to see how you can help out.

- Monarchy Republic discovered that Chilbo means “seven treasures” in Korean, we’d like to figure out how to work that theme into the community in some way.  Any ideas?

8.  Meeting Adjourned, all took the new automated Bike Tour that is sitting in front of the Chilbo Town Hall plaza.   Send feedback about the ride to Fleep Tuque!

NEXT TOWN HALL:   SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2008  @  11:30AM  SLT

A full transcript of the meeting is available in the Town Hall.

-= Chilbo Town Hall Agenda - July 2008 =-

What:  Town Hall Meeting
When: Sunday, 7/13/08 @ 11:30AM  to 1:00PM SLT (PST)
Format: Text chat
Moderator: Fleep Tuque
Where: Chilbo Town Hall  SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/112/230/121

1.  Welcome New Residents - Friend Exchange!
2.  Community Updates:
-  Art in Chilbo (report from artists)
-  Business in Chilbo (report from business owners)
-  Education in Chilbo (report from educators)
-  Non-Profits in Chilbo (report from non-profits)
3.  Chilbo’s recent land expansions, auctions, and prim use
4.  Chilbo Community on the Web and in other virtual worlds
5.  Second Life Community Convention in Tampa, FL and in SL
6.  Announcements?  Other?

Following the regular meeting, a 30 minute planning session will be held for the Chilbo Community Fair scheduled for July 20 - 26, 2008.

In order to provide information for those who cannot attend, a transcript will be made of the Town Hall proceedings and distributed via group notice and an archive stored in the Town Hall.  If you do not wish to have your contribution included in the transcript, please IM Fleep Tuque to have your comments removed.  Openness is encouraged, however, as the Town Halls are considered public events.

Please send questions, comments, or additional agenda item suggestions to Fleep Tuque prior to the meeting.

See you there!

- Fleep

Fleep Tuque
Land Steward, Chilbo Community Building Project
Chilbo Landowners Association
http://chilbo.org
fleep.tuque@gmail.com

Hello Chilbo!

The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity as we clean up the sim in preparation for the Chilbo Summer Faire. The Faire will take place on July 20th through July 26th, and we hope you’ll help us get ready! But first, news from the sims…

Sidewalk Repaving Completed, New Lamps/TP posts

In order to conserve on the number of prims used for infrastructure in the community, a massive re-paving project was undertaken in the past few weeks. A pleasant brick-like path way was chosen and Scalar Tardis developed a ribbon-like lamp post with an illuminated column to replace the hodge podge of lamps around the sim. The old black and blue Teleport to Town Hall posts were also removed and incorporated into a banner that teleports the user to Town Hall upon left-clicking. Together these efforts saved over 380 prims in the combined sims!

Residents may want to check their plots to see how the sidewalk now connects. Some minor discrepancies may need to be fixed, since megaprims are much less flexible and difficult to work with. Please contact Fleep Tuque or Rachel Corleone if you need minor terraforming or adjustments at your place!

Banking & Exchange Kiosk

Situated just in front of the Town Hall, a new kiosk with terminals for Linden dollar transactions and the popular web-based Second Life shopping exchanges SLExchange and OnRez is now available for our residents’ convenience.

New Information & Events Kiosk Area

A new plaza was created south of the Shrubbery Amphitheatre & Park to display notices and information about live entertainment events in Chilbo or elsewhere. Residents, be sure to use low prim displays!

New Bridges in Madhupak

We’ve taken advantage of megaprims to attempt to connect the sidewalks on either side of the Madhupak road. If anyone can build a better bridge that’s more aesthetically pleasing, Fleep would love to know about it! Have a walk down south and check them out.

Chilbo Summer Faire - Fairgrounds going up!

Planning and development has commenced for the Chilbo Summer Faire, scheduled for July 20 - 26th. The Faire will showcase the many talents of our residents, have live events and performances, as well as games and exhibits. Come join us for a virtual summer faire celebrating community! If you would like to showcase a project or help with the planning, contact Fleep Tuque or Rachel Corleone.

Poet Cecilia Delacroix performed her first public reading at The Shrubbery Amphitheatre in Chilbo on Saturday, May 3rd.

Clearly inspired by the beauty and power of nature, Cecilia’s works centered around a theme of the seasons. Her first readings were a celebration of the rebirth, lush growth, and the playfulness all life feels in the new Spring. She then turned to the warmth of Summer, evoking the “salt breeze” of the ocean and and lazy carefree days. With “The Edge of Maybe” and the end of summer, Cecilia explores her search for peace with herself and the world, and in “September Lonely”, she perfectly captures the melancholy of Autumn. Finally, in “Winter Solstice” and “Fresh White”, she feels the solitude of winter and and the wonder of a snow-blanketed earth.

All an all an excellent and perfectly appropriate inaugural event at The Shrubbery Amphitheatre & Park! With many thanks to Cecilia for a wonderful performance and Rachel Corleone for arranging the event!

posted by Fleep Tuque on Chilbo using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Residents of Chilbo joined Lizzette Zenovka as she celebrated the opening of the new SL HIV Prevention and Education Center Annex at Tethea.  The main center is located in Chilbo, but the new Annex will provide additional opportunities for outreach.  “We’re working to fight the stigma of AIDS in Second Life,” said Director Lizzette Zenovka, “we’re all at risk.”  Chilbo resident Krystale Bailey will be hosting a fundraiser for the Center on the Modus Vivendi sim on May 24th and 25th.   We hope to see you there and make sure to stop by and check out the new Annex!   posted by Fleep Tuque on Tethea using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

The SL HIV Prevention & Education Center and the Chilbo Community Building Project are sponsoring the AIDS Memorial Quilt display through June 2008. Stop by to visit this touching reminder of lost friends and family, and view the prim quilt squares that have been contributed by Second Life residents from around the world. For more information, contact Lizzette Zenovka, Director of the SL HIV Center, or Jase Byrne, Caretaker of the Quilt.
posted by Fleep Tuque on Madhupak using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]


Chilbo Resident Scalar Tardis has filed a bug report on the JIRA - SVC-1905 regarding an issue with the collision tolerance of the new Havok 4 physics engine. Any physics projects that rely on things to be very close together may not move properly, or may not move at all with the new physics engine - so if you have any models or demonstrations with closely aligned moving parts, it’s likely to break when the rollout goes grid wide. Thanks for the report Scalar and if you’re a Second Life resident - go vote to get this fixed!
posted by Fleep Tuque on Chilbo using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Chilbo resident Lizzette Zenovka recently opened the SL HIV Prevention & Education Center in the Madhupak sim area of the Chilbo Community. The center works to promote HIV awareness and provide resources for testing and treatment to Second Life residents. “The Chilbo community lends itself to those who want share their passion and creativity to help the SL community,” said Lizzette. She is available for Risk Reduction Counseling and individual appointments for the Second Life community. Congratulations to Liz and the SL HIV Center! Stop by to say hello and wish her a warm welcome, and visit the new SL HIV Center Blog at http://hivpreventionandeducationcenter.blogspot.com/.
posted by Fleep Tuque on Madhupak using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]


Chilbo resident Wainbrave Bernal brought a Flock of Ducks to Chilbo during a workshop, I’ve never seen the sim so packed! After wishing warm welcomes to all the new folks, I grabbed a quick snapshot and got out of the way. Look out Second Life, the Ducks are coming!
posted by Fleep Tuque on Chilbo using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

 The Shrubbery Plot, acquired October 2007

We recently acquired a large plot of land in the heart of Chilbo due to the courtesy of a long time resident who gave us first option to purchase. Many folks have jumped ship from the mainland to hang their shingle on pristine islands with full control and and a larger palette for creativity. I understand it completely, but it makes me think of the future of the mainland. I wonder if it will be a relic in some way, as these virtual worlds evolve into other configurations.

  Creative framing of a griefer fireball left behind on deadhead land.

The key to the mainland is patience. It’s not a short term investment, it’s a long haul project. Deadheads who’ve abandoned their land more than a year ago leave us with all manner of artifacts. Some you never figure out how to integrate into the scheme of the community, others you decorate around and incorporate into the landscape. You’re dealing with many more personalities and needs/wants/goals and desires, but you also get exposure to new tools, ideas, ways of doing things, and you make friends in the process. Mainland really requires collaboration, cooperation. And it can work.

Chilbo overhead 12/10/2006 

Pardon if I’ve gotten nostalgic - this month marks the one year anniversary of the Chilbo Community Building Project, which began as an experiment of sorts. After being a member of a well established BBS community since my teens, I wanted to see how to try to do the same thing in a virtual environment. The initial idea was an almost simplistic mapping of the BBS “rooms” construct onto a 3D world. Build a jazz club for people to talk about music. Build a bar for people to chat and practice their pick up lines. Build a town hall to talk about community.  A museum for people to talk about art. Find others who are interested in the broader view of humanity, in looking at our own society and culture to learn from it, critique it, and improve it.

 Residents of Chilbo viewing Scalar’s Paddlewhack physics experiment in the Sandbox. 

But of course, virtual worlds don’t work like BBSs, it’s not the same thing. The BBS has easy tools for asyncrhonous text communication and Second Life isn’t so hot at that. (Notecards are the bane of my existence.) The draw for a conversation in SL may be the same, but not the the draw for _location_. You IM someone whenever you feel like contacting them, but you don’t necessarily want or need to invite them to where you are. The sense of presence with another avatar _is_ compelling, but only when you need/want a shared visual experience. The rest of the time, text chat is just fine, and feels like IMing someone you know in RL. The IM experience is _richer_ because you’ve “met” in avatar form, but you don’t always have to be in avatar form to do it.

Chilbo Layout Plan 11/2006 

So in some ways, the CCBP failed my initial expectations completely. The bar remained mostly empty, the museum took almost a year to build, and La Bella Dam might even have cobwebs. Rachel makes her rounds and keeps the place neat and tidy, but in large part, we’re all off elsewhere doing other things - me working on the UC island and trying to keep abreast of all the changes in the virtual world and educational technology in general, others doing other projects in other sims. Or just trying to keep up with real life.

But in most ways, the Chilbo community is nearer and dearer to my heart than any of my other endeavors, and it has been successful in ways I never imagined. It hasn’t exploded with vast numbers of people, but has taught me so much about what is possible with virtual worlds. It’s given me a longer view of Second Life, of technology evolution cycles and how to work past the glitches, and the patience to wait for growth opportunities and new partnerships.

Chilbo in October 2007

And it has helped me meet so many terrific people, either random visitors who stumble upon us or those who seek it out, it’s been great fun. So thank you all for a terrific year in Chilbo, for all the great adventures and events and conversations and builds. I’m really, really glad we met. And I look forward to seeing what Chilbo will teach me in the coming years as well.

I sometimes worry that Chilbo’s story is just my story. I know that isn’t true, but it seems I know everyone in the sim but everyone doesn’t know everyone else. Ra just met Cosimo yesterday when I’ve known them both for almost a year. How does that happen? When I look at this picture, I see all of the people I’ve met, I see their houses and projects and works of art in the sky and I know something about them all, and you should too. They’re good people.

I hope that these web pages will help us all get to know one another better through our words in ways that our busy schedules haven’t allowed us to do in the virtual world. Everyone keeps different hours and has so much to do, but we still find time, even if occasionally, to walk down the Chilbo street and notice the changes here and the familiar sites and old friends there. And if you get the chance next time you’re strolling the sidewalks of Chilbo, save me a dance at La Bella Dam.

Until then, have a happy earworm on me (via Baba of libsl fame).

Thanks to Fleep we now have another channel for communication and community building. In the spirit of ‘open-source’ community building, let me throw out a few characterizations. Only you can say if these are true to Chilbo!

—Chilbo might just be an ordinary place…its a place where people are comfortable.

—In Chilbo people put more emphasis on making themselves visible and available to others, and less emphasis on purely private pursuits.

—In Chilbo communication and respect come first — we think this is why you are on-line in the first place.

—No one in Chilbo will judge you for your personal culture — we’re just glad you are ready to share it with us.

—Chilbo is for fun…that’s why we all walk around with Chilbo (exclamation point) above our heads all the time.

This is a first blog post.  If you are a resident of Chilbo and would like to contribute to this blog, please contact Fleep in-world.  Include your preferred email address and as soon as your account is created, you will be able to post to the blog!

 - Fleep