The Chilbo Road Press

The Chilbo Summer Faire, a week-long celebration of communities and partnerships in Second Life, will kick off July 4 and run through July 11 — and everyone’s invited!

The following is a schedule of daily events and week-long exhibitions that will be happening throughout the next week. (All times are in SLT)

SUNDAY, JULY 4:

Chilbo’s Fourth of July Barbecue & Faire Kick Off Celebration
Time: 2-3pm
Location http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/132/49/96

The History of Chilbo Walking Tour
Time: 3-4pm
Location http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/112/230/121

MONDAY, JULY 5:

Party at the Greater Chilbo Zoo
Time: 5-7pm
Location http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soyeonpyeongdo/103/180/69

TUESDAY, JULY 6:

NCI Hosts Parade Float Building Blitz
Time: 4-5pm
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noru/100/18/138

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7:

NCI Toob Race
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noru/100/18/138

Eternity Sims Joust Tournament & Beginners Joust Class
Time: 6-9pm (Joust class begins at 8pm)
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noru/100/18/138

THURSDAY, JULY 8:

Relay for Life Storytellers Benefit Concert
Time: 2-8pm
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/82/53/103

FRIDAY, JULY 9:

The East River Community Presents Free Sailing Lessons
Time: 9am – 8pm
Location: TBA

East River Community Music Event at The RFL Storytellers Concert Stage
Time: 7-8pm
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/82/53/103

SATURDAY, JULY 10:

RacerX Gullwing’s Giant Snail Races
Time: 11am-12pm
Location: TBA

SUNDAY, JULY 11:

Chilbo Community Main Street Parade &
Operation Squeegee Fund-Raising Block Party
Time: 10am – 1pm
Parade Location: Route 10 (along Mangyeong, Chilbo, Kuwol, Mindulle)
Block Party Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/128/205/89

WEEK-LONG ATTRACTIONS & EXHIBITIONS

Community & Partnership Showcases
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/14/99/94

The Beauty in Chilbo Photography Contest (contest ends July 9)
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/22/235/110

Reflections of Las Vegas: a photographic sampling ~ Cecilia Delacroix
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/20/129/75

Carnival Rides & Games
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/150/91/105

Gem’s Bumper Car Track
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soyeonpyeongdo/33/227/86

The Beauty in Chilbo Photography Contest brings a new opportunity to see Chilbo through your unique lens. Contestants of all abilities are encouraged to participate and enter. The contest is open to all Second Life residents, and will run in conjunction to the Chilbo Summer Faire, which is from July 4-11, 2010.

Contest Rules:

All photos must be taken within the Chilbo and Greater Chilbo areas. (Sims: Chilbo, Madhupak, Mangyeong, Mujigae, Mindulle, Kuwol, Soyeonpyeongdo).

Chilbo Summer Faire Landing Zone: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/155/92/105 (Open your world map and look for the sims)

Winners are determined by the number of votes. A photo wall will be set up in Kuwol for viewers to vote on their favorite photo.

The photo wall will be set up on July 3 and will be open for votes from July 4-9.

Photo Wall: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/21/234/110

Winner will be announced on Saturday, July 10 at 1pm slt at the location.

Top 3 entries win Linden prizes. Chilbo Road Press (courtesy Cecilia Delacroix) will award $1000/$500/$250 to the top 3 entries.

Winning photos will be published in the Chilbo Road Press, and exhibited for the duration of the month.

To enter the contest:

• Embed your photo and a landmark of where you took the photo in a notecard.
• Rename your notecard to “CHILBO PHOTO CONTEST – NAME” and send your submission to Cecilia Delacroix. (Please make sure your photo texture is full perm!)
• Deadline for contest: 9pm slt – July 2

Good luck!

The Chilbo Summer Faire, a week-long celebration of communities and partnerships in Second Life, will kick off July 4 and run through July 11 — and everyone’s invited!

The Faire will feature daily events and special week-long exhibits to be held in Chilbo, a vibrant, diverse community of individuals engaged in activities and communities all over the grid.

“The notion of a fair began a couple of years ago when we were brainstorming ideas for something fun and summery to do,” says Chilbo founder Fleep Tuque. “What better way to celebrate and showcase all the great things in the community than to have a big community fair?”

All Second Life residents are invited to participate in the festivities, which will include rides and games, workshops, storytellers, live music, tours, builds and exhibits — even a parade.

Communities are encouraged to host an event during the week to showcase their Second Life sims or groups.

“Everyone enjoys some solitude to build or work on projects or be creative,” Tuque says, “but the best thing about Second Life is sharing the things you care about or the things you’ve made with others — and that’s really what the Summer Faire is all about. It’s an opportunity for us to invite our friends and neighbors to come see what we’ve made and to invite them to bring their own creations and show off their great stuff, too.”

The Faire will culminate in the first annual Main Street Parade & Best Float Contest, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. SLT on Sunday, July 11. The parade floats will be judged by the parade’s Grand Marshall and members of the Chilbo Executive Committee.

Communities are invited to participate in the Best Float Contest with a “wearable” float that best represents their community or organizational focus. Each float must contain a notecard that provides parade-goers with information about the organization and/or sim represented.

Following the parade, awards will be presented in a number of categories, including:

• Best Community Representation
• Most Creative Float
• Viewer’s Choice

Winning floats will be on display for the remainder of the day.

“Our theme for the fair this year is Community Partnerships,” Tuque notes, “because we all recognize that Chilbo wouldn’t be what it is without the networks of friends and communities we interact with and learn from every day.”

And how will this year’s fair differ from its predecessor — the first Chilbo fair held in 2008?

“We’ve had a terrific growth spurt since then,” Tuque says, “so we have much more to see and do than ever before. We’ve also improved much of the infrastructure in the community, so it should be easier to get around and find things.”

Communities interested in hosting an event during the Summer Faire should contact Calissa Leclerc.

All other questions should be directed to the Faire’s director, Chibi Lexenstar.

The website for the 6th Annual Second Life Community Convention is now live! The convention will take place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers on August 13-15, 2010. 50 Early Bird discount tickets have been set aside for those who register early. SL residents are encouraged to submit a proposal or volunteer.

For more details, visit the Second Life Community Convention website at http://www.slconvention.org

Last week, Fleep Tuque was a guest on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe to discuss the Chilbo Community and issues of governance in virtual worlds.  She discussed how Chilbo began, and reminisced about the early days of Second Life when Linden Lab behaved more like a government and less like a business.  Host of the show Paisley Beebe asked some interesting questions about the future of governance in virtual worlds, and what Second Life communities should do to provide more self governance.  Hear Fleep’s answers in the clip below!

Many Chilbo members attended the live broadcast, and we were also entertained by dulcimer player Avatar Quinzet, a frequent performer at The Haus in Madhupak, and Otter artist Scottius Polke who designs fabulous, fantastical creations at Lunamaruna.  Check out the show!

Images from the Virtual Praxis conference organized by
Chilbo Connect! member Ellie Brewster.

File in the “better late than never” category:

Friend, colleague and fellow Chilbo Connect! community member Sharon Collingwood (SL: Ellie Brewster) wrote an article in the Winter 2009 edition of  On the Issues: The Progressive Woman’s Magazine discussing the Virtual Praxis conference she founded in 2008.

The article discusses how the platform has become an empowering tool for women, and how the concept of community plays out virtually.

Community was at the heart of the presentations given at the Virtual Praxis conference (archived here). For the most part, speakers either explained how their own community has grown within Second Life, or they studied communities that interested them.

The article goes on to describe some of the presentations given at the conference, including Fleep Tuque‘s presentation about The Women of Chilbo.

Linda Rogers (known in Second Life as Kate Miranda) and Chris Collins (Second Life: Fleep Tuque) are founding members of two prominent Second Life communities, Cedar / Sea Turtle Island, and Chilbo,respectively. As Executive Director of the Toronto Philharmonia, Rogers was able to rely on her real-world organization for contacts in developing a series of live music events in Second Life. Collins, an IT analyst at the University of Cincinnati, relied on her own community, a loose association of online friends who moved from posted chat to virtual interaction and established Chilbo as an important cultural center for artists, architects, musicians, educators and others to gather.

The conference was a great examination of how virtual worlds like Second Life can provide additional tools to feminists and activists for many issues:

There are many possibilities for feminist organizing in this new virtual world, but there are also difficulties. The technology is developing very quickly, but there can still be frustrating systemic problems. Although use ofSecond Life is free, it does require a recent computer and a fast Internet connection. Some problems of accessibility and disability exist. However, organization at a grassroots level is growing and these small communities are now reaching out to each other to negotiate a larger social framework.

As in the early days of the women’s movement, this negotiation is taking place outside institutional control, and it is based on trust and cooperation. It is too early to make predictions on where this social framework will lead the citizens of Second Life, but the inherently egalitarian nature of this new technology could provide fertile ground for feminist activism.

Be sure to check out the full article and congrats to Ellie!

Historical perspective.. think how much has changed since this presentation was given – though the Women of Chilbo are still a driving force in our community, that hasn’t changed at all!

Take a field trip with the ISTE Newcomer’s Committee! Join us for a dance party and outdoor cafe at the Educator’s Resource Room in Greater Chilbo on the Mainland. Hosted by Maggie Larimore of the Newcomer’s Committee and ISTE Member Josain Zsun, the Chair of the Chilbo Education Committee. The Educator’s Resource Room is full of great freebies and other resources for educators. So come and dance, snack and “shop” with us!

ISTE Newcomer Social
Thursday, February 18th, 2010, from 5-6pm, SLT

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/128/48/2

On Tuesday, February 9th, the Insight Virtual College Community Centre will host a gala ball and auction benefit in hopes of raising funds to offset tier fees. All monies raised during the event will be used to keep the IVC free for all residents.

The event schedule:

3:00 pm to 5:00 pm DJ Bcreative Wilde
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm Auction!
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm DJ Dakota Christensen

Formal attire is requested. A copy of the auction catalog is up for view at the Education Resource Center:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/76/81/65

Location of the Gala Ball:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Insight%20Virtual%20College/40/130/33

The International Society for Technology in Education will be hosting a Newcomer Social tomorrow evening at ISTE Island.

Maggie Larrimore, a Chilbo community member who is affiliated with the organization, says it will be “a picnic/county carnival kind of thing with a merry-go-round and cotton candy…,” and that it is “a way for newcomers to get together, practice some skills and have some fun.”

The Newcomer Social starts at 5pm SLT at ISTE Island.

SLURL http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/128/128/2.

Information on ISTE can be found inworld at ISTE Island, or on their website.

Earlier today, two separate donations in the amount of USD$230.88 were made to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders organizations. The money, which was collected during the January 16th Chilbo benefit in Madhupak, was finally released and has been successfully transferred without incident.

Documentation of both donations is available by contacting Chibi Lexenstar. Please note that the donation heart is still available for those who wish to contribute inworld. You can visit the Chilbo Road Press office here to add to the ongoing contributions.