The Chilbo Road Press

Yesterday, the Chilbo community played host to a benefit concert and block party in an effort to raise funds for the victims of the January 13 earthquake in Haiti. The benefit raised over L$130,000 in funds with some 500 individual contributions made to the cause.

Ictus Belford plays to a crowd during the live music portion of the fund raiser.

The four-hour event was held at the Madhupak sandbox next to the Chilbo Museum, and was organized by MS Hawker, Chilbo Events Co-chair and Germelshausen Coffeehouse owner, with logistics by Chilbo Residential & Commercial Chair, Kristine Kristan. Kristine also owns Mad Wax Records and K2 Gallery in Madhupak. The Chilbo Road Press provided signage, and will oversee the transferring of funds to the organizations.

The first half featured music acts Kellee Blaylock, Ictus Belford, Avatar Quinzet, Untolerable “Bo” Bohemian and Johnny99 Gumshoe who performed 30 minute sets. DJ Chingy Chun of the Blackhearts Cafe played popular 80′s rock tunes for the second half. In addition to donating their time, all of the performers added their own contributions to the fund. Artist Tegan Jenvieve created a one-of-a-kind auction art piece that garnered additional money.

Artist Tegan Jenvieve creates auction art piece while Untolerable “Bo” Bohemian performs his set.

Several extremely generous contributions were made that ranged up to L$6,000, with event-goers continuously donating throughout the event. The set goal of L$100,000 was reached during the DJed portion of the event, and with 30 minutes left,  supporters dug deep and came through with an additional L$29K, easily surpassing the $L100,000 mark. Additional amounts were also donated after the event.

The L$100,000 goal was surpassed by the end of the show.

The donation heart will be left at the sandbox for the remainder of the long weekend and will be available for donations until Tuesday, January 19, when it will be moved to the Chilbo Road Press office for ongoing contributions. Those who would like to make donations can contact the organizations directly, or visit one of the many benefits that are being held this and next weekend around the grid.

All proceeds collected for the benefit will be split between the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders organizations. For the sake of transparency, documentation of fund transfers will be made available at the Chilbo Road Press office.

In an effort to raise much-needed funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, the Chilbo community will host a benefit concert and block party on Saturday, January 16 from 12-4 SLT at the Chilbo Community Sandbox in Madhupak.

The current line up includes Kellee Blaylock, Untolerable Bohemian and Ictus Belford, who will all be playing from 12pm-2pm. From 2pm, the sandbox will turn into a dance floor for the second half of the benefit as DJ Chingy Chun from the Blackhearts Cafe spins the deck.

Please join us for an afternoon of music as we try to raise $100,000L to donate to American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

There will be two donation jars set up at the sandbox for your inworld contributions. However, you can donate directly to the organizations as it is urgently needed.

For more information, please contact Chibi Lexenstar or MS Hawker.

Chilbo Benefit Concert and  Block Party for Haiti
Date: Saturday, 1/16
Time: 12-4 slt
Place: Madhupak Sandbox

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/120/216/2

If you walk by the charming adobe building in northwest Madhupak, you’ll likely be drawn in by the comfortable looking seating area, the delectable edibles displayed in the bakery, or by the friendly face of MS Hawker herself, on barista duty at the espresso bar.  Germelshausen Coffeehouse and Bakery is a relaxing comfortable hangout whether you’re a Chilbo local or a weary traveler from the grid. If you come by on a Tuesday or Thursday, you might be surprised to suddenly hear some great live music…but where is it coming from? Here’s a hint: JOIN US ON THE ROOF!

AMFORTE Clarity rocking the roof at The Haus

Every week, the rooftop at Germelshausen AKA “The Haus” has been drawing big crowds to see great live music in a realistic comfortable setting right here in Chilbo. Both performers and patrons enjoy the comfy cozy atmosphere, quality dances, and the friendly vibe created by your enthusiastic hostess, MS Hawker. The Haus has hosted popular acts  strum Diesel, PM Bookmite, Alex Parsons, Kelvinblue Oh, Engrama and AMFORTE Clarity – all of which will definitely be back in the future.

All week long, Germeshausen is a great place to meet new friends and old, have a cuppa and a nice chat. The Haus also has a new webcafe, and is Tiny Friendly!

Artists scheduled for the first week of October include Kelvinblue Oh, and Avatar Quinzet. Get notified of upcoming events (including something very special and fun planned for the end of October!), and the release of MS’s upcoming line of delicious scripted bakery goods,  join The Haus’ SL Group, or subscribe list by touching one of the boards downstairs by the bar or up on the roof.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/27/223/97

For those of you unable to attend the Chilbo Fourth Of July party, you missed a good one. It was a blast from start to finish.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s have a look:

The sandbox was prepared and fireworks tested

Party Planner Extraordinaire, Kristine Kristan, checked details

Monday Jinx worked the grill to keep the troops supplied with vittles

Tara Yeats and Malburns Writer said, "Let's get this party started!"

Where there is dancing, there is Rachel Corleone

Olando7 Decosta knows how to shake it

All during the party, visitors arrived and joined in the fun

Chilbo sim went offline and the party carried on

MS Hawker brought out her dance wheels

Ra Deemster shows his moves on the ramp

Tara and Mal floated up...or is it down?

There's Gem Blue in her fae gear!

Kristine Kristan, MS Hawker, Monarchy Republic and some guy

Fireworks? Three hours non-stop.

Mercalia added to the show

Oooos and Ahhhhs

 

Bangs and booms from up above

Thanks for all the hard work, Kristine and Monarchy. It was terrific fun.

Cheers to Chilbo community member L1Aura Loire who was one of the keynote speakers for the 2009 NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning.  Her  keynote presentation on March 25th, “Virtual Subjectivity”, was part of the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, which explored the impact of new media on teaching, learning, research, and creative expression, especially in higher education.

Picture courtesy of L1Aura Loire from her keynote presentation at NMC

L1Aura is the avatar of Dr. Lori Landay who is no stranger to higher education.   She holds multiple degrees and received her Ph.D. from Indiana University in English and American Studies.  Lori Landay is a recipient of the Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship at Berklee College of Music for her project, “Virtual Worlds” where she is exploring the possibilities for education and music in online immersive environments. She is Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and the author of Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture and various articles on new media, silent film, and I Love Lucy. 

L1Aura shared her virtual stage (wearing a stunning gown by Eshi Otawara I may add) at NMC with Nettrice Beattie who is the avatar for the real woman Nettrice R. Gaskins.  Nettrice is an artist and educator who bridges the actual and virtual worlds and explores how these realities can have a transformative impact on people’s lives.

Nettrice and Lori at NMC Symposium keynote address

If you did not have an opportunity to hear L1Aura or Nettrice speak live you still can check out their thought provoking presentations as documented on Lori Landay’s blog as well as the NMC’s website which features a variety documentation including machinima, slideshows and papers from most of the speakers who presented at the symposium.

Lori has smart ideas and a great sense of humor and has brought that persona into SL through L1Aura.  I am certain you will learn something new and inspirational when you take a read through her blog which covers many topics and links.  So when you see L1Aura around the  Chibo community give her a wave and a smile to brighten up her sabbatical in Second Life. 

Without a doubt, she has contributed to the community with her thoughtful discourse about the creative and social experiences we all share in one way or another in this virtual world.

Violetta Leshelle and Olando7 Decosta are building a living&meeting space in the far away Noru sim. The land is part of Greater Chilbo.

Right now you will find at Noru a box with the invitation for a French language virtual law seminar in Second Life, and if that is not weird enough, also a plane wreck.

The plane crashed nearby the main building without causing fatalities. No bodies were found and it remains a mystery who the pilots were.

Maybe you can find out? Visit the crash scene and tell the true story of what happened! More pictures are available on Flickr…

a plane wreck nearby the main building of the noru meeting place

On Saturday, November 15, 2008, Fleep made a presentation about “The Women of Chilbo” at the Virtual Praxis: Women’s Community in Second Life conference. You can hear a pre-recorded audio of the presentation or view/download the slides at Slideshare.net.

Many thanks to everyone who came to the talk, and to all the women (and men!) of Chilbo, who make the community what it is.

Chilbo Town Hall – November 2008

In Attendance: Monarchy Republic, Gem Blue, Fleep Tuque, Leslie Forager, Malburns Writer, Alleara Snoodle, Tara Yeats, Tommy Brouwer, Margarette Fouroux, Economic Mip, Sine Rennahan, Corcosman Voom, Lizzette Zenovka, Emru Rau, Rachel Corleone, Kim Link, Dno Vale, Ra Deemster, Telmea Story

1.  Welcome new members! Please friend new residents and first time Town Hall attendees:  Telmea Story, Sine Rennahan, and Leslie Forager

2.  Reminder – All Chilbo residents should complete the annual Chilbo Resident Census Survey 2008 located at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pHSojRbSnGxfHtk1IccQ5Jg&hl=en

We will be reclaiming community property currently in use by residents who do not complete the census by December 13, 2008.

3.  Community Resource Management – Committee System

Folks were a little overwhelmed with the graphics from the last meeting, so Fleep broke things down into smaller bite size chunks for easier digestion. 

Chilbo Executive Committee posters in the Chilbo Town Hall
It was determined that the best way to begin implementing the new committee system for managing community resources is to have members of the community volunteer for the committees they are interested in, and then each committee will meet prior to the December 13, 2008 Town Hall to determine the Committee Chair for that group.   The Committee Chairs will serve a term of 6 months, at which point we will revisit the issue and determine how to proceed.

To volunteer for a committee, visit:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pHSojRbSnGxeW73gUwPzwUw&hl=en

More information will be forthcoming about when the committees will meet for the first time, but the committees should meet and determine who will chair the committee prior to the December 13, 2008 Town Hall meeting.

Also, three other executive positions have been filled to assist with the overall management of the community.  These positions were appointed by Fleep Tuque, and will serve an indefinite term.

- Rachel Corleone, Director of Prim Management & Public Safety
- Malburns Writer, Director of Communications
- Tara Yeats, Director of Technology

These folks are available to assist the committees with planning, publicizing, and organizing their work.  Thank you to Rachel, Malburns, and Tara for volunteering!

Tommy Brouwer will also continue to serve as the European Ambassador for Chilbo, and if anyone is interested in serving as an Asian, South American, or African Ambassador, please contact Fleep Tuque.   The Ambassadors are simply good will agents to help welcome new Chilbo residents from these Real Life geographical areas.  Due to language, time, and cultural differences, we want to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Chilbo.  Please consider volunteering if you live in one of these places!

4.  Announcements/Other Business

- Fleep Tuque will be giving a talk about the “Women of Chilbo” at an upcoming conference on Saturday, November 15, 2008.  Anyone is invited to attend, and more information about the “Virtual Praxis: A Conference on Women’s Community in Second Life” can be found at:  http://events.jvwresearch.org/?p=49

- Gem Blue continues her experiment with the Time Wall in the Soyeonpyeongdo sim.  She has identified a bug in her time graphing tool and is continuing to debug it, and invites anyone who is willing to be a guinea pig for her testing to let her know.  (The Time Wall simply tracks the hours you spend in Second Life, it’s quite interesting to see how often you are logged in!)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Soyeonpyeongdo/13/240/121

Corcosman Voom curates a new exhibit in the Chilbo Museum Center

- Corcosman Voom invites the community to check out current exhibit in the Chilbo Museum Center.  There are several new artists represented in the exhibit, with a number of gorgeous new pieces.  Check it out!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chilbo/128/19/96

- Tara Yeats is about to have several rentals available in the Mangyeong sim, these could be either residential or commercial spaces.  If you know anyone looking for a rental, please contact Tara for more information.

- Lizzette Zenovka announced that she has had over 100 visitors to the SL HIV Education & Prevention Center in the past two months!  Rachel believes the Center might be one of the most active installations in Chilbo.  Congrats to Liz on this terrific milestone!   Liz has also opened a new Annex to the center in another sim, you can find more information about that at the main center in Chilbo (Madhupak sim).  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/44/201/90

5.  Additions, Expansions, & New Developments in Chilbo

Following the meeting, we visited two new developments in Chilbo.

Visiting Tommy Brouwer’s new Industrial Area in the Mindulle Sim

- Tommy Brouwer is in the process of creating a new Industrial Area in the Mindulle sim, including a new theatre and bar area, and a new store.   The decor is quite gorgeous and we look forward to hanging out in the new theatre and bar!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mindulle/102/24/113

Residents visiting Sine Rennahan’s new Nature Preserve area in Mujigae
- Sine Rennahan has purchased a largish plot in the NE corner of the Mujigae sim to develop a presence for the Arc of Appalachia Nature Preserve – http://www.highlandssanctuary.org/.   They are building a new museum for the center in Real Life and hope to model the facility in Second Life, as well as provide information and resources for those interested in nature and wildlife education, preserving the last temperate broadleaf forrest in North America, and living an ecologically sustainable life.  Congratulations to Sine for this exciting purchase!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mujigae/221/185/139

Meeting adjourned.

NEXT TOWN HALL:  Saturday, December 13, 2008 @ 11AM SLT

(A complete transcript of the meeting is available in the Town Hall.)

Meeting Summary for October 18, 2008

In Attendance:  Fleep Tuque, Foxnsane Ceawlin, Tara Yeats, Gem Blue, Malburns Writer, Babel Ballinger, Corcosman Voom, Alleara Snoodle, Economic Mip, Rachel Corleone, Oronoque Westland, Jez Braveheart, Birdie Newcomb, Tommy Brouwer, Krystale Bailey, Emru Rau, Gann McGann, Dno Vale, Valentino Tendaze, Lizzette Zenovka

Fleep Tuque gave a speech on the 2nd Anniversary of the beginning of Chilbo. In the speech, she discussed the tremendous progress Chilbo has made in the last year, nearly doubling the land holdings of the CCBP group, doubling the number of members, added a large public meeting space and a number of public resources and infrastructure projects like the sidewalk megaprims, increased tier contributions,  increased the number of community events and synchronous meetings, and held more Town Halls this year than we did in the first year.

Given this tremendous growth, Fleep laid out a vision for the community and suggests that in 2009, growth should not be the top priority, but rather we should focus on capitalizing on the resources Chilbo already has – great people, generous land and prim resources, and the capacity to work together to do good things, for ourselves, for the people who visit us, for Second Life, and for the real world.

To that end, she shared the results of the Chilbo Community Building Project 2008 Annual Land Census. The total square meters of land owned by the group nearly doubled to 80,448.  In terms of prim use, 23% is Residential, 19% is educational, 16% is Community Service, 13% is Art, Music, or Entertainment, 11% is Parkland or Unused, 9% is Commercial, and 9% is Public Infrastructure.  She also shared comparison charts with 2007 data showing the growth and allocation of prims and land.

In addition, the rapid growth of the community – both in terms of land and people – has resulted in an increasingly complex workload to manage all of the resources of the community.  Fleep proposed a committee structure to help engage more residents in the decision making processes and resource management tasks associated with running the Chilbo community. She provided a proposed organization structure and a workflow process diagram to delineate areas of responsibility and tasks associated with several key components of running Chilbo.

These documents are all available on the Chilbo wiki at http://chilbo.wikispaces.com and the community is asked to provide comments and suggestions prior to the next Town Hall Meeting scheduled for November 8, 2008 @ 11AM SLT.

Fleep has a draft prepared for the Chilbo Community Building Project 2008 Resident Census located at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pHSojRbSnGxfHtk1IccQ5Jg&hl=en – please review and send any suggestions or comments to Fleep.  Survey will go out in a few weeks, anyone who doesn’t respond in a reasonable time period will be removed from any community property they are using.  Exceptions for folks on vacation, having health issues, etc. will of course be considered.

Gem Blue announced the creation of her Time Wall beta project, in which she has created boards that track a person’s time spent in Second Life in a visual form.  Anyone interested in participating in the beta should contact her, and you can visit the Time Wall at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Soyeonpyeongdo/20/244/86

Full transcript and meeting notes have been sent to the group and are archived in the Chilbo Town Hall.

Following the end of the very successful Chilbo Summer Fair, we said goodbye to the Ferris Wheel and fabulous rides, artworks, and projects and made way for a new three month project in Chilbo.

Connectivism Village in Chilbo

The Main Gate of the Connectivism Village down in the south Madhupak area of Chilbo.

This month marks the start of the Connectivism & Connective Knowledge course, a Massively Online Open Course.  From the course info:

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. George Siemens (SL: Whatever Russel) and Stephen Downes – the two leading figures on connectivism and connective knowledge – will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course. The course will run from September 7, 2008 to November 29, 2008 and will be fully delivered online.

Over 2000 participants from around the world have signed on to take part, and several members of the Chilbo community are fellow students, including Gann McGann,  Olando7 Decosta, Samuel Sputnik, Sine Rennahan, Tara Yeats, and Wainbrave Bernal.  The Chilbo Community is hosting the Second Life cohort of the class, and Cosimo Urbanowicz has also joined some of the early discussions and helped with the construction of the Connectivism Village down in Madhupak.

SL Cohort Wiki: http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/Connectivism+Course+in+Chilbo
SL Cohort Googlegroup: http://groups.google.com/group/connectivismSL
SL Cohort Tag: CCK08SL

Second Life Cohort Weekly Meeting Times:
Tuesdays at 11AM SLT (-7GMT)
Thursdays at 6PM SLT (-7GMT)
Sundays at 5PM SLT (-7GMT)

Purpose of the Connectivism Village

Initially, the impulse was simply to see if other students in the course who also had Second Life accounts were interested in meeting weekly in-world to discuss the Connectivism course.  Though there are many communications tools used as part of the course structure, I’ve begun to feel I haven’t really “met” someone until I’ve “seen” them – even if that meeting and seeing takes place in avatar form.  Psychologically, it seems as if I don’t feel the same level of engagement with another person through their blogs, tweets, or discussion board posts unless I’ve “met” them first, and I was interested in meeting other students in the class.

Thursday is ladies night?  Members of the Connectivism course discuss the first week in Chilbo’s Shrubbery Amphitheatre.

But as I began to read more about Connectivism, I started to think that it might contain concepts that could be better visualized in 3D, and for SL building, the Second Life cohort would need land and prims.  After talking with folks in the community, we cleared up the Fairgrounds area and made room for a temporary Connectivism Village project that would last three months and house members of the course who needed a home base in Second Life.

Small mini-homes and offices are available for members of the Second Life Cohort of the Connectivism course for the duration of the class time.  Some students are interested in finding roomates!

The Fairgrounds area is also large enough to host some central facilities and resources for the course, to help make sense of the plethora of web based feeds, tools, readings, and course media.  The Connectivism Second Life Cohort Office will simplify the process of folks joining the cohort, and the Connectivism Reading Room contains all of the assigned weekly readings and some introductory materials for the course.

The Connectivism Reading Room can help students visualize course readings and discussion archives, as well as provide a place to discuss readings ad hoc through the week.

The Connectivism Course Tools Sundae Shop is a whimsical take on the somewhat overwhelming nature of the course structure.  With several websites, communication mediums, RSS feeds, and course emails, Moodle forums, Facebook, and on and on, it’s a little rough trying to figure out which tools will work for your particular needs.  The Sundae Shop is a metaphor for taking the flavors you like and sampling some of the others, not putting every choice on the sundae!

The “Menu” of various course tools in the Connectivism Sundae Shop.

Beyond the few buildings near the plaza, however, I think it will be the Connectivism Sandbox that will hold the most interesting content of the course.  Here we can play with models, particles, sets, artwork, media.. whatever strikes our fancy as we play with the concepts of the course and learn more about Connectivism.  For those who are new to building in Second Life, visit the Ivory Tower of Primitives for a walk through, self-paced building tutorial.  The Ivory Tower is a cultural institution of Second Life and shouldn’t be missed even if you’ve learned on your own!

An overhead view of the Connectivism Village in the Chilbo Community (Madhupak sim).

I look forward to seeing how the Second Life cohort of the course progresses, and I encourage anyone from Chilbo to participate or check it out!   If you have time to wander down, please say hi to any students you see too!   They are members of the Chilbo Community Building Project group and have the group tag “Chilbo Connect!”   ~  Fleep