The Chilbo Road Press

The Chilbo Community held our first Town Hall Meeting for the year on Saturday January 8th.

Led by Kristine Kristan, members in attendance were Memorial Dae, Corcosman Voom, Bacon Hellershanks, Chibi Lexenstar, MS Hawker, Corky Myrtle, Maddog Easterling, Chimera Cosmos, Fleep Tuque, Polenth Yue, Mal Burns, and Ania Sapphire

We welcomed Corky and Chimera to their first Town Hall meeting. And later, new resident Ania Sapphire arrived as well.

Update on Land/Rentals

The new rental system is finally in place and the changeover went very smoothly. We did lose some residents due to the price changes, which was expected, but happily most folks understood the need for the change and chose to stay. We also already have new members and tenants. Kristine stated that the little bit of increased investment will hopefully keep members active in SL and the community. Big thank you to our commercial director Chibi Lexenstar and residential Director Maddog Easterling who worked so hard in the weeks leading up to the changeover to implement new move-in procedures and guides and also setting up the new Chilbo Rental and Real Estate office, a central location for the rental vendors as well as info on tier donation and private rentals and land sales.

Rental and Real Estate Office in Chilbo

One of the changes that came with the new rental system was the introduction of street names and addresses for those properties. This makes it easier to group nearby spots and locations. Some names are based on actual location (i.e., South Sandbox Way) and some are nods to our founders (Fleep Street, Cosimo Ave) . The main Linden roads that run thru the sims remain Route 9 and Route 10.

Map with Street Names 2011

Copies of the map are available at Town Hall, and the Chilbo Department of Public Works.

We’ll be taking suggestions for other street names in the future!

Looking Ahead for 2011 – What should Chilbo’s Theme be for this year?

What do you want for Chilbo, how can you help it get there? 2009 was a year of growth, 2010 was a year of outreach and partnership. Circumstances toward the end of 2010 began a period of contraction for the community in square meters but saw increased commitment from the core group of members both longtime and new.  The Theme of  “Sustainability” was suggested for 2011. Kristine Kristan hopes for a strengthening of the core of the community both in membership and geographically.[Planning a whole blog post devoted to that in the near future--kk]. Fleep also spoke about sustaining the community across the Metaverse/OpenSim by providing a Chilbo “starter sim” OAR file with opensource resources that anyone can load into their own or self-managed opensim install, and is building it out on Fleepgrid if anyone is interested in contributing.

Corcosman suggested folks put their suggestions for goals for 2011 on a notecard and submit to Kristine, which was agreed upon. It would be great if community members could format their card with not just suggestions for goals, but what plan or even what they need to accomplish them i.e., “I want Chilbo to become a more active community! To help accomplish this I’d like to learn how to host my own events.”

Kristine Kristan stated that her personal goals are to encourage a more active membership and mentorship, and also to stabilize tier to the point that we can reclaim the abandoned and “effectively abandoned” parcels in Chilbo and Madhupak.

Partial view of map showing abandoned parcels as well as parcels currently available for tier donation

Speaking of abandoned parcels, Fleep will be petitioning for the former Pyle and Assoc. property in Chilbo proper. While we are currently in “downsize mode”  the plot  was originally a community-owned parcel in addition to being both a prime location and having historic and sentimental value,  so it was agreed that Fleep should go ahead and petition to reclaim.

RP in Chilbo?

Members of the nearby community of Norcrest have visited Chilbo and met with Kristine, Chilbi and some other residents. Norcrest is an urban themed Role Play group and have various police and emergency services. There is a 911 call box currently placed at Town Hall Plaza (by the atms) that will contact their dispatch and be responded to in-character.

911 call-box near Town Hall

It was easily decided that it is a good idea for Chilbo to be RP-friendly, but to maintain some guidelines to limit disruption and to clarify that engaging is “Opt-in” so that community members don’t feel compelled to participate (as opposed to full RP sims where being in character is the default and sometimes even required).  Plans are to get with the Norcrest folks and perhaps plan some sort of ‘event’ that could include the RP aspect.

The Meeting concluded with a few announcements:

New Commercial Spaces at Chilbo Outdoor Market

Commercial Director Chibi Lexenstar installed two outdoor markets on Route 10 in Mangyeong and Kuwol that feature adorable market cart spaces for just 75L a week for 25 prims. Perfect for those looking for an outpost or not ready for a full size shop.

Street Dance Event

On Wednesday, January 19, from 10am-12pmSLT, we’ll be hosting a street dance on the street between Germelshausen and Mad Wax. The event will showcase artists from an indie label from Northern Ireland called Stampgevaard Digital. They’ll play mostly house/trance/dance music and will be selling songs and compilations. part of the proceeds from this event will go back to the community!

Community Partner Boards at Town Hall

The old Town Hall Plaza had quite an array of various info boards and kiosks and we wanted to have a space where community members and community partners such as Malburns and Tara Yeats’ Metaverse Week in Review can share information. Installed outside between the east entrance to Town Hall and the Chilbo Road Press building are new panels where info-giving posters can be placed.

Both short term events ads and general info can be posted by any community member.  Anyone needing help or an info-giver poster blank object, just contact Kristine.

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 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.

by Josain Zsun

Do you believe in Science Fiction?
Do you believe in avatars?
Do you believe you can achieve great things through an avatar?
Do you believe the single mindedness of a warrior can be changed?
Do you believe in the power of blind science and technology in the name of “progress”?
Do you believe there is more to Mother Earth than plants and animals?
Do you believe we are connected to Mother Earth?
Do you believe in change?
Do you believe there is more?
Then stop staring at this screen and go find a big silver one with this story to tell.

“PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.”

2Hr. 40 min.  Go prepared.

Great crowd and exceptional panelists!  Here’s the transcript for the Saturday August 23 session on community-building in SL:

Chilbo Community – Summer Faire panel on Second Life Community-Building: What we’ve learned

This panel discussion focuses on what can make–or break–communities in Second Life. What’s the “glue” that holds virtual communities together? What helps people get involved? What Second Life tools and features help or hinder the process? Today’s panelists are Sophrosyne Stenvaag of Extropia Core, and Fleet Goldenberg of Eduislands talking about the island sim  perspective. Panel moderator: Tara Yeats

—————————————————————-

Tara Yeats: Welcome to the first of two panel discussions about Second Life community-building.

Tara Yeats: We’ll be talking about what holds virtual world communities together, what helps people get involved, what Second Life tools and features help or hinder the process. Today’s session focuses on Island-based communities. There’s a second session tomorrow focusing on mainland communities.

Sophrosyne Stenvaag: wow, you’d think that’d be a fairly popular name…

Tara Yeats: I’ll start off with some brief introductions and we’ll hear from our panelists, then move to questions. For now, if you have a question for our panelists, please send it to me in IM – we’ll open this up for general discussion a bit later.

Tara Yeats: BTW, this will all be in text so you won’t need to toggle anything

Tara Yeats: First, to my left…. Sophrosyne Stenvaag is Director of Extropia Core, which describes itself as an exemplar of the future we want, today, where technology is used exuberantly in the service of beauty and fun. Residents are encouraged to govern their own affairs to the greatest extent possible. Extropia started in 2007.

Tara Yeats: Welcome Soph! To get things rolling, tell us a bit about Extropia – how did it get started?

(more…)

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.

What is Chilbo?

In the beginning, we came to Second Life (SL) out of curiosity, but we stayed for the promise of an open, collaborative, convivial space where we can grow our personal projects and form new relationships, friendships, partnerships, and organizations. Chilbo is just the place to fulfill that early promise with a minimum of distraction and a maximum of interaction and fun. Your ‘project’ might be anything from personal to professional, but if you want to pursue it ‘in public’ with the casual involvement of friends and neighbors, then you will want to settle into a place like Chilbo.

Chilbo is the name of the sim where our project began, and the “cultural center” of our community, but encompasses the surrounding sims and all of the people who collaborate on our projects, whether they “live” in Chilbo or not.

Chilbo is newbie friendly, part of our mission is helping new residents find their way in Second Life since we all remember those confusing early days.

Chilbo supports artists, musicians, writers, teachers, students, creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and those who are interested in contributing to the public good.

Chilbo is our home in Second Life. We may work or play in places all over the grid, but Chilbo is where we practice, experiment, relax, and enjoy the company of good friends and neighbors.

Community Organizations

The Chilbo Community Building Project (CCBP) is the organization that holds community land, defines community standards, makes agreements with tenants, and supports community projects.

The CCBP is a Second Life group that holds land in Chilbo and surrounding sims, currently Mangyeong, Mujigae, Mindulle, Kuwol, and Madhupak.

All community members are welcome to join the group. Membership allows you to create objects on community land, to become a tenant on a sliding scale, and to be notified of community events.

Members are encouraged to contribute tier to support monthly land costs.

The CCBP is owned by Fleep Tuque and Cosimo Urbanowicz. This means that they have put in the original capital to buy the land. Privileges currently held exclusively by the owners are: terraforming, land permissions; sales, purchases, and leases; banning; revisions of community standards.

There are practical limitations to group controls in SL that have lead to the ‘benevolent dictatorship’ form of government that Chilbo currently has. We are quite open to increased democratization, and anticipate that as the community grows, and as other residents develop a deeper stake in Chilbo, that the inclusive decision-making process we currently employ can grow into a fuller democratic process. In the meantime, we have taken the approach that we are all moving forward as a community in a very low-overhead, consensus sort of way.

The Chilbo Arts Foundation manages several arts and culture facilities in Chilbo, and supports arts and culture projects. The CAF is intended as a fully immersionist organization, or at least one that quite simply is from a place called Chilbo.

There are also various Neighborhood Associations. These are typical of SL, and are not a formal part of the project. If anything, we are just another (oversized) association member.

Land Use Intent for Community Lands

Second Life can be very asynchronous, since not everyone is around at the same time; this is just a reality of the medium. We have made a distinction between public and private uses with the intent of clustering the more active uses in the center Chilbo sim to enliven the community. More passive uses, visited by only a few people, are an important support, but we’ve located them at the edges to leave prims and traffic resources to the public uses.

The Chilbo sim will eventually be prioritized for public uses and some private uses that are open to the public and enhance the public experience. With the exception of some fascinating hold-outs and grandfathered uses, this means that walking around in Chilbo proper will mean walking past things that are intended for the public — that you might expect to be interested in, and certainly things you are invited to participate in. The intent is to keep Chilbo active with overlapping events and opportunities to interact spontaneously. We aren’t a centralized monoculture though — each build in Chilbo will be created and maintained by a fairly independent group of active people, with their own tastes and enthusiasms. You won’t see very many residences or other typical private uses. The experience so far has been that private homes either fall into disuse, or grow in size and prims to the point where they aren’t a good fit. We have tended to move residences away from the center of Chilbo, but if a resident had an active ‘salon’ culture going in their front room, we might want to move them the other way — toward the center of things.

Outside of Chilbo — NIC (Not In Chilbo)

This is where private and low-intensity uses go. Projects and residents that are new generally are located in NIC until they come up to speed and can better show what they contribute to the community. And people who want a workshop or an office, or a home, locate here to take advantage of Chilbo’s cleaner environment without being right in the bustling heart of things. Other benefits to the surrounding sims are that you can make more of a mess here — work on your stuff out in the yard without any worries about image.

Community Standards

The Community Standards are kept at Town Hall. Please forward comments and suggestions for future revisions to Fleep or Cosimo.

Membership

Chilbo is open. If you are interested in joining, you should hang around and talk to residents, and then find Fleep or Cosimo. We can give you a few months’ use of a mini house at no cost. As you settle in and sort out what you really want, we can usually find a more permanent location for you.

We expect long-term residents to help with tier, but we also have a few tier vouchers available on a rolling basis. Community service is encouraged, this includes keeping an eye out for litter, parcels for sale near our holdings, or other new developments that the community might want to know about.

Those with special talents in building, graphic design, scripting, or other content creation skills are invited to help develop Chilbo resources and facilities.

Community Facilities

These areas are maintained by Fleep and Cosimo for member or public use:

Chilbo Town Hall
Sand Box
La Bella Dam Jazz Club
Chilbo Market
Chilbo Museum Center
Main Street Newbie Stores
Public Parks

Community Projects

These projects are the works of Chilbo residents but receive support in the form of tier, land use, or extra prims by the Chilbo community:

GUILD at Chilbo
Chilbo Road Press
Second Life Best Practices in Education HQ
Reform Seminary
SL HIV Prevention Center
SkyeRanger Kiosk

Community Shopping & Entertainment

Businesses and shops owned by our residents:

Berlin Bar (entertainment)
Chilbo Flower Shop (garden and landscaping)
CoaPec Furnishings (furniture)
Lunicima (clothing)
SunQueen Creations (furniture)
Tara’s Retreat (park and gazebo)
The Loft @ Chilbo (art gallery)
Varsity Theatre (movies)