Chilbo Town Hall decorated for Halloween

In Attendance: Maggie Larrimore, Polenth Yue, Corcosman Voom, Fleep Tuque, Rachel Corleone, Gem Blue, Kristine Kristan, Monarchy Republic, Silkorgi Farshore, MS Hawker, Mal Burns, Tara Yeats, Tomkin Euler, Skyeranger Pinion, Ra Deemster, Cecilia Delacroix, Kelp Parkin, Bacon Hellershanks, Chimera Cosmos, Lizzette Zenovka, Celestiall Nightfire, Chibi Lexenstar

The October 2011 Town Hall was very well attended and it was really terrific to see so many folks.  We managed to talk about quite a few things, renew and exchange friendship requests, and get the Town Hall decorated for Halloween.  Items on the agenda..

Chilbo Turns 5!  Celebration Planned for November 19, 2011

Members of the community are invited to dig in their inventories to find artifacts, snapshots, notecards, or other relics of Chilbo’s past to help us construct an exhibit on the second floor of the Town Hall.  We’ll be holding a special celebration Town Hall meeting on November 19, 2011 @ 11AM SLT with live entertainment and fun, so be sure to mark your calendar!  Some Party Planning notes:

• Leave your historical items on the 2nd floor of Town Hall to participate in the exhibit.
• Historical items that are stored outside of Second Life can be tagged with #chilbo5 and members are invited to contribute snapshots to the Chilbo Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/chilbocommunity/.
• Fleep Tuque asks if anyone remembered to beg MS Hawker to bake us a birthday cake for the celebration?
• We’ve added a 5th Anniversary Party Planning page to the Chilbo wiki for listing the details.

A very packed Town Hall meeting, discussing plans for celebrating Chilbo’s 5th Anniversary!

Update on Chilbo Community Land & Tier

Since our big downsizing in community land this spring, things seemed to be relatively stable and most folks are at a point where they feel more comfortable with their time and financial commitment to Chilbo.  Maggie Larrimore mentioned that she’s gotten requests for more rentals, and Kristine Kristan noted that several of the lofts are currently locked to renters.  Fleep Tuque will unlock some of the units and agreed a few more rentals should be manageable so long as the administrative overhead and technical support for the rentals remains low.  Monarchy Republic noted that the New Citizens Incorporated area on Chilbo’s Main Street is a great place to point newbies looking for help or rental information.

Maggie Larrimore also mentioned that she may be changing some of the style of buildings and architecture in the Education Village area since some styles seem more popular than others.

Mesh Rollout and 64m Prim Efficiencies?

Since Linden Lab rolled out mesh to the main grid, they also enabled the use of prims up to 64mx64mx64m.  We discussed if there are builds or areas of the Chilbo Community that might benefit from using these new larger prim sizes for greater prim efficiency.  Kristine Kristan noted that we’ve already replaced a lot of sidewalk infrastructure with mega prims.  All agreed to keep an eye out for areas in the community that might benefit from using the larger prims.

Rachel Corleone asked if all viewers could see the new larger prim sizes or if it was only specific viewers.  After discussing and testing it appears that ALL viewers should be able to view the new larger prim sizes, but not all viewers may be able to make them.  Tara Yeats reported that they can’t be made with the non-mesh Firestorm viewer, for example, though Fleep Tuque could rez them with the Imprudence viewer.

Rachel Corleone’s mesh church.  Users with a mesh enabled viewer
should be able to see it down by the ChilBowl Bowling Alley.

We also discussed the rollout of mesh.  Most in attendance at the meeting have not seen or used mesh so far, though a few people have tried it.  Ra Deemster , Tara Yeats, and Rachel Corleone reported that they picked up some mesh clothing, but Ra and Rachel had problems with the clothes fitting properly.

Rachel Corleone rezzed a mesh church down by the ChilBowl bowling alley for those wishing to test a mesh-enabled viewer.
SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/197/138/104

Tomkin Euler suggested a mesh sculpture garden for those creating new mesh items, Corcosman Voom identified land outside the Chilbo Museum Center that can be used if folks have mesh items to donate.
SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/139/39/96

Chilbo Sim in Reaction Grid to be Discontinued

The Chilbo sim in ReactionGrid will close November 18, 2011.

Fleep Tuque has noticed that the Chilbo sim on Reaction Grid has mostly not been used and asked the community if we should continue to pay for it.  Though the cost is only $25 USD per month, we agreed that most people are still not very familiar with Opensim and since it isn’t really being used we should stop paying for it.   Those who want to pack up their items should do so before November 18, 2011 when the sim is scheduled to be taken down.

Fleep Tuque to Give Opensim Workshop on October 22, 2011

FleepGrid is hosting an Opensim workshop on October 22nd @ 11AM SLT.

Fleep Tuque will be delivering a workshop to introduce Second Life users to the concept of Opensim – what is it, how does it work, how do I use it – all the basics!  The workshop will take place on her personal Opensim grid called FleepGrid on October 22, 2011 @ 11AM SLT.  To attend the workshop, follow these steps:

• Visit the FleepGrid website and click the link at the top to Create an Account on FleepGrid
• Download and install the Imprudence viewer if you don’t already have it installed
• Launch Imprudence, and click the “Grid Manager” button at the bottom, then click the “Add New Grid” button.
• Enter Grid Name:  FleepGrid  Login URI:  http://fleepgrid.com:8002, then click “Get Grid Info” and it should fill in the rest of the details.  Click “Apply” then “OK” to close the Grid Manager.
• Choose “FleepGrid” from the pull down menu and log into FleepGrid with the username and password you created.

The workshop should last about an hour and we’ll use Skype as a backup chat in case of technical difficulties.  Add Fleep as a contact on Skype, username “fleeptuque”, and send an IM if you’re having trouble connecting, or of course can always send an email to fleep.tuque (at) gmail.com.

Announcements

Chibi Lexenstar fixed the ChilBowl bowling lanes that were broken in a recent server upgrade – so the ChilBowl Bowling Alley is back in action.  Thanks Chibi!  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/234/108/102

Please welcome the SLOODLE Project to the Chilbo Community!  Run by Buddy Sprocket and Edmund Edgar, the SLOODLE Project integrates virtual world platforms like Second Life with the course management system MOODLE.  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/190/33/93

Praxilady Witt has just opened an educational center over the border into Kuwol from the ChilBowl.  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/58/12/84

Integrating Technology for All is picking up the big building near the AZIRE on Route 9 and will be teaching classes there.  SLurl:  TBA

Kristine Kristan was recently part of the San Jose 48 Hour Machinima project, their film submission is called “A Model Solution” and stars our very own Kristine and a cast of other characters.  Check it out!

The meeting was adjourned.  Next Town Hall scheduled for November 19, 2011 @ 11AM.

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 new Chilbo Town Hall decorated for the holidays.

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Maddog Easterling, Polenth Yue, Corcosman Voom, ReverendMathias Merit, Stargazer Blazer, Chibi Lexenstar, Emru Rau, Lyn Navarita, PJ Claridge, Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, Economic Mip, Monarchy Republic, Rah Rehula, Crap Mariner.  (Gem Blue and Rachel Corleone stopped by to help decorate following the meeting.)

First Time Attendees (please friend!): ReverendMathias Merit, Stargazer Blazer, Lyn Navarita, PJ Claridge

New Chilbo Town Hall Construction Complete

It took some time to complete, but major construction is finished on the new Chilbo Town Hall!  The new Town Hall features a more classic government building style with spacious interior and plenty of room for meetings and information about the community.  Upstairs are small offices for Chilbo administrators and a server room for hosting server objects.  The major construction was completed by Kristine Kristan, Chibi Lexenstar, Maddog Easterling, and Memorial Dae.  Corcosman Voom also contributed a lovely sculpture for the fountain outside.  Congratulations to the construction team!

Fleep Tuque Makes Important Announcements About Changes to the Community Governance and Financing Structure in Chilbo

Fleep Tuque gives a speech at the December Town Hall to announce important changes.
(Photo credit:  Crap Mariner)

Chilbo Executive Director Fleep Tuque gave a speech to announce several major changes to the governance and financial structure of Chilbo.  The speech is reprinted here with minor edits for clarity:

For the past four years, support for most of the land in the community has been carried by the group founders, myself and Cosimo Urbanowitz. This support has made it possible to have the things like infrastructure, public spaces and resources and subsidized housing and project spaces. We have worked very hard and tried to be as generous with financial support and time as possible to help build the foundation of the community we love. Chilbo has become something more even than we originally hoped and for most of us, we’ve called Chilbo ‘home’ for most of our second lives.

The time has come, however, for the Chilbo Community to move to a more self-sustaining model if it is meant to continue. Four years is a long time to subsidize the community at this level and both Cosimo and I are ready at this point to step back and help the community transition to a more self-sufficient system.

To help make this change a reality, we are going to be instituting a number of important changes.

First, if the community agrees, we’d like to appoint Kristine Kristan as the first “Mayor” of Chilbo to manage the day to day operations of the community. In the future, this position may actually be an elected position, but considering this is the first major change to Chilbo’s governance, we hope the community can agree with our trust in Kristine to continue to manage the community with the integrity and honesty everyone has come to expect. She has been filling this role for nearly more than a year, which a fine period of apprenticeship, and she’s now ready to sort of “take over the reigns”.

Second, in order for Chilbo to become truly self-sustaining, the majority of land and prims need to be supported by tier donation by each member for their actual use. For example, if you donate 512m of tier, you should only be using 117 prims.  Ideally, residents would also allow for a percentage of their donation to support infrastructure and public spaces, i.e., donating 1536sm for a prim allowance of 351 and then only using 300 or so.

It’s just simple math really, we want to do our best to continue to support Chilbo but over time more folks have joined and more folks are using more prims and..  So we need to make sure that the support for the community is as fair as can be.

Therefore, we’re proposing a change to the rental system. Unless there are strong objections, starting January 1, 2011, all residential starter homes and approved non-profits will have a new rental rate of 2L$ per prim per week.  All Galleries and Commercial spaces will have a new rental rate of 3L$ per prim per week. That’s not actual cost even still, but it’s a bit closer to actual cost.  And instead of going on a sqm model, it accounts for actual prim use. This would exclude the structures/buildings if we provide them.

In addition, residents who have been ‘given’ space in exchange for community service, etc., will be handled on a case-by-case basis, however unless a specific tier donor allocates to you, you will be asked to begin paying rent or to donate your own tier.

If you are a tier donor who donates more than your own usage and wish to sponsor a particular member, please contact Kristine with the name and amount (in sq. m)

Believe me when I say – This is not an easy policy to implement.   I am a terrible capitalist.  I would like to give the whole farm away for ever and ever.  Alas, reality.  ;)

Please remember that you do not HAVE to rent or reside in Chilbo to be a member and part of the community. All members are welcome to ‘set home’ at the community house, use the sandboxes, etc. And, in fact, if you are an infrequent user it is better to do so, so that we may allocate both space and prims to more active members and projects.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation as we move towards making Chilbo a truly sustainable community.

No objections were heard and the proposed changes will be in effect as of January 1, 2o10.  If you have questions or concerns about your tier donation or rental rate, please contact Kristine Kristan for assistance.  Note that on January 1st, all rent boxes will be reset, with outstanding days refunded. You will then have to RE-RENT your space within one week (by Jan 7) at the new rate to maintain your space.

Changing Group Roles/Permissions to Streamline Roles & Grant Event Hosting Permissions to All Chilbo Residents

All regular Chilbo residents will be granted the ability to host events.

As part of these changes, the Chilbo Community Building Project group roles are being revised to streamline the roles, reduce duplications, and make it clearer and easier for community members to do what they need to do.  For a full breakdown of the proposed changes, see the Group Roles page on the Chilbo wiki.  In summary, the new roles, in order from least permissive to most permissive, will be as follows:

• Role Name:  Everyone

This role is intended for anyone involved with or interested in keeping in touch with the Chilbo Community. Members of the group who do not wish to receive group notices can set that option in their viewer. This replaces the “Everyone” and “Potential Resident” roles in the previous system.

• Role Name:  Resident

This role is the default role for normal members of the Chilbo Community. Residents often rent group land or perhaps own their own land but are generally involved with the community.  Residents will now be able to host events on group land.

• Role Name:  Donors

Donors are members of the community who donate tier to support group land. They receive additional land and parcel powers in recognition of their contribution, and to help perform maintenance and other community services. This replaces certain functions of the “Contributor” and “Maintenance” roles from the previous system.

• Role Name:  Event Manager

These folks run and manage events that take place on community owned land. This role is reserved for people who need the ability to perform certain security functions such as freezing and ejecting troublemakers or returning litter or griefer objects. It is important to note that these powers should not be used for any other purpose than to manage events, classes, or workshops. This replaces certain functions of the “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.

• Role Name:  Communications

This role is reserved for members of the community who are authorized to send group notices and announcements. It is a fine line between promoting an event or cause and “spammming” our community members, so folks with this role are expected to use good judgement about how many and how often to send notices. In addition, notices to the community should always use professional language and be proofed for spelling and typos.

• Role Name:  Land Managers

This role is reserved for members of the community who are authorized to manage specific parcels of community owned land. It is important that a land manager only exercise these powers on land parcels they have agreed to manage. Even if a particular permission CAN be used on any group land does not mean it SHOULD be used on any group land. This role replaces certain functions of the “Contributor”, “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.

• Role Name:  Chilbo Admin

This role is reserved for administrators who are responsible for managing the Chilbo Community as a whole. This role also may enforce CCBP community standards by removing or banning Second Life members who persistently and egregiously violate them. This role replaces certain functions of the “Contributor”, “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.

• Role Name:  Owner

This role is reserved for the founders and owners of the Chilbo Community Building Project group, Fleep Tuque and Cosimo Urbanowicz.

The changes to Group Roles and Permissions is currently being implemented and it may take some trial and error to get everyone situated into the proper roles.  Thanks in advance for your patience as we transition to the new system.  If for some reason you are suddenly unable to do something you could do before, please contact Fleep Tuque or Kristine Kristan and we’ll be happy to assist you. Our goal is not to reduce anyone’s permissions from previous levels, but rather to extend permissions and flexibility for our residents where it is safe to do so.

Fleep Tuque to Focus Efforts on Extending Chilbo Community in OpenSim Grids

Fleep Tuque invites Chilbo members to check out FleepGrid (OpenSim)

One of the benefits of Kristine Kristan taking over the management of day-to-day activities in Chilbo in Second Life is that is will allow Fleep Tuque to focus her energies on extending the Chilbo Community in OpenSim Grid.  Fleep feels that the use of OpenSim has grown considerably in the last year and hopes to extend our community network beyond the borders of the Second Life world in a number of OpenSim grids.  Soon she hopes to add new pages to the Chilbo website and wiki to document our progress and explorations of the OpenSim metaverse.  She also invites members of the Chilbo Community to practice using OpenSim by visiting her private test grid, FleepGrid.

To create an account, visit: http://fleepgrid.dyndns.org:8002/wifi/
(Note that accounts must be approved so you should receive an email when your account is available for use.)

Then download a Third Party Viewer client that supports OpenSim, Fleep recommends the Imprudence/Kokua viewer.  Enter the following information into your viewer’s Grid Management options:

Name: FleepGrid
LoginURI: http://fleepgrid.dyndns.org:8002

You should then be able to log into FleepGrid and experience the wonders of OpenSim!  FleepGrid is HG 1.5 i6 enabled for those who want to explore HyperGriding.

Chilbo Welcomes Insight Virtual College

Insight Virtual College moves to Chilbo!

Though most of the meeting was taken up by the changes and announcements, we don’t want to neglect to mention a very warm Chilbo welcome to the faculty and staff of Insight Virtual College who have recently relocated their campus to the Chilbo Community.  Be sure to visit IVC in Kuwol and we look forward to taking advantage of the many terrific classes they offer covering both Second Life and other real world skills.  For more information contact the Dean of IVC, Stargazer Blazer.  SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/75/36/84

Public Flurbils Playground Opens @ Mushtopia

Polenth Yue opens public Flurbils Playground in Mindulle

If anyone is into Flurbils, Chilbo resident Polenth Yue has opened a public playground over at Mushtopia in Mindulle.  The tiny little furball Flurbils run around and do all sorts of cute things.  Be sure to check out all the other wonderful games and activities at Mushtopia, too, including 7 Seas Fishing, a giant chess board, and much more!  Thanks Polenth!  SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mindulle/181/93/120

Meeting adjourned, next meeting scheduled for:  January 8, 2011 @ 11AM SLT

Contribute an Ornament and Gift to the Community Christmas Tree!

Gifts and ornaments are already starting to appear on the Chilbo Community Christmas Tree..

Following the meeting, many residents stayed behind to help decorate the Town Hall for the holidays.  Thanks to everyone who helped!  As is our tradition, members of the community are encouraged to contribute a (low prim) ornament and gift to the Community Christmas Tree!

Happy Holidays to all!

Some new storefronts designed by resident extraordinaire, Kristine Kristan.

The previous Town Hall has been removed to make way for a newer, more functional space.

Want to learn more about the revitalization plans? Read the Chilbo Wiki here.

In Attendance: Kristine Kristan, Fleep Tuque, Josain Zsun, Rachel Corleone, Polenth Yue, Maddog Easterling, Tara Yeats, Malburns Writer, Corcosman Voom, Chibi Lexenstar, MS Hawker, Rah Rehula

First Time Attendees (please friend!): LilTank Thibedeau

Chilbo Contributes to SLCC10 in a Big Way!

Chilbo residents Olando7 Decosta, Tomkin Euler, and Fleep Tuque at SLCC10.
Image used with permission from Gray Beam.  All rights reserved.

Chilbo residents made a significant contribution to the success of the the Second Life Community Convention 2010 in Boston, MA on August 13-15th – we organized, attended, sponsored, built, moderated, and presented in true community fashion!  Fleep Tuque, Olando7 Decosta, Aquiel Aero, and Tomkin Euler attended in person, and in April, Fleep Tuque helped form the Board of Directors of AvaCon, Inc., the nonprofit organization that organized the 2010 convention.   Kristine Kristan also played a key role in this year’s convention by helping moderate and oversee the in-world portion of the conference, and JB Hancroft and Memorial Dae assisted with the in-world building and construction.

In addition to helping organize and run the event, the Chilbo Community at large also contributed funds to sponsor the convention with a 1/4 page ad in the printed program (PDF, pg 27) , and ink pens with the Chilbo logo that were included in the conference goodie bags.   Many thanks to the Chilbo residents who donated to fund the sponsorship, including:  Toster Oh, Kristine Kristan, MS Hawker, Sunhi Mistwalker, Douglas Story, Chibi Lexenstar, Riall Caprioni, JB Hancroft, Baker Bloch, Lizette Zenovka, Preston Exonar, Tara Yeats, Herne Diker, Gann McGann, JW Steampunk, SkyeRanger Pinion, Fleep Tuque, and Morse Dillon.

Want a Chilbo pen of your very own?  Send your RL mailing address to Fleep Tuque and she’ll send one out via postal mail!

Chilbo Town Hall Remodel & Route 10 Renovation Project

Chilbo Residents – Click here to take the Survey!

Answer 5 short questions to provide your feedback about the new Town Hall and Route 10 Shopping experience!

We’ve been discussing how our community has changed and grown over time and based on feedback from the 2009 Chilbo Census and other conversations, we think it’s time the Chilbo Town Hall and Main Street (Route 10) got some attention.  The Chilbo Town Hall building was plunked down sometime in early 2007.  The structure was created as an apartment building, and it happened to be the largest structure Fleep had in her inventory at the time, but after gutting the inside and doing the best we could with something that was never designed to be used as a Town Hall, it is perhaps time to create something that better meets our needs.

Chilbo Town Hall circa 2008.

Comments from the meeting included the need to reduce the number of textures required to load, reducing overall visual clutter, moving some of the information currently in the Town Hall to other locations (library?  new places), the need for the new design to be as accessible and tiny friendly as possible, and making the Town Hall more useful both for new people looking for information about the community and existing residents.

Chilbo Main Street (Route 10) circa 2008.

In addition to the Town Hall building itself, the Main Street of Chilbo on Route 10 has many cute stores and shops, but they cater largely to newbies and visitors rather than meeting the needs of our own citizens. We are discussing 1) evicting the stores that are owned by folks who no longer really participate in the Chilbo Community, 2) moving the newbie stores down Route 10 into the Mindulle sim, which is a target for new zoning and newbie engagement and 3) replacing the newbie stores with shopping that meets the needs of our current residents as well as our visitors. This may include higher end brands and known stores (revenue generation from rent) or shops run by Chilbo residents that meet a high standard for quality.

Comments from the meeting include being sure to enforce prim limits and charge rent based on fair market prices, a suggestion to survey Chilbo residents about their current shopping patterns and needs, and a discussion about which structures should stay or go.

To add your voice to the discussion take the quick 5 question survey and make contributions to the Town Hall Remodeling & Main Street Revitalization project page on the Chilbo wiki.

Fleep provided an example of a classic civic building as something
perhaps to model the new Chilbo Town Hall after…

Following the meeting, we went down to the Mad Sandbox to look at potential Town Hall models.  Fleep provided an example of a classic government building structure and we decided to brainstorm along these lines.

Fancy That Furniture

Fancy That Furniture & Accessories has gorgeous, low prim home and office furnishings…

Chilbo residents Chibi Lexenstar and Kellee Blaylock have opened a new furniture store to serve as an anchor in the budding commercial area in the Mindulle sim on Route 10.  Fancy That Furniture & Accessories features low prim furniture with professional textures and animations, and a whole lot of style!   SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mindulle/95/52/117

WTNK New Radio Station in Chilbo

WTNK Internet Community Radio moves to the Madhupak sim in Chilbo..

Chilbo welcomes new resident LilTank Thibedeau and WTNK Radio to the community!  Located in the Madhupak sim, the WTNK Radio HQ broadcasts online 27/7.  From the WTNK website:  “Our emphasis is to bring together the community through music and news.  Bringing you the best in Soul and house music online and from various virtual worlds.” Sounds like a perfect fit for Chilbo!  Welcome Tank!  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/61/191/89

RedCat Ink Writing & Editing Services

The RedCat Ink office opened recently in the Madhupak sim.

New resident Maximillian Adderstein (Maxi for short) recently established a new office in the Madhupak sim.  RedCat Ink offers Editing & Formatting services, such as advertisements, book editing, copyediting, and proofreading, as well as other writing services such as business letters and memos, eNewsletters and eblasts, manuals, presentations, and proposals.   Be sure to say hi to Maxi and stop by the office for all your writing and editing needs!  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/116/153/75

El Roto Exhibit & Social Center Opens

The El Roto Exhibit & Social Center features cartoon artist Andres Rabago Garcia.

The El Roto Exhibit & Social Center recently opened in the Chilbo sim.  Managed by new Chilbo resident Mia Denneny, the exhibit features the work of Andres Rabago Garcia, also known as “Ops” and “El Roto”, a cartoonist and artist born in Madrid, Spain in 1947.   SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/232/15/92

Announcements & Other

Malburns Writer mentioned a new Second Life profile service called 2ndHub that provides space to connect with other Second Life residents.  From their website:  “2ndhub™ provides central place for discovering, connecting and sharing your Second Life© world experience with your friends and associates. We provide multple profile types, fun social networking, quality group & business tools, along with a directory for SL people and businesses!”

The meeting adjourned at 12:24pm.  The next Chilbo Town Hall is scheduled for 11AM SLT on September 11th.  Full transcript available in the Chilbo Town Hall.

In Attendance: Kristine Kristan, McDaniel Sixpence, Gem Blue, Rachel Corleone, Alleara Snoodle, Corcosman Voom, Zedd Zeplin, Chibi Lexenstar, Polenth Yue, Maddog Easterling, Tara Yeats, Rubaiyat Shatner, Malburns Writer, Josain Zsun

First Time Attendees (please friend!): McDaniel Sixpence, Rubaiyat Shatner

Chilbo Annex Placement & Content Finalized – Sim Liaisons Needed!

Based on previous discussions, Kristine Kristan and Chibi Lexenstar developed a model Chilbo Annex building that will serve as outreach posts in the sims of Greater Chilbo.   The first Chilbo Community Annex location was placed in the Mindulle sim located at:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mindulle/116/64/118

The first model Chilbo Community Annex in the Mindulle sim.

Inside the Annex, we’ve placed content suggested by the community, including the Community Directories, freebies, texture packs, the Chilbo Resident Welcome Kit, calendars, posters, and more.  Visit the Annex to pick up a copy of any goodies you might have missed!  The space also features comfortable seating for a chat, and shelving to hold sim servers and other functional objects that can be housed in the Annex facilities.

Fleep Tuque and Memorial Dae discuss the meaning of Chilbo
in the Mindulle Annex.

Barring any last minute changes to the structure or the content, the rest of the Chilbo Annex locations will be placed in host sims around Greater Chilbo over the coming weeks (see the map upstairs in the Chilbo Town Hall for other proposed locations).  Gem Blue, Zedd Zeplin, and Chibi Lexenstar are going to work on locating a reasonable spot for an Annex in the Soyeonpyeongdo sim, and we decided to keep the historical structure in Madhupak, with some minor changes to the doors to make the space more friendly and welcoming.

Maddog Easterling has volunteered to serve as the steward for the Kuwol Annex – but more volunteers are needed!  If you’d be willing to help keep the Chilbo Annex in your sim up-to-date and be an ambassador to folks in the local neighborhood, please sign up on the volunteer form!  It’s a great way to support the Chilbo Community and meet more folks in the area.

Incorporating Feedback from the Annual Land & Resident Census

A current proposal would limit the use of the subsidized newbie starter homes to
one calendar year to encourage more investment in the community.

Based on the data and comments from the Annual Land & Resident Census, we discussed several potential changes to more closely reflect the goals and needs of the community.  Some of the proposed changes include:

• To limit the use of the starter home/offices subsidized by the Chilbo Community to one calendar year. This would encourage folks who decide Chilbo is a good fit to invest in the community by buying land nearby or renting from other community members, while freeing up the newbie starter homes for new members.   In order for this to work, though, we need to provide an effective and easy way for people to transition from the starter homes to .. tier donors?  land owners?  rentals from other members?  This isn’t yet clear.  Thoughts about good ways to communicate this information or facilitate transitions?

• To encourage greater use of the Chilbo group chat feature. The majority of respondents to the Census indicated that they knew some Chilbo members, but not many or not well.  We want to encourage greater “network effects” among community members, and utilizing the group chat is a free and easy way to talk more amongst ourselves.  For those who find the group chat distracting, closing the group IM tab/window will eliminate the chat, and it can be re-opened at any time during the login session to get back into the discussion.

• To reduce group notices and consolidate “event announcements” to a weekly summary. Some felt that group notices were coming too frequently, so we’re trying to find the right balance between keeping folks informed about what’s going on and not spamming everyone with unnecessary reminders.   Though this in some way conflicts with other feedback from the Census that people want more reminders.    We’ll keep trying different combinations until we strike just the right amount!

• To encourage more discussion events, art events, commercial activity, and non-profit organizations in the community. Feedback from the Census indicated that people would like to see more of these types of events and spaces, so Committee Chairs and Members should perhaps focus on ways we might increase this kind of content.  We have many great spaces in the community for holding events, let’s use them!

Have thoughts or input about these proposed changes?  We’ll discuss next steps at the May 15th Town Hall, be sure to attend!

Linden Lab’s New Mainland and Machinima/Snapshots Policies

As part of the new Terms of Service (which everyone should read!), Linden Lab also announced new policies covering the Mainland, and governing the creation of Machinima/Snapshots on the grid.  We didn’t find anything particularly controversial about the Mainland policies, but discussed how the Chilbo Community should handle permissions about making machinima or taking pictures on community land.   The proposal:

• Chilbo Community land should have a blanket “Machinima/Snapshots allowed” policy. Private landowners can set their own preferences in land description, but we encourage openness where possible.

Everyone thought this was an agreeable approach, but we wanted to give those who couldn’t attend the meeting an opportunity to weigh in.  Unless objections are voiced at the next Town Hall meeting, we’ll probably begin updating the descriptions in the “About Land” settings for community property giving blanket permission to film and take snapshots on public lands owned by the CCBP group, and leave it up to private landowners how they want to handle things on their own property.

Chilbo Summer Fair 2010

Chilbo Summer Fair Grounds in 2008

The Chilbo Summer Fair is intended to be a celebration not just of the Chilbo Community, but also other communities in Second Life.  Previous iterations of the fair included workshops, panel discussions, events, fair rides, and lots more.  It’s basically a community-wide celebration of our residents, our projects, and all the things we love about Second Life!

With the European MetaMeets conference taking place in May, and the Second Life Community Convention taking place in August, we decided that July would be a good month to hold the Fair.    Exact dates and duration (do we do it over a weekend?  Run it for a whole week like last time) are still up in the air, and we decided it would be best to hold a separate planning meeting for those who are interested in participating.  Ideally, everyone in the community would contribute at least one event, build, or activity, and we’d like to invite our friends, neighbors, and groups from across the grid to participate too!

Save the Date!
Chilbo Summer Fair 2010
Planning Meeting
Saturday, April 24, 2010
@ 11AM SLT
Chilbo Town Hall

Please join us next Saturday to plan a terrific celebration of Chilbo!

Second Life Community Convention 2010 – Boston, in August!

Fleep Tuque announced that she has accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the organization that runs the Second Life Community Convention, a real life meet-up of Second Life residents.   Though we’re still negotiating details regarding venue and dates, the SLCC this year will definitely take place in Boston, and probably the weekend of August 6th – 8th.  More details coming soon, and Fleep invited any Chilbo residents who want to help with SLCC either in Boston or the in-world conference to let her know as soon as possible.  More info to come soon!

Community Partnership Updates

In keeping with this year’s theme of “Building Community Partnerships”, we have a number of partnership initiatives getting off the ground with other groups on the grid.  Updates on our current partnership projects include:

New Citizens Incorporated (NCI)

NCI InfoHub under construction on Route 10 in Chilbo sim.

Chilbo resident Tomkin Euler was unable to attend the Town Hall on Saturday, but he sent an update regarding the InfoHubs being installed on Route 10 in Chilbo, and Route 9 in Madhupak sims.  Much progress has been made on the Madhupak InfoNode, and construction has begun in Chilbo as well.  He’s working with Winry Carver and Jason Arun at NCI for the construction, and asks folks to please stop by and have a look.   Be sure to send any questions, comments, or feedback to Tomkin!

Metanomics

The Chilbo Community is now listed as an official Event Partner at the
Metanomics Event Partner landing hub.

Things seem to be going well with the weekly Metanomics broadcast from the Malburns MetaHub in Chilbo (SL) and on Reaction Grid, though we’ve had some technical difficulties on the Chilbo sim in Reaction Grid.  Malburns Writer reported that things have been a little unstable over there, but the broadcast from Reaction Grid went much more smoothly this week.  Tara Yeats is going to follow up with the Metanomics team to see about getting the Chilbo logo included on their website and at the main Metanomics landing spot.  Thanks Mal and Tara!  [Update:  It took Fleep so long to write this post that the Metanomics Event Partner hub has already been updated with a LM to Chilbo!]

East River Community

Overhead view of the East River Community on the Mainland.
Inset:  ERC Community Manager Jilly Kikuchiyo and Fleep Tuque discussing partnerships.

We’ve had some previous discussions with Indigo Mertel of the East River Community, which is also located on the Mainland, but have not yet established if a partnership of some sort would be beneficial to our communities or what form it might take.   Fleep Tuque has been a bit overwhelmed lately and asked if any volunteers might be willing to take up the conversation and see where it leads.  If interested, please let Fleep know!

Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS)

The City of Neufreistadt, a member of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators.

Fleep Tuque had an interesting conversation with Claude Desmoulins of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators regarding community governance models in the wake of the Governance in Virtual Worlds conference.  They tossed about the idea of hosting some kind of discussion or forum about self-governance, or perhaps a workshop about community building.  Rubaiyat Shatner mentioned that he has been a member of CDS for years and said he might be able to help facilitate the conversation, though he’s pretty busy too.  You can visit the town of Neufreistadt or visit the CDS website to learn more.  We’ll follow up with Claude and see where the conversation takes us.

Edloe

Fleep Tuque visiting the lush and lovely lands of Edloe.

Kristine Kristan volunteered to strike up a conversation with Crap Mariner about ways that our two communities might partner to host events or otherwise provide connections or benefits to our respective memberships.  Edloe is not on the Mainland, but it’s part of a creative and active community archipelago.  Kristine will report back and let us know how the conversation goes.

Relay for Life

Chilbo residents Alleara Snoodle and Kristine Kristan have placed
kiosks for RFL Team Passionate Redheads around the Chilbo Community.

Chilbo residents Alleara Snoodle and Kristine Kristan are both members of the Passionate Redheads team, and they are working on plans to host a benefit for Relay for Life in Chilbo.  The event is likely to be a concert of some sort, but they’re working out if it might be possible to host the charity event in conjunction with the Chilbo Summer Fair, if the timing works out.  More to come when we figure out the dates for the Fair.

Junky & Abandoned Parcels in Madhupak Sim

Creative camouflaging of a junked up, abandoned parcel in Madhupak sim.

Kristine Kristan raised the issue of several junky and abandoned plots on Madhupak.   There are several plots that are clearly abandoned First Land spaces, though some of them are not fully surrounded by Chilbo Community land, so we can petition to have them cleaned up but then they go to auction.  We decided to look at the top 2 or 3 really egregious parcels and figure out what approach would be best for getting them cleaned up.  Another issue is that the community group is currently maxed out at tier, so we’d either need to sell some outlying land or get more tier donors to cover any additional land acquisitions.  Fleep Tuque said that there are several chunks of land in surrounding sims that are currently owned by the CCBP group that could definitely go to interested community members, so if anyone is looking to move out of a starter home, please see Fleep – we have lots of options!

New “Real Estate” Listing in the Chilbo Road Press

Many Chilbo residents offer properties for rent or sale to fellow Chilbo members,
like this cute cottage rental in the Mangyeong sim from Tara Yeats.

Speaking of land, Zedd Zeplin and others suggested that it would be good to have a way to communicate with each other about land for sale or rent to or by other Chilbo Community members.  Many folks in the community have landholdings they’d be willing to sell to community members, or are starting new rental areas to help provide more options for folks who want more space/prims than the Chilbo Community starter homes provide, but there aren’t currently good mechanisms to communicate what’s for sale or available for rent.  Our current methods are kind of a hodge podge of word-of-mouth and a few kiosks in the Town Hall.

Fleep Tuque suggested that we might repurpose or add a page to the Chilbo Wiki to serve this function, but not sure that’s the best route since it would require folks to do a little work to format the entries in a visually appealing way.  We’re playing around with ideas, but if anyone has suggestions, please speak up!

Other & Announcements

The Kyonu sim south of Soyeonpyeongdo is marred by campers, abandoned
First Land plots, and large prim screens (that aren’t even phantom!)..

Zedd Zeplin and Maggie Larimore are expanding their land clean-up efforts into the Kyonu sim.   Kyonu is just south of Soyeonpyeongdo sim, and it will be a challenging case, with lots of abandoned First Land, camper spots, and huge prim screens.  Everyone wishes them lots of luck. 

Valentino’s Cards, Gifts, & Flowers shop to have a new entrance built in Madhupak sim,

Valentino Tendaze will be creating a new entrance to his Valentino’s Cards, Gifts, & Flowers shop in Madhupak, on the parcel of land that Josain Zsun picked up for the community some time ago.

Meeting was adjourned.  Next Chilbo Town Hall meeting is scheduled for May 8, 2010 @ 11 AM SLT.  Transcripts available in the Town Hall.

In Attendance: Alleara Snoodle, Fleep Tuque, Maggie Larimore, Kristine Kristan, Tomkin Euler, Maddog Easterling, Gem Blue, Rachel Corleone, Corcosman Voom, SunHi Mistwalker, Zedd Zeplin, Chibi Lexenstar, Malburns Writer,  SkyeRanger Pinion

First Time Attendees (please friend!): Jonn Luik, Dali Waverider

Tickets to Linden Lab on Chilbo’s Behalf & Chilbo Name in Groups

We recently had some issues with Linden Lab being confused about who is petitioning them for abandoned land on behalf of the Chilbo Community Building Project group, and mixing up the CCBP with other groups in the area that have similar names like the Greater Chilbo Landholding Group.  Linden Lab asked us to have one person file support tickets on behalf of the group for land issues, and due to the confusion about groups, we discussed how to handle groups that want to show they are connected to Chilbo without getting them confused with the official Chilbo Community Building Project group that holds community lands.

We have a page on the wiki for posting about tickets to LL that might impact other Chilbo members, and folks are encouraged to use it so we know what’s being submitted to the Lab and can avoid confusion and mix-ups.  Everyone has the right to file support tickets and negotiate with LL, and should!, but we determined that tickets filed on behalf of the CCBP group, and especially about abandoned  land/ad farm issues, should be filed by a group owner to reduce potential mixups.   A draft policy regarding this change is available for comment.  Regarding the group names, it was suggested that ties to Chilbo could be indicated in the Group Charter area of the group info.  Zedd Zeplin offered to change the name of his landholding/rentals group to minimize the confusion.   Thanks Zedd!

Chilbo Road Press Seeks Writers

Editor-in-Chief Chibi Lexenstar is seeking more writers for the Chilbo Road Press!  Some mentioned that they don’t know how to blog, but might be interested in writing stories.  Chibi and Fleep Tuque offered to help folks new to blogging learn how to do it and we encourage members of the community to give it a try.  It’s not that hard and it’s great to share our experiences and thoughts with the broader Second Life community as well as with each other.  If the technology of blogging is putting you off, Chibi can also submit posts from notecards to the blog, just send her a notecard with full permissions images!

Viewer 2.0 – General Discusson & How Does it Affect Chilbo Community Content?

We had a lengthy discussion about the new beta viewer, discussing pros and cons.  Builders were especially concerned that the new viewer seems difficult to use, though other features were seen as a big plus, including the TP history, browser like bar, and clothing options.  And of course Shared Media!  Fleep Tuque offered to schedule a “Tips & Tricks” session for the community to help folks adjust.  We also discussed which content in the Town Hall and elsewhere in the community might need to be updated to take advantage of the new Shared Media capabilities (html-on-a-prim), and decided that it should save us a load of prims to remove some of the prim-heavy RSS feed readers we’re currently using.

Fleep suggests that people don’t just complain about the bugs and changes they don’t like in the beta viewer, be sure to actively document your concerns and bugs on the JIRA so we’re sure Linden Lab is getting good feedback from the experts – us!  Click to see what’s already been filed as suggestions and bugs for the Viewer 2.0 beta on the JIRA – and vote for the ones you agree with or experience!

[Update:  On March 23rd, Fleep gave a presentation to ISTE members about Viewer 2.0, sharing the slides here since they seem relevant - though these were not shown at the Town Hall!]

Changes to Chilbo Based on the 2009 Resident & Land Census

People either haven’t had a chance to look at the data or haven’t had enough time to grok all the implications, so we decided to put off serious discussion about that topic till the next Town Hall.  For reference, reposting the results:

We’ve already made some immediate changes to how we communicate certain things to reflect the needs of the community, such as fewer group notices. Which brought up another topic..

Using the Chilbo Group Chat

Resident Gem Blue mentioned that she’s a member of other groups in Second Life that seem to use group chat more extensively for.. well, chatting.  Some members expressed concern that group chat was spammy, though others pointed out that you can easily close the tab (v1) or session (v2) if the chat is bothering you.   Several said they wished the group chat were more active, so we decided to give that a try and reassess how we feel about it if folks are finding it disruptive.  In the mean time, feel free to start a conversation or share something with the group and let’s see where it takes us!

Updates on Community Partnerships Initiative

Resident Tomkin Euler is spearheading our efforts to partner with New Citizens Incorporated (NCI) by providing InfoHub space on land parcels off of both Route 10 in the Chilbo sim and Route 9 in the Madhupak sims.  Tonmkin reported that he’s in touch with folks at NCI and they were working out designs, texture choices, and that sort of thing.  Corcosman Voom began some initial conversations with NCI and helped scout out the potential locations, so as soon as the designs are formalized the partnership should be a go.   Thanks Tomkin and Corcosman!

Tomkin Euler and Fleep Tuque discuss the NCI InfoNode on Route 1o in Chilbo.

Fleep Tuque reported on the partnership with Metanomics.  Malburns Writer and Tara Yeats have been hosting live streams of the show for quite some time, making us a sort of “unofficial” event partner for the show, but in the interest of showing our support for other communities and projects that we feel benefit the grid, decided to make it official if they were willing.  Fleep spoke with Jeanette Forager and it looks like it’s a go!  Fleep will work with Jeanette to get the textures they need and other things to make the official event partnership a reality.    Thanks to Malburns and Tara for helping move this along!

On the Linden Lab Community Partnership proposals, we wrote a response to Blondin Linden and he came through for us dealing with some abandoned land and getting Route 9 paved (thanks Blondin!!!).   No other response to our letter, it looks like Chilbo wasn’t quite what they were looking for for the program, but we’re glad we went through the process all the same.  In the course of the discussion, we decided we probably didn’t need to put bridges back in over Route 9, but would construct paths and connections to sidewalks leading down to the road.

Griefing Incident in Greater Chilbo

Kristine Kristan briefly reported on a major griefing attack on Greater Chilbo that lasted for over two hours.  Kristine deputized Chibi Lexenstar to assist, and then Michael Linden answered the call for help and eventually all was put back in order.   Many thanks to Kristine, Chibi, and Michael for dealing with this disruptive attack!  (And to Michael for helping!)

New Sidewalk Texture

New sidewalk texture on the left, old texture on the right…

Kristine Kristan put a motion out to update the texture of the official Chilbo sidewalks.  She took the existing texture and, well, texturized it to give it a more realistic look and feel, and baked in the color so we no longer have to do the additional step of coloring the prims.  Awesome Kristine!  Everyone loved the new texture and Kristine, Chibi, and others volunteered to help update existing sidewalks.   The new texture was distributed through group notices and will also be added to the Chilbo Community Welcome Kit for landowners and available in the Chilbo Town Hall.  Private landowners are encouraged to update their sidewalks too, but if you want help, give Kristine a ping.

Announcements?   Other?

Fleep Tuque mentioned the EVOKE project as something that may interest folks in the community.  Funded by the World Bank, the EVOKE game is a web based game about saving the world – the REAL world! She encouraged folks to check it out.  Some may remember a previous game in this vein, the Superstruct game, that led to the birth of the Chilbo Community Garden in the nature preserve (currently being replanted in a new location TBA).   Last year Fleep and Rachel Corleone made a video for the game filmed in Chilbo!

Alleara Snoodle announced that the American Cancer Society would be holding Relay for Life in Second Life again and asked how Chilbo would contribute this year.  Several people are already committed to be on teams, so we decided that Alleara should put a kiosk for her team in the Chilbo Town Hall Plaza for those wishing to donate, and Chilbo would potentially organize an event to support the cause.

Gem Blue mentioned that she has land in the Soyeonpyeongdo sim that she would like to sell to community members.  If you’re looking to upgrade or expand to new land, please ping Gem!

Myakka City is run by Jonn Luik in the Sunwi Do sim.

Jonn Luik invited members of the community to check out Myakka City.   He recently moved into the neighborhood and bought nearly the entire sim of Sunwi Do.   Congrats Jonn and welcome to the neighborhood!

Meeting was adjourned.  Next meeting to be held on April 10th @ 11AM SLT.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/111/226/121

Fleep Tuque delivers the annual “State of the Community” address
at the February 2010 Chilbo Town Hall Meeting

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Corcosman Voom, Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, Tomkin Euler, Rachel Corleone, Maddog Easterling, SunHi Mistwalker, Maggie Larimore, Rah Rehula, Chavez Lefevre, SkyeRanger Pinion, Gem Blue, Polenth Yue, Josain Zsun, Robyn Eddenbaum

First-time Attendees (please friend!): Robyn Eddenbaum, Rah Rehula

Fleep Tuque Gives “State of the Community” Address

Following introductions of new members and first time attendees, Fleep Tuque gave the State of the Community address in voice chat.  For those who couldn’t attend, the following is what Fleep intended to say, hopefully she actually said most of it:

Welcome to all who are here and to those who are attending a Town Hall meeting for the first time.  We don’t usually get so formal at Town Hall meetings, with speeches and so forth, but from time to time a little formality doesn’t hurt and it’s good to reflect on the year that has passed and to think about the year ahead.

For those who may be new, the Chilbo Community was founded in 2006, so we’re going into our fourth year of existence – which is a long time in Second Life terms!  Our group has 230 some members, but only about 25% of the group are super active in the community, so considering that, we’ve managed to accomplish quite a lot in those few short years, through the hard work of a relatively small group of dedicated people.

This past year in particular has been one of really rapid growth, in 2009 we added much more group and privately owned land to the community map, attracted more people, more businesses, planned and held more activities, and the group itself has become much more interconnected with more people in Chilbo knowing their neighbors and fellow community members.

All of this would not be possible without the contribution of each and every person who works to promote the ideals of the Chilbo Community, so I want to thank each of you sitting here today – you are the ones who make Chilbo happen, the people who come to the Town Hall meetings, and help with events and collaborate on projects – without you Chilbo wouldn’t exist.

And while all of our active members deserve great thanks, I’d like to also make a special recognition of three people who go well above and beyond the call of duty in service of the Chilbo Community:  Rachel Corleone, Kristine Kristan, and Corcosman Voom deserve a round of applause.  You probably aren’t even aware of the countless hours they spend day in and day out working in the community, providing advice and counsel to me and to other residents.  Rachel walks the sims and cleans up litter and junk every week and keeps an eye on our prim counts, in addition to making and updating all of our maps.  Kristine has helped countless new members get settled into the community and she’s been up with me all hours of the day and night doing things like tallying parcels for the Land Census.  And Corcosman not only organizes and schedules all of the art exhibits in the Museum, he’s done tons of work on the wiki and the Community Partnership proposal and is a great sounding board whenever I need advice.  Please thank them for all of the tremendous work they do to help Chilbo achieve it’s fullest potential.

Finally, we should also recognize and thank all of the volunteers for the committees and the chairs of the committees for all of their hard work too.  The Chilbo Community is an example of “more than the sum of its parts” – it takes a lot of effort and dedication to make something like this happen, and as much as I personally do for Chilbo, it doesn’t begin to compare to what we all accomplish together, so thank you for being here and being a part of our community.

When I look back on the last year, I am amazed at how many things we did accomplish together.  As I mentioned, 2009 was a year of tremendous growth, and not just in terms of numbers like land and people and such, but also in terms of what we actually did.  Implementing the Hippo Rental System has brought many new faces to Chilbo and made it possible for many more people to feel a part of our community at a very low cost and low barriers to entry for newbies.  We also implemented the Resident and Locations directory on the web, linked from our main website, and the traffic on those sites has been surprisingly high!  You probably don’t realize how often people google for your Second Life name, and by putting these directory websites together, we’ve brought Chilbo out to the web so people can find more information about our people and our community.  I hope we’ll continue to work to bring more of Chilbo out onto the web and more of the web into Chilbo as we move forward.

In addition to these new services, our residents also had a number of exciting accomplishments in the past year.  Tara Yeats and Malburns Writer‘s “Metaverse Week in Review” weekly webcast continues to be a great weekly summary of everything happening in virtual worlds, and it brings together residents from all over the Second Life grid for great conversation in text chat during the show.  If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend that you do, I try to make it whenever I can.   Chilbo now boasts a great live music scene through MS Hawkers‘ coffee Haus, and she and Kristine Kristan have done a great job attracting talented musicians in partnership with Mad Wax Records and the Musician Mentorship Program.  And Chilbo residents also made great contributions to real world charities this year.  Alleara Snoodle‘s team for the Relay for Life event raised over $9000 USD for the American Cancer Society, and Chibi Lexenstar and MS organized a charity benefit for Haiti that raised over L$130,000.  This shows that the work we do isn’t just benefiting Second Life, but also making a difference in the real world as well.

And finally, we worked very hard at the end of 2009 to put together a proposal to join the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program, and though we received a letter from Blondin Linden that sounds like we might not be a good fit for the program (more to discuss later in the meeting), putting the proposal together was a good experience, I think.  It was a good for us to refine some of our communication processes as we worked on the draft document, it was good for us to document how and why we do some of the things we do, and it was definitely good to update some of our infrastructure and locations in-world as we prepared for a possible site visit.  During the course of writing the proposal, we updated our community maps, our teleport maps, the Chilbo Town Hall, and many other locations around the community.

Considering all we accomplished in 2009, what should we focus on in the year ahead?

For starters, we’ve got the data from the 2009 Land and Resident Census finally, and we can use that information to help us think about what our priorities should be in terms of land and prims moving forward.  We’ll take a look at that data in a moment and perhaps discuss it in more depth at the next Town Hall meeting.

But if the theme of 2009 was “Growth in Land and People”, I think we should make the theme for 2010 about “Partnerships Across the Grid”.  Partnerships with more communities in Second Life, partnerships with people in the neighboring sims through the Community Liaisons and Annexes program, and more partnerships and collaborations with each other.  Partnerships help us learn from others and share what we know, too, and we’ve had several conversations lately about potential partnerships with other communities in Second Life.

Corcosman and others have mentioned partnering with NCI, which is a great organization that helps new residents learn about Second Life, and there are other communities doing great things too like Insight Virtual College, Caledon, and we’ve had some good conversations with the folks who started the East River Community, another Mainland community.  We should look at ways to collaborate with these groups and maybe others that are doing good work on the grid that we would like to support.

I’m also hoping that the Community Liaisons and Annex program will help us get to know more of the people who live in the sims around Greater Chilbo, and where it makes sense, learn more about their work and see if more partnerships are possible with folks in our own back yard.  We hope to have a volunteer Community Liaison for each sim in the Greater Chilbo area who can do some of this outreach, and the Chilbo Annex buildings will serve as a place for folks in those sims to learn more about our community, too.

And finally, I hope to see more partnerships and collaborations _within_ Chilbo.  I encourage you to get involved, work with each other, learn from each other.  If you’ve never taught a class before, maybe talk to someone who has and offer a workshop, or schedule a discussion with someone else in the community.  Or maybe you’ve read a good book lately, make a contribution to the Chilbo Public Library, or do a movie review!  Certainly I hope we can reprise the Chilbo Summer Faire in 2010 and partner with each other to make that a great event for others on the grid to come and celebrate with us.

So that’s pretty much all I had to say, I didn’t want to take up too much of our time here together, but I think the last year has been a really good one.  I’m sure most of you know, for me personally it was a really hard year when my grandpa passed away and it wasn’t until I came back to Chilbo after that loss that I really could appreciate just what a great, caring community we really have.  I’m continually amazed by the people here and I hope we continue to grow and do great things together in the years ahead.

Thank you and now I’ll sit down!

Brief Review of the 2009 Annual Resident & Land Census Data

Following the speech, we briefly looked at the charts and graphs of data from the 2009 Annual Resident and Land Census.  There was way too much info to digest all at once, so the PPT slides are located in the Town Hall and posted to the Chilbo Road Press so we can look at the data at a more leisurely pace.  We’ll have a more in-depth conversation about the census results at the March Town Hall meeting, and figure out what changes we might want to make in terms of land and prim priorities, and other suggested changes from the feedback given in the surveys.  Be sure to check out the data before the next Town Hall!

Community Liaisons and Chilbo Annex Buildings

Chilbo residents discuss the Chilbo Annex building model created
by Kristine Kristan and Chibi Lexenstar.

We are now accepting applications from community members to serve as Community Liaisons.  To apply, fill out the Chilbo Volunteer Form and let us know which sim you would like to be responsible for – if you want to volunteer for more than one sim, please make a separate application for each sim.  One person will be selected from the applicants to be the Community Liaison for each sim, and that person will serve a 6 month term, like the Committee Chairs.

The responsibilities for a Community Liaison include:

- Active outreach to landowners and residents in the area to invite them to join our community, connect with sidewalks, etc.
- Point of contact for questions about Chilbo Community (ambassador role)
- Experienced in land management issues to assist residents in the sim with issues, questions, or problems
- Responsible for maintaining and updating the Chilbo Annex buildingin that sim
- Provide updates about happenings in the region at Town Hall meetings

In addition, we also discussed the Chilbo Annex building model that Kristine Kristan and Chibi Lexenstar built in the Madhupak Sandbox.  (We visited that location after the Town Hall meeting.)  Anyone with ideas about the building itself or what should go inside it should put their contributions in/on the platform above the sandbox.  At the next Town Hall we will finalize the design choices and begin to select the locations for placement in the sims.  Each sim in Greater Chilbo will have its own Annex, on group land, and we want to stay around 100 prims or less for the building and all the content.  We’ll include a “Door to Town Hall” in each Annex so it’s easy to get the main Town Hall for visitors.

Community members have until the March 2010 Town Hall to provide feedback on the building and any content they would like to see included (max of ~ 100 prims).  Just give your feedback to Kristine or Chibi or place items in the model.

Linden Lab Community Partnership Update

A historic day in Chilbo, the last plot with n-entry barriers becomes
community land on February 12, 2010 thanks to Blondin Linden’s assistance.

We received a letter from Blondin Linden about our proposal.  Blondin had some concerns that Chilbo might not be a good fit for the program, particularly regarding the “theme” of our community and he seemed to come away with the impression that we’re focused on land rentals.  Many were confused/disappointed/upset by this result, but we have written a draft letter in response to his concerns, and the community is invited to add edits, comments, or discuss the response on the discussion tab of the wiki page.

On the upside, even if we don’t get into the partnership program, Blondin took the time to visit the community and seems interested in helping us deal with some land issues.  Thanks to his efforts, the very last no-entry barriers in the Chilbo sim were removed on February 12, 2010 – a historic day for our community!  Many residents flew in and out and around Chilbo all day, excited to be able to fly through the WHOLE sim without bumping into a single barrier.  Hooray!

Center for Virtual Collaboration to Locate in Chilbo

Fleep Tuque announced that the Center for Virtual Collaboration, a project funded by the National Science Foundation, will be locating its Second Life headquarters in the Chilbo Community!  Chilbo resident Wainbrave Bernal at the University of Oregon is on the project team, and the former Nature Preserve parcel in the Madhupak sim is being re-purposed for this project.  We are still in the discussion phase with the Center to work out the details, but so far, we know that the Center wants to pay for their land use (woohoo!) and that they will be working with a real life architect to design their space in Chilbo.

More info about the Center for Virtual Collaboration project:

The Center for Virtual Collaboration project is funded by the National Science Foundation, and they are currently studying Sun Microsystems and IBM, the OpenSim variants, and other places where geo-distributed groups belonging to (primarily) formal organizations are conducting serious work.  The Center is using Evolutionary Economics, SocioMateriality, and Human Computer Interface (design / behavior) to investigate the ways that virtual work identity and work routines co-evolve.  The Center for Virtual Collaboration in Chilbo would act as a showcase of Collaboration Routines that they are developing into a typology, examples of how virtual teams collaborate effectively, act as a demo for exemplary collaboration practice, and act as a place for people to demo collaboration strategies, etc.

We are very excited that the Center wants to locate in Chilbo and we hope that they will benefit from being co-located in a living collaborative project, even while we hope to learn from them too!  Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

Chilbo to Become an Official Metanomics Event Partner in SL and Reaction Grid

Fleep Tuque began conversations with Jennette Forager from the Metanomics team to discuss a partnership between the Metanomics show and the Chilbo Community.  Tara Yeats and Malburns Writer have long hosted weekly webcasts of the Metanomics show at the MetaHub in Chilbo, but it’s been a sort of unofficial site up to this point.  In keeping with the theme of “Partnerships Across the Grid”, Chilbo will become an official event partner of the show in Second Life at the Shrubbery Amphitheatre and Park, and in Reaction Grid at a location to be announced.  Stay tuned for more info!

Other Updates

Corcosman Voom attended Blondin Linden‘s office hours last week, nothing much new to report at this time.  No progress on paving Route 9 yet, but the moles are pretty busy with the new Linden Homes which roll out February 17th.

Meeting adjourned.

Following the Town Hall, a bunch of us went down to the Madhupak Sandbox to check out the proposed Chilbo Annex build created by Kristine and Chibi.

Next Town Hall meeting scheduled for:  March 13, 2010 @ 11AM SLT

Meeting summary and complete transcripts are available at the Chilbo Town Hall.