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.

January Chilbo Town Hall meeting..

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Corcosman Voom, Lizzette Zenovka, Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, toster Oh, Tomkin Euler, Rachel Corleone, Maddog Easterling, SunHi Mistwalker, Sabia Innovia, mac Haustraun, Desdemona Enfield,  xjj Hax, Economic Mip, Chavez Lefevre (Emru Rau stopped by afterwards..) 

First-time Attendees (please friend!): Maddog Easterling, SunHi Mistwalker, Sabia Innovia, mac Haustraun, xjj Hax, Chavez Lefevre

Linden Lab Community Partnership Program – Proposal PASSED

The Chilbo Community votes to submit a proposal to join
the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program

We worked on the draft of our proposal to join the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program for nearly two and a half months before putting it to a vote in the community.  After a two week voting period, the proposal passed overwhelmingly!

Read the final draft document to be submitted Linden Lab

Related to agenda item 2, we’re going to add a bit in there about the Route 9 paving, but otherwise our proposal is good to go.  Fleep Tuque will be contacting Blondin Linden to set up a meeting time to discuss the proposal.   Since scheduling things can be difficult, anyone interested in attending the meeting should let Fleep know so we can work out a time.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed, commented, voted, and helped get this proposal ready for submission!

Route 9 Construction

Route 9 back to bare grass while we wait for Linden Lab to
pave the road.  We’ve waited for 3 years so far…

We got a note from Guy Linden chiding us for the prims overlapping the Route 9 roadway that goes through Achado, Madhupak, Soyeonpyeongdo and other sims in Greater Chilbo.  Fleep sent out a notice earlier in the week asking everyone to pick up their prims, in the hope that this means Route 9 will FINALLY be paved.

Many expressed some frustration that LL is giving us a hard time for making the roadway more visually appealing and connected to our community, especially considering they’ve not done a darn thing with it in four years and we actually LIVE here.  But in the interest of trying to be cooperative, we’ll remove our stuff and hope that means they’re going to pave the roads.   We’ll insert a bit about this in the Partnership Proposal and request that they use the same texture on Route 9 as was used on Route 10 through the Mangyeong, Chilbo, Kuwol, and Mindulle sims..

Chilbo Community Annual Resident Census 2010

Fleep Tuque completes the Chilbo Annual Resident Census for 2010

It’s that time of year again!  The annual census is when we do an official headcount of our active members and get feedback about community services and facilities.

All members of the Chilbo Community must complete the census to remain in good standing in the group.  Those who do not complete the census will be placed on inactive status, and eventually removed from the group altogether!

The survey only takes about 5 minutes to complete, and we use the information gathered to ensure that Chilbo is meeting the needs of our members.    

To take the survey on the web, see:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PX5NTQ6

We hope to have the numbers crunched and data analyzed in time for the annual State of the Community address at the February Town Hall meeting.

Community Liaisons and Regional Annexes

Chilbo residents reach consensus on the musical discussion board
at the January Town Hall meeting.

As we discussed at last month’s Town Hall, doing community outreach to neighboring sims has become too much for any one person to do, or even one or two people.  As the boundaries of Greater Chilbo expands, it would be nice to have someone be the point-of-contact in each sim, and a facility in each region to host servers and information about the Chilbo Community for those who might want to become involved.

Throughout the discussion, we tried a new method of “voting with our feet” using a sound enhanced discussion board (thanks Kristine Kristan for donating the walkable xylophone!) – basically you “take a stand” on the issue being discussed by moving your avatar to stand on the statement that reflects your opinion.  Though it ended up being a bit chaotic, it was kind of funny to see everyone milling about instead of sitting primly in our chairs. 

Based on the discussion, we decided to call the new facilities a “Chilbo Annex”, as in, Chilbo Annex in Kuwol, Chilbo Annex in Mindulle, and so on, and that the facilities should have a footprint no larger than 10×10.   Builders in the community are invited to help us design the new facility by putting up models in the Mad Sandbox.  We’ll also place items we think should go IN the new facilities down in the sandbox, and take a field trip after the February Town Hall to haggle out the details.

We hope to have a Community Liaison in each sim, and the goals for the position are:

- 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 Regional Office (or whatever we call them)
- Provide updates about happenings in the region at Town Hall meetings

In addition, the Chilbo Annex facilities will give us a location to do more outreach:

- Public facing purpose is to provide info about Chilbo Community – what is it?  why should people join?  what services do we provide?  what are the benefits of joining?  Sort of a satellite Town Hall for that sim?
- Also should have an office/contact info for the Community Liaison to meet with folks in the region, host maps and other planning docs, etc.
- In terms of functional purpose, will also host servers, gadgets, region audio changers, and other script based servers, scanners, or monitors that must be located in the specific sim to function.

Fleep Tuque will work on modifying the Volunteer form to include a place to volunteer to be a Liaison, and we’ll work out more details about the facilities after the February Town Hall.

Open Air Market in Kuwol Commons

Kuwol Commons – A site for a new open air market?

Kristine Kristan raised an idea that Chibi Lexenstar and MS Hakwer have been thinking about, to put the land in Kuwol Commons to good use.  Chilbo previously had a Farmer’s Market that we eventually took down due to disuse, but Chibi and MS are thinking an Open Air Market might be a good idea to try.   Town Hall attendees voted in favor (with their feet!) and Kristine will talk with Cosimo Urbanowicz about using the land for that purpose.

Since the previous Market idea didn’t go so well, we’ll decide on a specific time period (6 months maybe) to try to Open Air Market and see how it goes if Cosimo likes the idea.

Revamping the “Tour Chilbo!” Bike Tour to include Madhupak (and maybe other?) Sims

The “Tour Chilbo!” automated bike tour will be expanded to
include more sims and locations in the community.

Fleep Tuque and Toster Oh will be working to update the automated bike tour that starts outside the Town Hall in the plaza to include new locations.   Newcomers SunHi Mistwalker and Maddog Easterling both said the tour was very helpful to them when they first came to Chilbo, and everyone thought the tour could be extended a bit without being too long.

Toster Oh volunteered to help write the text of the tour, and asks that anyone who wants to contribute a landmark and text about their location should send him a notecard.  He’ll work things up into a coherent script and Fleep Tuque will work to re-program the bike.    We may not be able to get everyone’s locations on the tour, but we’ll do the best we can!

Other?  Announcements?

The Kidd-Hax Estate in Anma has amusement rides, clothing stores, and more!

New member xjj Hax invites the community to visit her location in the Anma sim. The Kidd-Haxx Estate has a terrific assortment of fair rides, including a merry-go-round, roller coaster, train ride, and much more!   Her clothing store has fashion for men and women (including kilts!) and it’s all set in a beautiful park-like setting.   Be sure to visit her in Anma!  SLurl:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Anma/163/82/64

Malburns Writer suggests that we should also have a Chilbo Annex on Reaction Grid, and to be sure to include it in the list of Annexes whenever we get to that point.  Good idea Mal!

Meeting was adjourned.   Next meeting is scheduled for February 13, 2010 at 11AM SLT.

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Corcosman Voom, Untolerable Bohemian, Lizzette Zenovka, Zedd Zeplin, Kelp Parkin, Chibi Lexenstar, Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, MS Hawker, Maggie Larimore, Dno Vale, toster Oh, Polenth Yue, Gann McGann, Tomkin Euler, Rachel Corleone  (Gem Blue and Emru Rau stopped by the decorating party afterwards..) 

First-time Attendees (please friend!): Chibi Lexenstar, Untolerable Bohemian, Polenth Yue.  Kelp Parkin and toster Oh are relatively new, too, so be sure to add them if you haven’t already..

Committee Chairs:  Current Term Ending, Next Term January-June 20

Directors & Committee Chairs are listed at the bottom
of the Online Status Boards in the Chilbo Town Hall

The current term from June to December 2009 is about to end and we discussed Committee Chairs for the upcoming term.  Current Chairs are:

Residential: Kristine Kristan
Commercial: Kristine Kristan (interim)
Arts & Entertainment: Corcosman Voom
Non-Profits: Lizzette Zenovka
Education: Josain Zsun
Activities & Events: MS Hawker & Eliza Quinzet (co-chairs)

In addition, the current Directors have also agreed to continue in their capacity of assisting with the overall administration of the Chilbo Community:

Director of Public Safety & Prim Management: Rachel Corleone
Director of Communication: Malburns Writer
Director of Technology: Tara Yeats

For the next term, Zedd Zeplin volunteered to serve as the Commercial Chair (thanks Zedd!) and all current Chairs present agreed to serve another term.  If any of the absent Chairs wishes to step down, please let Fleep Tuque know, otherwise we’re assuming you want to stay on board for another go round!

Members of the community who wish to serve on a committee can complete the Chilbo Community Administration – Volunteer Sign-Up sheet.  Generally, Chairs for future terms are nominated from folks on the existing committees, so if you have an interest in taking on a Chairperson role, join that committee to get more involved!

Thanks to all who volunteered at the meeting, and to our Chairs for doing a fabulous job!

Linden Lab Community Partnership Program – VOTE NOW!

Board in the Chilbo Town Hall links to
discussions about the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program

After several meetings and discussions, lots of brainstorming and ideas, and many, many edits and revisions, the final version of the Chilbo Community’s Proposal to Join the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program is finally completed!   Many thanks to all of our residents who contributed ideas and feedback, and special thanks to Corcosman Voom and Kristine Kristan who worked extensively on the edits and revisions!

We now must decide with a final up or down vote whether or not to submit the proposal, with a majority vote determining the outcome.

Be sure to read the complete Proposal to Join the Linden Lab Community Partnership Program before casting your vote!

VOTE FOR OR AGAINST SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL

CLICK HERE

Voting will end at 11:59PM SLT on December 31, 2009.  A majority vote will determine whether or not we submit the proposal, with the results to be announced at the January Town Hall Meeting.

Community Liaisons & Outreach Stations for NIC Sims (Not-In-Chilbo)

Chilbo Department of Public Works – Mindulle Station

As the community and the areas loosely called “Greater Chilbo” have grown, so have the opportunities to meet new neighbors and friends – but community leaders sometimes get a bit “stretched thin” trying to do outreach in new sims, and folks in outlying areas may have heard of the Chilbo Community, but might not know why they’d want to join our group.

To address these issues, we discussed appointing a single person per sim to serve as the Community Liaison for that region, as well as constructing an outreach station in each sim that would be something of a “satellite” Town Hall – a kiosk or other structure would provide info about our goals and purpose, with a teleport to the Chilbo Town Hall, and contact information for the Community Liaison for that sim.

We brainstormed several ideas and decided to use the Sandbox in Madupak as a place to try out different kiosk/building designs, with a more full discussion on the topic to be held at the January Town Hall.

A Cautionary Note About the Growth of CCBP Group Owned Land

Greater Chilbo Community Map 2009
Shows both privately owned (green) and group owned (blue) land.

Following the completion of the 2009 Annual Land Census for the Chilbo Community Building Project group owned land (results will be forthcoming once we’ve had a chance to crunch the numbers), Fleep Tuque discussed the rapid and explosive growth of CCBP group owned land over the last year, and expressed a note of caution as we move forward in 2010.

First, we want to make sure that we’re fully utilizing the group owned land we already hold before acquiring new land purchases.  Land with no one to care for it, build on it, or make it interesting isn’t much use to anyone, and we don’t want to waste the land/prims we already have available to us.

In addition, the explosive growth rate in 2009 crossed something of a “cost threshold” in terms of our total tier responsibilities to Linden Lab each month.  While the financial backing for group owned land is in good shape right now, it’s worth noting that we don’t want to become “too big to fail” -ahem- and to be prudent about our land purchasing decisions.  None of us has endlessly deep pockets, after all. 

Though the point of the discussion was NOT to ask for tier or $L donations, the conversation veered in that track for a while, and several people had questions about how tier works, how to donate, etc.  If you still have questions about this, feel free to contact Fleep, and of course donations of tier or $L for group owned land is always greatly appreciated.  But the intent behind the agenda item was mostly to caution folks to not get too overzealous in buying land (especially new users!  this is a common newbie thing and we’ve seen many folks get in over their head!), and to understand that while donations of land to the CCBP group is very very generous, it also carries a monthly fee (tier) and we may not always be able to take on new donations/land.

So, not sure that all came across as intended, but hopefully this helps clarify things a bit!

New Pages Added to Wiki:  “Resource List” & “Tickets to LL”

To better facilitate communication within the group, we’ve added two new pages to the Chilbo Community Wiki.

The Resources List page is now available for members of the community to offer general skills, talents, abilities, or other resources that might come in handy.  For example, Chibi Lexenstar has volunteered her graphic design skills, and Rodolfo Mirabella is able to translate from Spanish to English or vice versa.  Have a special skill or talent you’d like to offer?  List it on the Resources List page!

The second new page is the Tickets to LL page, which stands for Tickets to Linden Lab.  From time to time, members of the community need to submit tickets to Linden Lab for dealing with a variety of issues, from petitioning for abandoned land parcels to reporting griefers or abuse.  If you’ve submitted a ticket to Linden Lab about something that affects the Chilbo Community, please post your tickets on this page so others know when issues have already been reported.  It would also be helpful to update your post if/when the issue is addressed or resolved by the Lab.  Hopefully this addition to the wiki will help the left hand know what the right hand is doing – and ensure that we don’t unintentionally petition the Lab for the same issue multiple times.

Don’t have an account to edit the wiki? It’s pretty simple, just create an account at http://wikispaces.com and then navigate to the Chilbo Community Wiki at http://chilbo.wikispaces.com – then click the “Join” button in the upper right corner to request access.   As soon as an administrator approves your request, you will be able to contribute to the wiki!

Announcements & Other

• Malburns Writer started a Chilbo Community thread using Google Wave.  If you already have a wave account, let Malburns know and he can invite you to the thread.  If you don’t have a Wave account and want one, let Malburns or Tara Yeats know and they’ll get you an invite!
• Kristine Kristan mentioned that we have new chairs in the Town Hall donated by Yasuki Beck of ++LP2 Furniture.   Thanks to Kristine and Yasuki!
• The Chilbo sim on Reaction Grid is taking shape!  Malburns Writer will post instructions here soon for how to log on to the Reaction Grid and how to find the Chilbo sim when you get there.  Feel free to pick a spot and start building, it’s a big giant sandbox for us all to play with!
• Untolerable Bohemian has a group and a Sub-o-Matic for notices about his music shows, please send him an IM to join so you know when his shows are!
• Writers for the Chilbo Road Press wanted!  Have article ideas?  Want to learn how to blog?  Contact Fleep Tuque to get an account or Tara Yeats for help with how to blog.  Your article goes here!

The Town Hall meeting was adjourned.  Please send corrections to Fleep Tuque, full transcript available in the Chilbo Town Hall.  Next meeting TBD!

Decorate the Town Hall Plaza,  Put an Ornament on the Tree, Give a Gift!

The Chilbo Town Hall Plaza decorated for the holidays!
Add an ornament and a gift under the tree!

Following the Town Hall meeting, we went out to the Town Hall Plaza and decorated for the holidays!

A mennorah rests on the Town Hall Podium, with daily candle lightings (thanks to Crap Mariner for the mennorah, and Emru Rau for taking care of the candle lighting), and a beautiful Christmas tree and other holiday decorations are out on the plaza.  Check out all the fun holiday activities like ice skating, snow angels, mistletoe for kissing, and more!

Traditionally, members of the community make an ornament (copyable!) for the Christmas tree and place a gift under the tree.  If you place an ornament or gift, be sure to check the permissions to ensure folks can get your gift and take a copy of your ornament!

~ Happy Holidays to all and cheers to a bright New Year in Chilbo! ~

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Josain Zsun, Lila Roecastle, Corcosman Voom, MS Hawker, Lizzette Zenovka, Alleara Snoodle, Tomkin Euler, Salty Saenz, Maggie Larimore, Gem Blue, MS Hawker, Rodolfo Mirabella

New Committee Chairs Nominated & Needed

We have a number of folks who volunteered to chair some important community functions, but  through one thing or another they have less time to spend on Chilbo projects.  Particularly the Activities & Events, Commercial, and Education chairs are open.  Kristine Kristan nominated MS Hawker and Eliza Quintet to serve  on the Activities & Events committee, to wide agreement.  Congratulations to MS and Eliza!

Kristine will temporarily take over the duties of Commercial chair for now, but we’d like to find someone to fill this spot since Kristine already has quite a lot on her plate with the Residential chair responsibilities.  Duties of the Commercial chair include:

• Serve as a liaison between Chilbo and the broader commercial sector in Second Life
• Promote and encourage new business development in Chilbo
• Assist new entrepreneurs with setting up a business in Second Life
• Recruit new shopkeepers for the commercial properties in Second Life

Gann McGann has served as Education chair for quite some time and has done a terrific job, but we’re looking for someone to fill this spot.  Duties of the Education chair include:

• Serve as a liaison between Chilbo and the broader educational community in Second Life
• Keeping up with the SLED mailing list to keep aprised of new educational opportunities
• Helping educators find suitable property and move into Chilbo
• Coordinating classes held in Chilbo
• Contributing to the education resources in the community, including the Chilbo Public Library and the repository of tools for teachers

Interested in serving as the Commercial or Education chair of Chilbo?  Send Fleep Tuque a note!

Land Updates

Community member Wainbrave Bernal has a number of exciting projects going on with his work and unfortunately has less time to spend on Chilbo projects.  He’s reduced his tier and the Salamander HQ and Grill will be closing, though Wainbrave’s heart will always be in Chilbo.

Likewise, Sine Rennehan’s Nature Preserve area in the Mujigae sim has mostly fallen into disuse and will be sold to reduce her tier.  The Nature Preserve is a large, beautiful area and can be parceled according to our needs.  Our first preference is to sell to someone in the community, so if you are interested, please contact Fleep Tuque.

Finally, Cosimo Urbanowicz has picked up a huge parcel in Kuwol and is looking for projects and tier contributions to support the new addition to Chilbo.  Stop by the new property and have a look, and if you know someone looking for land or project space, contact Cosimo to get more information.

Linden Lab’s Community Partnership Program

We had a discussion about the Community Partnership program that Linden Lab announced on their blog recently.  Many were unclear about what the purpose of the program is, how it would work, how it would benefit Chilbo, or even if we would qualify for the program since we own land in 6 sims but don’t own ANY full sim outright.

We decided to table this discussion until everyone has had a chance to read Linden Lab’s guidelines, and a follow up meeting to discuss is scheduled for next Saturday, October 17th at 11AM SLT in the Town Hall.  Please join us if you’d like to participate in this discussion.

Mad Wax Records & Musician Mentoring Program

Kristine Kristan reports that Mad Wax Records is now listed on Indiespectrum.com as a supporter of live music in Second Life.  She will be working on a machinima piece with Alleara Snoodle and others, and hopes Mad Wax can be a destination resource for musicians in Second Life.  They’re just in the planning stages for the video and she’ll need some extras and actors, so if you’d like to be included, let her know.

MS Hawker also has been discussing with Cosimo about instituting a Musician Mentorship program to pair novice performers with more experienced performers to help new musicians on the live music scene in SL.  As most of you know, MS’ Germelhausen coffeeshop and bakery (affectionately known as The Haus)  is one of the hottest social spots in Chilbo, with live performances nearly every day.  If anyone would like to assist with developing the Musician Mentorship program, please let MS know.

Deeding Objects to Group

Cosimo Urbanowicz sent around a notecard suggesting that we deed community objects to the Chilbo group and asked for feedback.  Fleep Tuque advises that if this is to be done, it must be done very carefully since the permissions system in Second Life can get extremely complicated.  Objects should only be deeded to the group if a) you are willing to give up being the owner of the object, once it is deeded you can’t take it back b) EVERY prim, EVERY script, EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT of the object is full permissions – if even one script or one component is NOT full permissions, then that object essentially cannot be modified, transfered, or copied, depending on the settings, which may mean it becomes an “orphan” object that no one can really use.  Fleep agrees there are some use cases where group deeding may be appropriate, such as for sidewalks or other community infrastructure objects that can be replaced if needed, but advises extreme caution for objects that are unique, purchased, or where there are no back up copies.

Following the Town Hall, we took field trips to the Nature Preserve in Mujigae and visited Cosimo’s new land acquisition in Kuwol.

A full chat transcript of the meeting is available in the Chilbo Town Hall.   Next Town Hall meeting is scheduled for November 15, 2009 at 11AM SLT.

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Tara Yeats,  Malburns Writer, Kristine Kristan, Rachel Corleone, Corcosman Voom, Alleara Snoodle, Monarchy Republic, Bobo Bolero, Foxnsane Ceawlin

Chilbo Community Committee Chairs

The six month terms of the Community Chair positions have expired.  Some chairs volunteered to continue in their positions, some new volunteers came forward, and Rachel Corleone will be taking on some additional responsibilities for processing Membership Applications.

2009 Chilbo Community Committee Chairs

-  Director of Public Safety Rachel Corleone
-  Communications Director Malburns Writer
-  Technical Director Tara Yeats
-  Arts & Entertainment Chair Corcoman Voom
-  Commercial Chair Tommy Brouwer -> Absent from meeting, pending feedback
-  Education Chair Gann McGann -> Absent from meeting, pending feedback
-  Residential Chair Kristine Kristan
-  NonProfit Chair Lizzette Zenovka
-  Activities & Events Monarchy Republic

Malburns Writer suggested that Committee Chairs should schedule once-a-month office hours so that community members can discuss matters in between Town Hall meetings.  Everyone agreed this was a good idea, so committee chairs should talk to Monarchy Republic about getting your office hours on the Chilbo Google Calendar (or put them there yourself if you have access).

A tremendous thank you to those who have worked so hard to keep our community growing and vibrant in the last six months, and for those who are continuing or taking on new positions!

Chilbo Summer Faire 2009

Chilbo Summer Faire 2008 Fairgrounds

We will again hold the Chilbo Summer Faire this year, Monarchy Republic will be the main coordinator for the event, and a planning page has been created on the Chilbo Wiki  – if you don’t already have an account on the wiki, you will need to create one to make edits/contributions to the planning.  Questions about creating an account on the wiki?  Contact Tara Yeats.

Public Safety & Prims

Director of Public Safety Rachel Corleone reports that there are now over _6000_ scripts running in the Chilbo sim.  Please take a look at your location and see if you can figure out how many scripts you are running (by opening View > Statistics Bar and rezzing and derezzing items to see how much the Active Scripts total changes).  If you have unnecessary or very laggy scripts running, please remove them!  The Chilbo sim has been experiencing high lag spikes due to this overload.

Resident Alleara Snoodle has created a “load balancer” to distribute lag between the Chilbo and Madhupak sims to help alleviate this problem.

Arts & Entertainment

Rachel’s new cinema south of the Crash House

Corcosman Voom, Chair of Arts & Entertaiment, reports that Douglas Story will be coordinating an exhibit to feature Ryan Snook’s fabulous avatar creations.  The trickiest part may be figuring out how to use bots to display Ryan’s intricate (and high prim) designs.   More info to come, hopefully Douglas can give us an update on the status.  Since the planned time frame is sometime in August, perhaps this would be good in conjunction with the Chilbo Summer Faire?

Rachel Corleone has opened up a new bar/stage/cinema right behind the Crash House, and wants to learn more about streaming video into SL, Malburns Writer volunteered to assist.

Kristine Kristan thanked everyone who attended the 4th of July picnic and fireworks celebration, and everyone who came out for her gallery opening and supported the artists on display.   Corcosman Voom made an excellent blog post covering the 4th of July picnic, see the Chilbo Road Press article at http://www.chilbo.org/blog/2009/07/didi-we-party-yes-we-did/

New resident Bobo Bolero is seeking gallery space in a Mature sim.  Most of the land owned by the Chilbo Community group is in PG sims, so perhaps other local landowners (Olando7 DeCosta or Valentino Tendaze) might be able to help with this request?

Graffiti artist Sil0ne Vendetta contacted Fleep after the Town Hall (so adding these notes as an addendum) to say thanks for the community’s support of his work.   He may be interested in doing an exhibit for the Chilbo Summer Faire.  Sil0ne contributes graffiti art around the Chilbo Community, as always, community members have “edit rights” over his work, so if something he puts up around your places drives you nuts, let Fleep or Rachel know and we’ll return it to him, otherwise, much thanks to Sil0ne for giving our community an urban “lived in” feel!

Residential

Kristine Kristan’s new residential buildings

Kristine Kristan will be taking over from Alleara Snoodle as the new Residential Chair for this term.  Kristine has already begun working on residential projects by creating new, lower prim starter homes for the rental properties.   Following the Town Hall meeting, she displayed her new works down in the Sand Box.   Rachel is going to help with replacing some of the older brownstown style rental houses with Kristine’s newer prim efficient models.

Commerce

Commerce Chair Tommy Brouwer was absent from the meeting, no additional updates.

Education

Corcosman Voom asked about this year’s Connectivism Course being taught by George Siemens and Stephen Downs.  Last year the Chilbo Community hosted a Second Life cohort of the course, facilitated by Fleep.  This year Fleep’s RL schedule is too hectic to be a main facilitator, but she did volunteer the Education Village in Madhupak as a potential site if another SL facilitator steps up.   You can read more about this on Fleep’s blog at:   http://fleeep.net/blog/2009/07/07/reconnecting-with-connectivism-cck09/

The Connectivism course is free and open to the public.  Fleep highly recommends it to anyone involved in or even remotely interested in the future of education

Non-Profits

Levittown Historical Society & Museum Office run by Bobkoe Nirvana

Lizzette Zenovka couldn’t attend the meeting today, no reports from the Non Profit sector, but resident Bobkoe Nirvana has opened up an office for the Levittown Historical Society & Museum down in Madhupak, right across from the SL HIV Center.  Bobkoe is rather new to SL, but wants to expand the RL presence of the Levittown Historical Society.

Activities & Events

Monarchy Republic will be coordinating this year’s Summer Faire.  See above.

Miscellaneous/Other

Kristine Kristan has donated an adorable little kitty to the Chilbo Public Library, stop by to check it out!  We discussed an appropriate name and it looks like “Hiro” from Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” might be the winner. 

Speaking of Snow Crash, if you haven’t read it, Fleep highly recommends it!  Many things in Second Life come directly from the novel.   Tara Yeats and Malburns Writer also recommend “Halting State” by Charles Stross.  (Anyone want to add that to the Chilbo Recommends shelf in the library?)

Kristine Kristan has also created a “Route 10 Diary” as a Twitter feed about her travels along Route 10 in Second Life.   Check it out and follow her travels at http://twitter.com/route10diary

Monarchy Republic and MS Hawker are contemplating a “Chilbo Culinary Delights” weblog that may incorporate the Bakery and the Chilbo Nature Preserve and Garden, with recipes and other delectable delights.  Interested collaborators can contact them for more info.  (Tara Yeats‘ suggestion of “Chilbo Chewables” was greeted with some laughter *grin* and Malburns Writer requests that our vegetarian friends be considered!)    [Edit:  Originally said Kristine Kristan on this news item, corrected to Monarchy and MS!]

Meeting was adjourned.  Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, August 8 @ 11AM SLT.  A full transcript of the meeting is available in the Chilbo Town Hall.