The Chilbo Road Press

The original Chilbo Welcome Center, circa 2006.

First, the Backstory:  A Brief History of the Chilbo Community

The Chilbo Community was founded in 2006 as a mainland community that sought to connect local landowners and help newcomers to virtual worlds like Second Life.  What began as a simple Welcome Center with helpful information and freebies for travelers eventually blossomed into a community of fellow learners and explorers.  The Welcome Center was transformed into a Town Hall and we went about meeting our neighbors and helping newbies with gusto.

By 2007, we owned a majority of land in the Chilbo sim, purchased from exiting First Landers, and by 2008 we owned part of the neighboring sim in Madhupak, and began offering “Starter Homes” for no cost  to help newbies learn in a safe space.

Greater Chilbo plot map, 2009

Over the next couple of years, the community continued to grow – at its peak, Chilbo Community members held lands in 11 sims, and the community group covered infrastructure and housing for over 50 Starter Homes.  We eventually began charging a nominal fee of $50L per week just to cover listing fees, but we remained committed to helping new users, educators, artists, and those generally interested in using virtual worlds to serve the public or to improve or enhance real world endeavors.

During the golden age of the Hype Cycle and for years after, thousands of newbies visited Chilbo and learned from our community members, and many hundreds of users lived in Chilbo for a time.  We always felt it was a tremendous success if a former Chilbo resident found their niche and moved on to explore their passions elsewhere on the grid, as our goal was not to make money or grow beyond our means, but rather to help people discover what virtual worlds could make possible, and to have a safe and welcoming place to learn.

Changing Times, Changing Perspectives & Needs

Many things have changed in the five years since we began, not the least of which is the position of virtual worlds in the ecosystem of social media and online games.  In 2006, virtual worlds were touted as  The Next New Shiny Internet and a panacea for all sorts of online interactions and everything in between.  We ourselves were still learning what was possible with platforms like Second Life, and we enjoyed helping others learn with us.

With time, however, it has become clear that virtual worlds have a place in the ecosystem, but at least in their current form, can’t and don’t encompass all of the wide variety of ways that people want to interact and engage with each other online.  Many of us still very much enjoy our projects and passions in Second Life, but for some of us, our professional work has moved on to other platforms or our personal time to spend in world is simply less than it was before.

Greater Chilbo on the Jeogeot (Southern) Continent Map, 2010

In addition, since Chilbo was formed all those years ago, many Resident help networks in Second Life like New Citizens Incorporated and the Builders Brewery have fulfilled the newbie helping mission on a much larger scale than Chilbo ever did or could do.  There are a plethora of tutorials and resources for newcomers, both on the web and in-world, and the need we once filled is better met elsewhere, these days.

Because of these changes, the interests and activities of the people in the Chilbo Community have also changed.  Most of us are now considered “Oldbies” and our time in-world is spent visiting with friends and working on the things that still inspire our passions.  Few of us are interested in continuing the level of management and administrative overhead that rentals and newbie-helping entails.

We began to implement some changes in the the last year with the goal to make the community more sustainable for its long term dedicated members – we scaled down our community owned land and began to ask members of the community to help pay the costs of their use rather than having most of the infrastructure subsidized by a handful of people.  We still offered Starter Homes, but asked for rent amounts that were at least closer to market prices (though still less than most).  But even with these changes, we still find that the community has not yet reached that sustainable point where everyone is comfortable with their level of financial support and time investment, and so we are moving forward with the goal of a sustainable and manageable community that meets the needs of its members.

Offering Group Land for Purchase, Removing Rentals & Some Community Project Locations

The next step in this journey is to remove the Starter Home rentals.  We will be phasing out all the newbie homes and offering those who rent in Madhupak the opportunity to purchase land from the group at discounted rates.  Those who still wish to rent should speak with Tara Yeats or Maggie Larimore, who offer rentals in nearby sims.

For those who are donating tier to cover land and prim use, you will have the option to remain as a tier donor or purchase the land you use in Madhupak sim as a full landowner.  We will work with each member of the group to find the solution that works best for you, but beginning on August 1st, we hope to have completed the removal of rental units and anyone who has not purchased a plot will need to donate tier at a level that fully supports your prim use.

Community projects that have been subsidized by group tier will also be phased out to make room for those who want to purchase land.  This includes the removal of the newbie freebie shops, the Community Annexes, the Community Home, the Chilbo Public Library, and other projects not directly supported by a community member.  We plan to better utilize the new Town Hall to consolidate some of these resources, including a smaller subset of freebies, library resources, and items from the Community Home that will fit well in the Town Hall.  We’ll also be portioning off part of the Town Hall to serve as a History & Museum Center to house artifacts from Chilbo’s history.  If you have items to contribute please contact Fleep Tuque.

Portions of the Freebie Stores, Public Library, and Community Home will
be moving to the new Chilbo Town Hall.

Finally, we will ask each and every member of the Chilbo Community to tally their prim use and fully cover the cost of their projects with tier donations only.  Rental units require time and effort to maintain, and we want to phase out their use entirely.  As much as we would hate to see long term residents and projects go, we’re no longer in a position to subsidize as many public projects as we once were, and it seems only fair to ask residents who have long since grown past the newbie stage to pay the full cost of their use, as many of us do (and then some!).

Future Facing, Community Minded

The future of Chilbo is no less bright than it was 5 years ago, our needs have just changed with time.  We continue to welcome new users and new members, though perhaps now we would seek more experienced and mature (as in seasoned, not “adult”) Second Lifers, and would rather point newbies in the direction of NCI or one of the many other helpful locations that exist on the grid.  We are still committed to exploring Second Life and using the platform to improve the virtual and physical world, and we still welcome artists, educators, students and the wide variety of people who find outlets for creativity in Second Life. If you are an Oldbie looking for a great community of passionate, experienced Second Lifers, there’s still no other place on the grid quite like Chilbo and we’d welcome you to buy land nearby and connect with us.

As we look forward, we intend to have many more years of enjoying each other’s company and the community we’ve created, but hopefully with a bit less overhead and administrivia, and a lot more time for fun.  :)

Fleep Tuque
Founder & Executive Director
Chilbo Community in the Mainland of Second Life

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!

Elvis lives!!!

the pelvis shook all over the main thouroughfare of Chilbo community last night, will the King grace our lands again ?, Yes

Every year the Chilbo Community conducts an annual census of our residents and land owned by the Chilbo Community Building Project group. The census helps us understand how our community has changed in comparison to data from earlier years, and helps guide our decision-making about what to change in the coming year to better meet the needs of our residents.

Comments or questions about the census? Post them here!

The Chilbo Community welcomes three new members and their businesses to Route 10!

Cinematize, featuring distinctive Southern California Photography on display. Contact Sydney Etoile to purchase some of her works!

Riall’s Emporium has Art, Flowers and Homes for sale, all created by Riall Caproni.

Foxglove’s Finest, where you can find some lovely dresses by Foxglove Foyston,  including stunning gowns in time for all the upcoming holiday parties.

So next time you are looking for some of these items, or just have the urge for some retail therapy, please visit these and the other businesses on Route 10 in Chilbo!

On Saturday, October 17, 2009, we held a special Chilbo Town Hall meeting to discuss whether or not the Chilbo Community should submit a proposal to participate in Linden Lab’s new Community Partnership program.  [A full transcript is available in world at the Town Hall.]

The idea was discussed briefly at the October 10th Chilbo Town Hall meeting, and at that time we decided to table the discussion until the following week when we’d all had time to read the program guidelines and the comments and guidance provided by Blondin Linden on the official blog post about this topic.

It is Fleep’s sense that the general feeling in the community is a mixture of confusion, concern, and scepticism, but a general willingness to give it a try if we think it might benefit the community.  During our discussions about the program, various concerns surfaced:

- How would the program benefit Chilbo?   What would we have to do in return for participating?

- There seems to be some backlash about this program, would participating damage Chilbo’s reputation as an independent, free thinking, and open community?

- Linden Lab is somewhat notorious for starting new programs and initiatives that fizzle out, is it worth jumping through a bunch of hoops if this program continues in that vein?

- Would we lose any rights by participating?

Others expresed the sentiment “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” and the consensus seemed to be to move forward with as much openness and transparency as possible with the intention to submit a proposal IF we have broad community consensus to do so and IF we can craft a proposal that clearly benefits our community.

Why would Chilbo want to participate in the first place?  Fleep tried to summarize by saying, “Chilbo is a well established community, we’re good community citizens, we want to participate in helping new AND existing residents become more connected and we’re willing to teach and share in exchange for some official recognition of what we do.”  How best to formalize such an arrangement with Linden Lab is the question, and as always, the devil would be in the details.

During the discussion, we talked about structuring a potential proposal around two questions:  What do we want from Linden Lab? and What are we offering in return?

In the “What do we want from Linden Lab?” category, many ideas were floated, including:

- A new “Communities” listing in the Showcase page, official recognition of Chilbo in the list

- Better reclamation process for the abandoned parcels and ad farm squares, and better management of the Governor Linden owned roadways that intersect our community.

- We have established community standards, but no way to enforce them if someone breaks their agreement with us (no covenant or reclamation process if we “sell” community land).

- We spend a lot on tier for infrastructure, sidewalks, bridges, green spaces – the very things that help make the “community cohesion” we have visible, perhaps Linden Lab could help with that.

- We are experiencing a ton of lag in some sims, any way for Linden Lab to help us pinpoint problem scripts and troubleshoot the lag problem?

- The Hanja Welcome Area is just a few sims north east of Greater Chilbo, and it seems pretty darned underutilized with just a handful of the typical Linden Lab signage, but nothing that helps visitors to the Welcome Area connect to any of the sims or communities nearby.  Perhaps Chilbo could volunteer to build/manage/staff the Welcome Area to help visitors move beyond a cursory visit and connect with the communities around it?

In the “What are we offering in return?” category:

- We offer a well established, long term model community, one that has arisen organically in the mainland, and seems to work well for our members.  We can teach others how to start their own communities based on the Chilbo model.

- We are an example of a community _without_ a roleplaying or other distinctive theme – more akin to an actual community from real life, with residents having many different interests.  We believe this diversity strengthens our community and makes us both more viable and perhaps more representative of a broader cross section of Second Life residents than some communities.

- We provide free or extremely cheap land, housing, and project space to Second Life residents who want to explore projects that benefit the public good.  We have an excellent track record of privately funding education, the arts, public health, and other projects of this nature that contribute to civic life on the Mainland.  As participants in the program, we would continue to focus on this “public and community service” model in all of our endeavors related with the Community Partnership program.

- Our residents have expertise in Second Life – everything from event planning to scripting to building to avatar creation and machinima, we offer our expertise in exchange for participation.

- Our community is large enough and diverse enough to staff events and manage projects with a high level of quality and professionalism.

So, that’s where we are in the discussion at this point.  What are YOUR thoughts?  Which ideas do you like best?  Do you have other suggestions?  Something you think we should NOT do?  Other concerns?

We invite feedback especially from Chilbo residents, but readers of the Chilbo Road Press are also invited to participate.  Is your community thinking of participating in this program?  What would be your concerns with the ideas we’ve proposed so far?

We will reconvene in the Chilbo Town Hall next Saturday,  October 24, 2009 at 11AM SLT to discuss feedback received on the blog and to determine whether or not to move ahead with submitting a proposal.

Thanks for your feedback on this issue!

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.

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

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

The sandbox was prepared and fireworks tested

Party Planner Extraordinaire, Kristine Kristan, checked details

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

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

Where there is dancing, there is Rachel Corleone

Olando7 Decosta knows how to shake it

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

Chilbo sim went offline and the party carried on

MS Hawker brought out her dance wheels

Ra Deemster shows his moves on the ramp

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

There's Gem Blue in her fae gear!

Kristine Kristan, MS Hawker, Monarchy Republic and some guy

Fireworks? Three hours non-stop.

Mercalia added to the show

Oooos and Ahhhhs

 

Bangs and booms from up above

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

During late-winter/early-spring in 2009, Fleep took a several month hiatus from Second Life to care for an ill family member. During that time, no one was able to access the Membership Application form to complete the move-in process for potential new residents of Chilbo. In addition, a survey of the available newbie homes, stores, and educational facilities showed that over 30 units were unoccupied!

In order to facilitate a quicker, speedier, more convenient move-in process, the Hippo Technologies Rental System was selected to manage an automated rental system on all “available” properties in the Chilbo Community. The price was set at $50L per week for 50 prims, and current residents, friends, visitors, and potential residents are now able to move right in by paying the Hippo Rental Box. This price should cover the $30L per week directory listing fee to advertise the location in Search, and cover texture uploads to add the new resident to the Resident Status Boards in the Town Hall, Blog/Wiki listings in the Chilbo Road Press office, updated property image, and other miscellanous customization needed to completely move a new resident into the community.

Inside each unit, a Membership Application and Land Use Application form hangs on the wall near the entrance. New occupants can complete the forms at their leisure and when the application is processed by Fleep, the clipboards will be removed rom the unit. In this sense, new residents can move right in and the “paperwork” can be completed at a later date. End result: A more convenient process for everyone!

A full list of properties available are located both inside the Chilbo Town Hall and in the Chilbo Community Home. So, if you have friends or colleagues that need a place to stay, there’s no longer a waiting period to get them set up in Chilbo! Invite your friends to give Chilbo a try today!