The Chilbo Road Press

In Attendance:  Fleep Tuque, Tara Yeats, Olando7 Decosta, Malburns Writer, Kristine Kristan, Monday Jinx, Rachel Corleone, Corcosman Voom, Skyeranger Pinion, toster Oh, Gem Blue,  Emru Rau, Gann McGann

Welcome ELEVEN New Residents

(HOLY COW and send a friend request!)  Kristine Kristan, Monday Jinx, toster Oh, MS Hawker, Mariya Maruti, Liam Gunes, marque Broadfoot, Nuro Enyo, Farzaneh Eel, Bobkoe Nirvana

Public Safety & Prim Report

Rachel Corleone, Director of Public Safety & Prim Management reports that Chilbo has not been actively griefed in over a year!  Litter has been scant and we have over 20% free prims in Madhupak and 9% free in Chilbo proper.

Arts & Entertainment Report

Corcosman Voom, Chair of Art & Entertaiment, reports that the next museum exhibit in the Chilbo Museum Center will feature works from artist Cecilia Delacroix, when Misprint Thursday’s “Gossamer Logic” exhibit finishes its run.  Cecilia is also the offical Poet Laureate of Chilbo, and she may be doing a poetry reading in Chilbo soon!  Stay posted, more details to come on both the museum exhibit and the poetry reading.

Fleep sent a quick IM to Ryan Snook about the planned avatar exhibit but hasn’t heard back yet, thinking that will be a good project for the Chilbo Summer Faire in August.

Kristine Kristan is hosting Featured Artist Ronin1 Shippe at the K2 Gallery in Madhupak, stop by and check it out, half of the proceeds of any sales will go to VAI, where Ronin1 volunteers.

Commerce Report

Commerce Chair Tommy Brouwer was absent from the meeting, but there were a few other updates.

Fleep Tuque has opened the Chilbo Novelty Shoppe on the main street (Route 10) in Chilbo.  The shop features a few items created for Chilbo and other miscellaneous things.  Items for sale are also listed on XStreetSL.

Emru Rau is making good progress on the new commercial building on the north side of main street (Route 10), and is looking for folks who want to sell things.  Fleep encourages everyone in Chilbo to contribute something to the new store!  If anyone needs help learning how to package items, set up vendors, or make listings on XStreetSL, just let Fleep know.

Monday Jinx has opened up a new magic shop along Route 10 in the Kuwol sim, Sleightly, Purveyors of All Things Arcane and Mysterioso, stop by to see the latest razzmatazzle offerings!

Corcosman Voom rented the Commercial #1 space on the main street (Route 10) in Chilbo.  He’s selling artworks and images at Corcosmia Gallery, another great place to explore.

Fleep forgot to report that the Germelshausen Coffeehouse & Bakery is now open in the lovely adobe building in Madhupak sim.  MS Hawker and marque Broadfoot are the proprietors, stop by to say hello!

Olando7 Decosta wondered if the flagging world economy is having any impact in SL.  Several residents said certainly is affecting them in RL, Fleep reports that more residents seem to be interested in renting than donating tier, and some who were donating tier had to either reduce or remove their tier donation – all cited RL economic concerns.

SkyeRanger Pinion raised the issue of splitting proceeds of some sales from vendors in Chilbo to support the community, but Fleep responded that she’s not interested in taxing sales in Chilbo.  For now the community’s economy and coffers seem to be doing ok. 

Education Report

Gann McGann has contacted folks down in the Education Village in Madhupak and continues to support educational projects and activities in the community.  There are still homes, offices, and stores available in the Education Village, if anyone has a friend or colleague who is interested, they can check with Gann or use the rental vendor in the Town Hall to see what’s available.

Olando7 Decosta wanted to know if the Connectivism class taught by George Siemens and Stephen Downes would be held again this fall.  Fleep said she thinks so, but doesn’t think she’ll be running/organizing the SL Cohort this year.  If anyone wants to take charge, the Chilbo community can donate space/land to the endeavor.

NonProfits Report

Lizzette Zenovka couldn’t attend the meeting today, but the SL HIV Education & Prevention Center has expanded to a second floor with a lovely balcony!  Stop by to see the new space.

Fleep forgot to report that new 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 Report

Monarchy Republic had RL duties to attend to, but will be scheduling upcoming events.

Rachel Corleone will be sending an announcement soon about an upcoming poetry reading by Chilbo’s Poet Laureate, Cecilia Delacroix.

New Move-In Process for Chilbo Group Land

Fleep reported that all available properties owned by the Chilbo group are now set up with rental boxes to make things easier for everyone.  If you have a friend or know someone who wants to move to Chilbo, all they have to do is pay the rental box and fill out the forms that should be inside each location.  No need to wait on Fleep, just move right in!  A vendor is located inside the Town Hall Annex with a list of available properties.

New Resident Directory on the Web

To help Google better index Chilbo residents and locations, Fleep has been working on a new directory website.  This directory will also be terrific for helping new and old community members find other folks in Chilbo who share common interests!   See the new directory (in progress) at http://chilbo.org/directory – if your listing needs any corrections or is missing relevant tags, let Fleep know.  Fleep would also be very grateful if anyone wants to help with the data entry!

New Land Purchase, Chilbo Sandbox Moving

Fleep reported that the Chilbo Community now owns the large plot in Madhupak formerly owned by SunQueen Ginsberg and the Pastafarian Collective.  SunQueen ended up buying the land she used to rent in Linda sim for her store.

After some discussion, it was decided that the new land was larger and flatter than the old Chilbo sandbox, so the new land will become to the new sandbox for the community.  Fleep will move the tutorials and other things in the old sandbox sometime this week.

Metaverse Week in Review

Malburns Writer and Tara Yeats continue to broadcast their weekly webcast, Metaverse Week in Review,  on Sundays at 12PM SLT.  The show features news, videos, clips, discussions, and live guests, all covering the emerging metaverse (SL and beyond).  Fleep and Corcosman agree, it’s a must see weekly event!  The live chat draws residents from all over the grid, and Mal and Tara do a great job summarizing what’s new in the metaverse from the past week.   Mal reports that they now have increased capacity to do live broadcasts from within SL, so maybe a Chilbo focused show should be in the works?   Mal also offered to run any machinima clips created by Chilbo residents!  Have questions about how that works?  Talk to Malburns Writer or Tara Yeats.

Chilbo Public Library Needs You!

The Chilbo Public Library was created to fill a niche, currently there are no libraries in Second Life that focus specifically on Second Life, the Metaverse, Virtual Worlds, and Web 2.0.  We have the opportunity to create a rich repository of books, newspapers, magazines, research articles, journals, and other resources related to virtual worlds and the emerging metaverse – a service for all the residents of Second Life, and educators and students too!   To contribute to the library, you can either take one of the blank books and customize it yourself (add a picture/cover, rename the object, and edit the script inside with the appropriate URL), or click the sign at the front desk to suggest a URL to have someone else create the book for you.  Chilbo residents can access the suggestions list and help stock the shelves.

SkyeRanger Pinion has a book viewing item that he will donate to the library (coming soon) and he suggested that a single master list of all the library’s holdings be collected and displayed or linked to from the front desk.  Fleep added that to the To Do list.

Fleep suggests that if you add a new book, you might want to link to the book’s listing on http://worldcat.org instead of linking directly to the amazon.com or other commercial site.  Worldcat.org will show readers where they can check out the book at a RL library OR purchase the book.  The site also has reviews and comment fields, so readers can learn more about the book before pursuing a RL copy.

Downstairs, there are collections for “Chilbo Recommends” – add a book if you have a recommendation, “Chilbo Authors” – add a book, journal article, newspaper story, whatever you’ve written!, “Second Life” – add books or other media related specifically to Second Life, “Metaverse, Virtual Worlds, & Web 2.0″ – add books related to those topics, and upstairs is for academic papers, journals, and research related to these topics.  If you have category suggestions, let Fleep know!

Miscellaneous/Other

Gem Blue wants to know who all from Chilbo will be attending the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco this year (August 13-16).  SLCC is in her hometown, so let her know if you plan to go!

A free Chilbo skateboard is available in the Chilbo Town Hall.  We all used it to skate down to the library.   Feel free to pick one up!  =)

Meeting was adjourned.  Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 13 @ 11AM SLT.

Full transcript is available in the Chilbo Town Hall.

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

Connectivism Village in Chilbo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purpose of the Connectivism Village

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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