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

]]> http://www.chilbo.org/blog/2011/06/changes-to-chilbos-community-model/feed/ 6 http://www.chilbo.org/blog/2010/12/chilbo-town-hall-december-2010/ http://www.chilbo.org/blog/2010/12/chilbo-town-hall-december-2010/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:31:12 +0000 Fleep http://www.chilbo.org/blog/?p=698

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!

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!