Let Me Introduce Our Community

Posted on Jun 3rd, 2008 by

THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS have been very busy as I focused on the very creative and satisfying work of terraforming and landscaping our new island.

Cal isn't so interested in 'hands on' work and he is happy for me to have express my creativity without restriction - what an opportunity! Everyone should create their own world - it's so therapeutic and rewarding. It truly is SOOOO satisfying.

But by far, the most rewarding experience has been the addition of our members!

Porena, the first person to join us, has established a very good site in NING for us all to communicate through and will be holding our first class - on Consensus Building. He's also planning a Dance Party which will be great. I've already bought a couple of primitive dance animations which I'm hoping can be accommodated inside a dance ball for everyone to use.

Porena is also involved in a real life intentional community as well, so he's kept busy on both fronts.

Another of the first to join us is Archer, who has been fantastic, providing tech know-how. Her first fabulous addition was a very useful teleporter so that visitors can pick a place on the map at the central landing area and whizz straight to it. (It may not be 'natural', but hey, this IS SL after all). Why not take advantage of technology that has no adverse impact? Archer will also be conducting some Personal Development classes and continuing tech support.

Artic was another early arrival and she has taken on responsibility for Promotions and Public Relations for the group and island. Artic was involved in one of the most spiritual places in SL, so her expertise will be invaluable. She's also studying tourism in First Life. Her first priority is to gather a team around her who can contact other like-minded groups in SL and offer them a tour of the island to see if they would like to form a link with us and other conservation groups.

Flocke has put her hand up for building projects and wherever else she may be needed; Sojourner is also keen to lend a hand wherever he feels he could be useful. A very old friend of mine Hope63 is very much the philosopher and I'm looking forward to sitting down around the fire when Hope brings his philsopher friends around.

I met Boron in First Life when I visited an intentional community here in Australia and it's great to have him on board with his partner Gem, who will be assisting Artic with our promotional work.

Aramis is our wild biker man - a keen horseman and exponent of natural living. Mikele is another dear friend, but one who is undergoing a bit of an emotional tsunami at the moment after the ending of a very precious romantic relationship. While she wants to belong to our community, she feels now is not really the right time for her.

It will be our first emotional challenge as a family and community - to ensure that Mik, when she finally does return to us, feels secure and a part of us.

Another imminent event we have on is a photographic exhibition by Boron, who has lived in a real life intentional community for over 30 years! Cal and I are also working on holding a regular Trivia Time or Quiz - Cal will prepare the heavy-duty questions and I'll do the light and frothy - name three characters from "The Beverly Hillbillies" for example.

Because we are such an international lot, the best time we've come up for meetings is 7am Sunday for Australia; 5pm Saturday for Canada; 11pm Saturday Europe and 2pm Saturday SL time. We have the meetings in our central landing circle, and a very wild looking biker avatar appeared out of the ether last week, sat down and participated in our discussion, joined our group and left behind a really funny piggy-back animation for us to share - that was Aramis.

In organising the layout of the island, my first thought was to put a circular landing area in the centre of the island so that the range of 'interest spots' would be an equal distance away.

Next, we had to have a mountain to give the island some 'depth' and interest. But oh my god, what a challenge terraforming a mountain is! Increasing land volume in one area, diminished it in another. Flattening something would bring it up. Smoothing it, would ease it away. It was just this huge amorphous mass, which was like jelly to manipulate!

After putting in the landing area (people arrive anywhere in SL via teleport so they just 'appear' on the landscape), my first priority was planting the orchard. Click, click, click and I had a short avenue of white apple trees, gently dropping blossoms on the path. Very romantic. I've already told you about what was planted, but I think it bears repeating - just to get your senses stimulated - gorgeous strawberry plants, then a rich-looking eggplant (aubergine) and some juicy-looking tomatoes, a little row of lettuces and a cabbage, some parsley of course and basil, an orange tree or two, some pineapples and corn.

I'm still looking for wheat, a beehive and bees, some chickens and a cow to complete the 'look'. When that is done, we will have a great 'visual' example of how it's possible to be self-sufficient by having your own food in your own garden, rather than relying on huge multi-national food monopolies/supermarkets.

One of my friends in SL was given a beautiful galleon as a birthday present and because she didn't have anywhere to rezz it (make it appear 'in world') I offered her one of our bays at the island. To give access to her guests, I modified a bridge and turned it into quite a nifty-looking 'wharf', complete with coloured Chinese lanterns for that festive air. I was looking down at it today from the mountain and it would be such a loss if it weren't there.

The galleon is another example of self-sufficiency in that because it's wind-powered (and man-powered), we don't have to be reliant on petrol companies for fuel. Imagine shipping companies going back to windpower! Conjure about the vision in your mind - now isn't that far more romantic than a cargo ship?

I do hope we manage to attract a botanist to the island. I'd love to have an accurate representation of the planet's vegetation types. So far I've just planted good-looking plants and trees with no thought at all to ecological impact.

As far as I'm concerned, Cal and I are just providing the canvas, with a few details sketched in until our community attracts more of the people it is meant to attract - people who will fill in the rest of the picture.

Over on 'the mainland', which is how I think of our Canadian land mass, Cal's magnificent cave stands as the main focus for attention. It is just a gorgeous creation - dark, moody-looking rocks and vibrant blue waterfalls and exotic flowers - and a sensual carpet of luxuriously green moss on which to lay.

Generously located across the island are lots of little 'snuggle spots' where people can seek privacy. I've now placed out a couple of games tables - mahjong and chess and hope to establish an archery range at some point.

One of the most satisfying projects for me has been the establishment of walking tracks through the mountain. I love spying a certain kink in the land and thinking, "Mmmmm, I think I could make an interesting little path there." Because the views to the west are blocked by our mountain, I've placed a set of meditation cushions up there for those who like to meditate in the late-afternoon (while another set has been placed near our Wisteria Bridge to the east).

Cal has left a couple of his horses out and before long I hope to have another couple available for visitors to ride.

One of the things that I would love to see happen here is that the people who have joined us will just naturally take on responsibility for whatever areas that appeal to them. As they spend more time on the island, trying it on for size and fit, they may also adopt specific areas which appeal to them and make them their 'own'.

All in all, life is pretty damned good still. Cal is working a lot to make up for having a holiday in April, so we haven't spent as much time together as we have in the past. I have plenty to do on the island and community though, so I'm busy as well. We spend an hour or two together each day/night catching up, but I do miss the unfettered freedom of the past when we gazed adoringly into each other's eyes, lost in our beautiful fantasy.

We'd love to see you on our idyllic island - so if your interest is piqued, please leave a message here for us and we'll let you know where we are.

Namaste

Mia

P.S. The photo above is of a few of us on a group tour of the island at the cave - left to right are Flocke, Archer, Gem and Aramis with me in the front. (I have a Mysti Tool attachment which enables me to rezz and 'attach' chairs to me so that I can take people on a guided tour as they sit behind me). Second Life makes just about anything possible!

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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, conservation, terraforming, photographic exhibition, consensus building class, teleporting

From Chaos To Clarity ... We Hope!

Posted on Jun 12th, 2008 by

asecondlifediary

EACH WEEKEND our fledging community has decided that we will get together for either a meeting or just a catch up and last weekend was only our second time of all being together in any number. And what a schamozzle it was!

Getting an international community together is a bit of a challenge as it is and our 2pm SL time slot means it is 5pm Sunday afternoon for Cal who is in Canada; 11pm for Archer, Artic and Porena who are in Europe and 7am for the Australians. One of our members, Sojourner is in the U.S. somewhere and I'm not sure what time it was for him - maybe 2pm or 5pm so quite convenient.

I slept in, so when Cal phoned me on my landline, I rushed to the computer, completely groggy and half cross-eyed! I had intended to be better-prepared and so I was off to a bad start. On top of that we had a guest, who everyone later agreed must have been drunk as they kept making cracks about us all taking our clothes off and dancing!

Others kept going afk (away from keyboard) - to get a coffee; go to the toilet; let their cat out; bring their cat in; pacify their wife who was wanting attention etc., etc., etc.

A couple of members had been working hard all week on their individual projects and they were keen to tell us their progress, but one of them in particular got stroppy because they felt people weren't paying proper attention and they went off in a huff.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - we all agreed it had been pandemonium and we really did need to get our act together if people weren't going to get frustrated and stop coming. As it was after an hour or so, people started wandering off to bed or other commitments and it was left to just three of us to de-brief and work out where we had gone wrong.

With just the three of us, it was easy to have a rational conversation and we lay down a few guidelines we thought would make it easier for people to follow the flow of conversation in the future. Number One was the democratic sharing around of a TALKING STICK which meant that everybody else had to stay quiet for the several minutes that the appointed person had the talking stick. We decided we would encourage people to type, "OK" to signify that they had heard what had been said, or acknowledge that it was their turn to talk.

In the cyber world, it can sometimes be hard to know if the other person is typing a treatise for you to read, or has gone to sleep so we thought it would certainly help the flow of conversation if people typed quicker, shorter sentences to 'feed' people instead of typing for five minutes and then everyone have a big rush to read that big chunk of text before the next chunk was spat out.

Another conclusion we came to was that the energy of our community up until now has been provided by those of us who are more involved in the Administration side of things - me putting up a Welcome Sign and Daily News bulletin board; Archer working on scripting issues; and Artic focused on promotion and public relations (supported by Gem and Mikele).

The time has now come for the 'big boys' to pony up their expertise and energy and focus our attention on, "Why are we there?" "What do we want to achieve by having an intentional community devoted to living simply in nature?" What kind of organisations do we want to be allied to? What are we trying to teach people? What do we have to offer?

Cal, Porena, Boron and Sojourner are going to be getting together sometime soon, so they can discuss these issues and come back to the larger group with some kind of information and focus for us.

When Cal and I first got together, we joked that I was steering our relationship and Cal was in charge of the accelerator. Now that we are forming a community together, that same analogy holds true - except that it isn't just Cal and I involved - it is a community of ten other people.

The 'Administrative' part of our group have been revving the engine and roaring, ready to go but until the 'Environmental' team get their act together and inspire us to action, we don't really have a place to go to! Cal has been in touch with another like-minded community in SL and they will be coming on a tour soon and I'm looking forward to that. In the meantime, I'm going to be hosting smaller-scale tours on a daily basis just to practise my skills in that area.

There is so much happening on our beautiful island - I am really inspired. With each little step, we get closer to being a polished 'product' and as I was saying to Porena the other night, there's no reason our model, once we have created it, can't be used in the 'real' world.

We will be creating a 'kitty' on the island soon, so everyone can flip some money into it for ongoing projects - the development of our vegetable garden etc. When I go into SL tonight, I'm off to buy some bees and a beehive - both for honey and the production of beeswax for candles, so we can establish a little 'cottage industry'.

I think we are slowly getting to know one another, and that's really exciting to me, but I am also very aware of my own tendency to 'hurry things along' and I have to remind myself not to push too much or else I will alienate people.

Okay - that's enough from me. Maybe I will get one of the other members to place the next entry here. Stay tuned!

(Photo above: Mikele and I on top of our mountain, which I named Mount Gandhi when I was building it).

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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, Cottage Industry, Environmental Team, Communications, Mount Gandhi

Here We Are .... Well, Some Of Us

Posted on Jun 18th, 2008 by

asecondlifediary

Just thought I'd put in a clearer photo of more of our community - taken at our weekly meeting last weekend. (Left to right - Archer (on ground), Flocke, Porena, Sojourner, Me, Cal, Boron and Gem).

You might also be interested in the minutes of our meeting - just to give you an idea of the personalities involved and the kinds of things we're interested in.

Prior to our meeting, Porena and I had discussed what kind of 'ritual' might be a good way of opening and closing our meetings. We thought that perhaps giving everyone an opportunity to light a candle for whatever purpose they wanted, might be a good idea PLUS allocating 20 seconds of silence for us all to focus on the reason we belong to the community, or what we want to achieve from the meeting.

As far as 'regulating' in some way, whose turn it is to speak at the meetings, it was generally felt that the Talking Stick was a good symbol of whose turn it was to speak, but the practicality of this was a bit unwieldy - handing the stick on for example - and as it turned out, a simple, "I now hand the stick to ... " generally worked well. It also helps if the 'stick' goes round the circle in a clockwise motion. That way, people can at least be in the process of typing their responses because they know they are next to speak.

There was a little bit of chat lag, but generally we soon established a flow and Porena asked everyone to give a quick summary of why we were there:

[2008/06/15 14:17] Porena Pomilio: I'd just like to say that I have two feelings on how serious this is that we are trying to do, and the other that I am smiling cos it's a laugh as well

[2008/06/15 14:19] Boron Homewood: I would like to say that I look forward to a community where I can be myself and share with others.

[2008/06/15 14:19] Boron Homewood: Friends, true friends are the most important

[2008/06/15 14:21] Gem Karas: I feel that the most important thing for me is the friendship and intelligent stimulating conversation

[2008/06/15 14:21] Gem Karas: It's nice to be at home with so many people

[2008/06/15 14:22] Cern Box: I am just curious (Cern Box is the sculptor who GAVE us the Gandhi statue)

[2008/06/15 14:23] Cern Box: No I dont think so I am just curious about the poeple here and maybe find some new interesting folk

[2008/06/15 14:22] Sojourner Merryman: I'm glad to be making new friendships, and wonder what sort of adventure our times together will be!

[2008/06/15 14:23] Mikele Ihnen: I would like to ask how leadership works in these sorts of communities.... if traditional hierachic structures are essentially disregarded?

[2008/06/15 14:24] Cal Freenote: I am confident that, as long as we have a shared purpose here, self-organization will work and this community will succeed

[2008/06/15 14:25] Flocke Eizenstark: At the moment I feel examined and not really have mind open for perfect paradise or secondlife to be honest but i do feel home here and it is good to be here during small breaks.

[2008/06/15 14:26] Flocke Eizenstark: its good to have friends around here

[2008/06/15 14:26] You: 'I'm just looking forward to seeing what we will all create together.

[2008/06/15 14:27] Archer Mokeev: I'm here today to listen.... to see what community this place was created for.

Then we had the opportunity of hearing Boron, who has lived in a real life intentional community for 30 years, speak.

[2008/06/15 14:30] Boron Homewood: I live in a community in the bush on top of a small mountain

[2008/06/15 14:30] Boron Homewood: It has been going over 30 years and it is a healthy vibrant group of people in a wonderful landscape

[2008/06/15 14:31] Boron Homewood: There is a real sense of place there. People have a strong commitment to each other

[2008/06/15 14:32] Boron Homewood: We strive for a sustainable lifestyle

[2008/06/15 14:32] Boron Homewood: We are not on mains electricity and we run about 100 acres of farmland

[2008/06/15 14:33] Boron Homewood: Most of the 30 houses on the properety have been owner built. Most are odd styles like mud brick or rammed earth.

[2008/06/15 14:34] Boron Homewood: I built my own house and have raised 2 girls there. They are now adults

[2008/06/15 14:34] Boron Homewood: It has been a wonderful place to bring up kids. We are very connected with nature and the out of doors

[2008/06/15 14:35] Boron Homewood: The best part is the friendships that we have developed there

[2008/06/15 14:35] Boron Homewood: It is a bit like an extended family.

[2008/06/15 14:36] Boron Homewood: Each has their own house, but it is on common land

[2008/06/15 14:36] Boron Homewood: It is a good balance between privacy and community interaction

[2008/06/15 14:37] Mikele Ihnen: how have you determined the shared spiritual purpose within the group Boron?

[2008/06/15 14:37] Boron Homewood: We have a manifesto. That lays out our aims and basic rules. It is not a hard core idealist community. It is more flexible

[2008/06/15 14:39] You: I've been to Boron's community

[2008/06/15 14:39] You: and you can see the view from his house at his exhibition

[2008/06/15 14:39] You: spectacular views

[2008/06/15 14:40] You: I was looking at living there myself

[2008/06/15 14:40] You: but they have a no dog policy

[2008/06/15 14:40] You: As far as I know the community is set up in 'sections'

[2008/06/15 14:40] You: so you can choose which 'area or section you want to build in.

[2008/06/15 14:43] You: One of the things I like about an IC is the shared group activities ...

[2008/06/15 14:44] You: like helping one another to build your home.

[2008/06/15 14:44] You: They also have a large vegetable garden

[2008/06/15 14:44] You: where one of the residents was growing grapes for wine

[2008/06/15 14:44] You: excess produce is taken to the local community for purchase.

At this stage Boron had crashed, so while we were waiting for him to come back online, I handed out this week's Members' Folders which are just a collection of landmarks, notecards, links to real life intentional communities etc., which may be useful to people. Information provided there can either be kept or ditched, according to personal wishes. If anyone has something they would like distributed throughout our community, just give it to me and I'll put it in the weekly Folders.

[2008/06/15 14:45] Porena Pomilio: Do they do the farming themselves?

[2008/06/15 14:45] You: There were only a couple of people from the community

[2008/06/15 14:45] You: who had taken on responsibility for growing vegs

[2008/06/15 14:45] You: It's in a large fenced area

[2008/06/15 14:45] You: to keep out kangaroos, wombats etc.

[2008/06/15 14:46] You: Welcome back Boron - I was just telling everyone about what I saw when I visited your community

[2008/06/15 14:47] Mikele Ihnen: Boron? Where does the "buck stops here" begin and end in your community?

[2008/06/15 14:47] Boron Homewood: Do you mean who takes responsibility?

[2008/06/15 14:48] Boron Homewood: We are a properly consituted Co-operative.

[2008/06/15 14:48] Boron Homewood: And we are legally required to have a board of directors

[2008/06/15 14:49] Boron Homewood: We elect 7 directors and they have the legal responsibility

[2008/06/15 14:49] Boron Homewood: But everyone is involved in the decision making process

[2008/06/15 14:49] You: Boron, what were some of the early difficulties you had in the community?

[2008/06/15 14:50] Boron Homewood: With any large group of people there will always be differences. It is important to maintain a caring commitment to one another through any conflict

[2008/06/15 14:51] You: So, the success of the community is the prime objective?

[2008/06/15 14:51] Boron Homewood: Our basic purpose is to live sustainably within our environment and to build a caring community. It's pretty broad. Lots of room for individual ideas

[2008/06/15 14:52] Boron Homewood: It takes alot of tolerance and understanding

[2008/06/15 14:52] You: What kind of processes do you have in place for dealing with conflict then?

[2008/06/15 14:53] Boron Homewood: We have regular meetings. Director's meetings deal with management issues. And make policy decisions

[2008/06/15 14:53] Boron Homewood: Community meetings deal with policy.

[2008/06/15 14:54] Mikele Ihnen: it sounds very time consuming

[2008/06/15 14:54] Boron Homewood: We set up lots of committees to deal with things like land management, power and water, finance, etc.

[2008/06/15 14:54] Mikele Ihnen: how efficient is this policy process

[2008/06/15 14:54] Boron Homewood: The work is spead between all, so its not to much for any individual

[2008/06/15 14:55] Porena Pomilio: How do you spread the work out?

[2008/06/15 14:55] You: Boron, how many people are in your community?

[2008/06/15 14:55] Boron Homewood: We have been going for such a long time, our policies are fairly well worked out. But change is continual (and good)

[2008/06/15 14:55] Boron Homewood: There are 30 families. Of various sizes.

[2008/06/15 14:56] Boron Homewood: A lot of the jobs are voluntary. Some key positions like treasurer have a paid honorarium

[2008/06/15 14:56] You: It's an idyllic place Boron - especially since the kids can have horses there.

[2008/06/15 14:56] Porena Pomilio: People say these things don't work - yet yours obviously does

[2008/06/15 14:57] Boron Homewood: We have monthly workdays. Like yesterday. The community mostly come and work for the day. We have a large commmunity lunch

[2008/06/15 14:58] Boron Homewood: I think that the success of our community has several elements.

[2008/06/15 14:59] Boron Homewood: First, We have a wonderful property. 600 acres on top of a forested mountain.

[2008/06/15 15:00] Boron Homewood: And we have a strong commitment to the environment. We started before it was trendy :-))

[2008/06/15 15:00] Boron Homewood: We have a very committed group that truly cares for each other.

[2008/06/15 15:01] Cal Freenote: Has anyone ever left, Boron?

[2008/06/15 15:01] Boron Homewood: Well, we are more conservative than most of the locals think we are!

[2008/06/15 15:01] You: Your community has been through some fairly traumatic experiences hasn't it Boron - bushfire threats a couple of times?

[2008/06/15 15:02] Boron Homewood: Yes, Over 30 years we have had lots of coming and going. That is good. new energy is important

[2008/06/15 15:02] Boron Homewood: Living in the bush is not easy. But it is rewarding

[2008/06/15 15:03] You: As you say, you were living in harmony with nature long before it was trendy.

[2008/06/15 15:03] Cal Freenote: have the houses been hard for people to sell?

[2008/06/15 15:03] Boron Homewood: I like to live close to the elements. Even the frightening ones!

[2008/06/15 15:03] Porena Pomilio: What material standard do you have... electricity, air con, etc?

[2008/06/15 15:04] You: One of the houses I saw being built there was a hay bale house

[2008/06/15 15:04] You: with doors off hotel beer cabinets as double glazed windows.

[2008/06/15 15:04] You: very clever

[2008/06/15 15:04] Boron Homewood: There is a demand for houses here now. So it's not hard to sell. But there are complicatiuons on a collective title. Like you can't get a normal home loan, because the bank can't reposess it.

[2008/06/15 15:06] Boron Homewood: The power issue is one area where we differ from normal houses. We have solar electricity, but it means we have to be real careful with how we use it

[2008/06/15 15:06] You: You share the solar facilities Boron?

[2008/06/15 15:06] You: or each house has their own set up?

[2008/06/15 15:07] Boron Homewood: The setup with the electricity varies a bit around the place. Some have common systems and other have their own. Mostly it is individual systems

[2008/06/15 15:08] Boron Homewood: Sharing has a raft of complications regarding equity and effort. Big question to resolve

[2008/06/15 15:08] Sojourner Merryman: Do most people work on the property, or somewhere else?

[2008/06/15 15:08] You: Actually, from memory ...'the hay bale place is going to share some kind of heating/electricity equipment with a neighbour?

[2008/06/15 15:08] Boron Homewood: A few derive income off the property, but most have to go off to work

[2008/06/15 15:09] Cal Freenote: Car-pooling used, boron?

[2008/06/15 15:10] Boron Homewood: Car-pooling is something we are taking on board, with the rise in fuel cost, its a good idea. but it will be hard for people to accept the inconvienience

[2008/06/15 15:10] Cal Freenote: i guess telework is hard to arrange

[2008/06/15 15:10] Boron Homewood: We are about 15km from town.

[2008/06/15 15:11] Boron Homewood: Yes, we have a wide range of professions within our community

[2008/06/15 15:11] Porena Pomilio: A reflection.. you say policies have been worked out. That sounds easier that debating every decision. Right?

[2008/06/15 15:12] Boron Homewood: We seem to have enough to talk about to keep everyone interested. If it gets to quiet, some invent issues to debate!

[2008/06/15 15:13] Boron Homewood: Some enjoy conflict more than others. Its important to respect all.

[2008/06/15 15:13] Cal Freenote: Has anyone ever left because of a dispute that couldn't be resolved?

[2008/06/15 15:14] Boron Homewood: Yes. it is inevitable given human nature

[2008/06/15 15:14] You: What seem to be the 'deal breaker' issues Boron?

[2008/06/15 15:15] Boron Homewood: It is hard enough to keep a couple living harmoniously. Think what would be required to keep 30 together!

[2008/06/15 15:16] Boron Homewood: The most important issue, as I see it, is to respect each other's opinion. And to have a big helping of tolerance. But then, that just my opinion.

[2008/06/15 15:16] You: You have a 'no dog' restriction ... presumably that came about from some people having dogs and the threat to wildlife?

[2008/06/15 15:17] Boron Homewood: We have banned dogs and cats from the start. We have a very health native wildlife community here. Predators would be very disruptive.

[2008/06/15 15:18] Boron Homewood: I must say, I like dogs and cats. But not in the bush

[2008/06/15 15:17] You: What kind of interaction do you have with the 'outside' community?

[2008/06/15 15:18] You: You share excess vegetables I know...

[2008/06/15 15:18] Boron Homewood: We have a commmunity horticultural project that produces a fair bit of food

[2008/06/15 15:19] Boron Homewood: We also operate a Learning Centre and have student groups come and stay and do environmental courses

[2008/06/15 15:20] Boron Homewood: We have a large community Centre that can bed 30 guests

[2008/06/15 15:21] Cal Freenote: Wow who pays to maintain the CC?

[2008/06/15 15:21] Boron Homewood: We pay calls and dues. We also make some $ from Learning Centre activities and other events.

[2008/06/15 15:22] Boron Homewood: We also have a bi-annual Festival. The last one made about $8,000 clear after costs.

[2008/06/15 15:22] Porena Pomilio: Advice for us starting out - is there anything WE Should be doing we are not?

[2008/06/15 15:23] Boron Homewood: The one thing I think we need to focus on to start is to have a common purpose for our IC. It can be broad, but it needs to be something we can work together on

[2008/06/15 15:24] Boron Homewood: The environment is obvious. But what does that mean in SL?

[2008/06/15 15:26] Sojourner Merryman: Of course Boron's community is not self-sufficient, they have to go outside for income and many goods and services.

[2008/06/15 15:26] Boron Homewood: Complete self sufficency is an unreal expectation. But there is alot you CAN do.

[2008/06/15 15:26] Cal Freenote: good point...but a lot more self-sufficient than most communities! :-)

[2008/06/15 15:27] Sojourner Merryman: Boron, I don't know how we can give a round of applause in SL, but thanks for typing so much for us!

[2008/06/15 15:27] Boron Homewood: Thanks, I'm happy to chat with anyone on a one-on-one basis as well

[2008/06/15 15:27] You: so next week let's talk about what we can do here ...

[2008/06/15 15:28] You: shall we?

[2008/06/15 15:28] Porena Pomilio: I can't make it, I'm in Palermo....

[2008/06/15 15:28] You: Is there anything else anyone wants to share with group before we go and do a group photo?

[2008/06/15 15:28] Sojourner Merryman: Yes, I would like us to move a bit towards figuring out common purposes.

To this end, Soj has sent out a survey which should give us something to work with at our meeting this coming weekend. Even though Porena won't be able to attend, we can still start the process of "Where are we going?"

After the meeting I briefly discussed having a community project with a couple of people and we thought that it would be good for us all to work on something together as a team-building exercise. What do people think of us building a ship/galleon together? It has to be a sail craft of some kind - large enough to fit a community of 20 people on. OR is there any other project that people have in mind that we could all work on together? I'm no builder, but I think we have enough expertise in the community to take this on - both Archer and Artic/Flocke have building skills I'm sure they wouldn't mind sharing with us all.

P.S. As you can see from the group photo, the poseball setting I picked up is not very inspiring - so if anyone comes across something a bit more animated, let's grab it!

AND one that the un-used balls don't show up in.

I chose Gandhi as our 'symbol' as he lived a very simple life, and a life of peace dedicated to bringing his country together. Cern suggested that we put a sound byte or two into the statue, so that when an avatar comes close, he starts to speak. If anyone comes across some inspiring 'voice' from Gandhi, can they please get in touch with Cern Box? (I'm going to be working on putting together a bit of a bio on Gandhi, which people will get when they click on the statue).

P.S. Not everyone who was at the meeting was able to stay around for the group photo.

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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, Meeting, Ideals, Real Life Experience

Emergent Community: Intentional, Accidental, Gravitational

Posted on Jun 21st, 2008 by

asecondlifediary

I've been watching the development of our 'Intentional' Community with great interest. Mia did most of the work creating the physical space for the community (and it has become one of the most beautiful places in Second Life). The rest of the community members fall into three categories:

1. People who want to talk seriously about important issues and ideas
2. People who want to build, design, enhance, 'develop' the physical space
3. People who want to play

Because I'm getting serious about the idea of Intentional Community (both the use of SL as a laboratory for testing IC concepts like finding new members, consensus building and dispute resolution, and applying these 'laboratory' learnings to create an IC in real life), I'm currently part of the first category.

My sense is that curious visitors to our community mostly fall into category 3, and, because the physical space is deliberately natural and simple, so there is not much to play with (unlike some places in SL where games, simulations, contests and role-playing dominate), I don't expect these visitors to stay around long.

Likewise, because our space is limited in the number of things you can put on it (you get the space for 1/4 the price but you can only have 1/4 the number of objects on it), the category 2 people, who are doing most of the 'work' in the community now, will soon run out of things that can be done, and will, I suspect, get bored and disengage from the community.

I'm hopeful that, with a bit of viral marketing by those of us in category 1, we will ultimately attract more people who just want to use this beautiful, natural place as a space for love, conversation and community. I don't know if that will happen or not -- Second Life has a lot of escapists, emotionally troubled people, and people who find intelligent, purposeful conversation too slow, boring, and too much work to keep their interest. And there are already some other places (though none as attractive as ours) whose purpose is principally conversation of one type or another.

What is happening, and will continue to happen, I think, regardless of how we do or don't market our community, is that some sense of common purpose or intent will emerge among the members who gravitate to our community. I am hopeful that that will be a category 1 purpose, but if it is not, that's OK too. Worst case scenario is I'll spend more of my Second Life time elswehere than our island, finding the intelligent conversation there.

We designed our island as a model for Intentional Community. It has begun, largely as an Accidental Community of people Mia and I know and others who have stumbed on the place. It is quickly becoming a Gravitational Community, with some people opting out and others joining by virtue of having shared interests with other members. It has currently 3 centres of gravity, corresponding to the 3 categories of members/visitors above. It remains to be seen which will emerge as the sustainable centre(s) of gravity. To a certain extent I think mass attracts mass, and one or two or perhaps three different communities will end up living here, each an Intentional Community with a shared purpose.

But we cannot rush or impose that shared purpose until we know who will accept our invitiations to join, and who will stay. As they say in Open Space, whoever accept the invitation, come and stay are the 'right' people.

It is fascinating watching that complex process unfold.

/-/ Cal

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Tagged with: intentional community, second life, gravitational community

Thoughts on the Objective for an Intentional Community in SL

Posted on Jun 27th, 2008 by

asecondlifediary

This is a first draft of a statement of purpose for our Intentional Community in Second Life, that I'm hoping we will discuss at our regular Sunday evening meeting. -- Cal

Our Purpose:

Our island is our Second Home, our return to the Garden. We resolve to live simply here, naturally, without things we don't need.

We want to show that:

a life based on principles of sufficiency, simplicity, responsibility, sustainability and harmony can be easy, enjoyable, enriching, healthy, liberating, and good for the environment;
entertaining ourselves can be more fun than relying on others to create entertainment for us, and that learning from and with each other can be more fulfilling and capacity-building than having others inform us and tell us what to think and do;
communities do not need artificial environments, private property, leaders, boundaries, laws or restrictions to work and to be wonderful places to live; and
decisions made and conflicts resolved by trusting and placing responsibility on each community member, or by consensus, are better than decisions made by majority vote or conflicts resolved by arguments, threats, third party intervention or violence.

We want to learn, by trial and error and study, how the most successful communities find and assess new members in a fair and equitable manner.

There are some aspects of living in a real-life intentional community that do not really apply in Second Life (e.g. making a living, dealing with children, pets, health and education issues, security against hostile outsiders, inequality of income and assets, discrimination, self-actualization, buying land and building shelter together, the need to collaborate, and acceptance of interdependence). We want to explore, through conversation and through research, how we might deal with these issues if we were in a real-life intentional community together.

We will do these things through:

'living' together in community, in a way consistent with this purpose and these principles, being a model that outsiders can see and study;
regular themed discussions on how we might deal with real-life intentional community issues;
developing a process to identify and invite prospective new members to visit and to assess who should be a member of our community; and
creating our own simple, responsible, sustainable activities that allow us to have fun, share knowledge, and learn together.

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Tagged with: intentional community, second life, gravitational community

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