Burning Life

Post Event Surveys

You came to Burning Life. You volunteered at Burning Life. You danced, explored and socialized at Burning Life. Now you've got opinions about the experience, and we want to hear them. Please fill out whichever survey(s) best describe your participatory angle. The more you tell us, the more we can refine our plans for next year!

• Visitors Survey- Please Tell Us What You Think
• Ranger Survey- So You "Rode the Edge of Chaos"?
• Builders Survey- Your Opinions Wanted!
• Volunteers & Performers Survey- How Did it Go?

What is Burning Life?

Burning Life was first held in 2003 when the grid was still in its infancy, and this is its 6th year running. Burning Life is the Second Life version of the real life Art, Fire and Community festival known globally as Burning Man. Both Burning Man and Second Life began in San Francisco, California, USA, (on planet Earth). But they have a lot more in common than their birthplace.

In 1999, an innovative man made a long trek from San Francisco to the sun-baked playa of an enormous, flat, dry lake bed in the Nevada high desert. He went to attend the renowned Burning Man festival where, for one week each year, 50,000 people build art, camps and communities and celebrate being who they really are. This man came back with new ideas for the virtual world he was planning; ideas about the nature of reality, creativity, identity and community. He worked some of these ideas into the very fabric of "Linden World" which eventually became what you and I know as Second Life. That man was Philip Linden.

What happens at Burning Man is something phenomenal. This real-world city built by its citizens has roads, street signs, an FAA-approved airport, a power grid, a hospital, huge public plazas, street lights, processions, rituals and spectacles. It has fabulous fashions, ridiculous situations and artworks so raw they are dangerous.

BUT - It's all temporary. At the end of that week, every last last speck of what was brought there is taken away again, Leaving No Trace of the city that was just there. When the winter rains come, even the footprints vanish. Til next year....

Because Burning Life is a mirror in spirit of a real life event, albeit with the unique and creative twists only Second Life can offer, we follow suit. Together, we will build a city, and we voluntarily accept many of the same restrictions that Nature imposes on the real thing. We do this to see how creative we can be with the same palette of materials and to revel in the beauty of simplicity. We use the same blank, desert landscape, and many of the things we build are naked or primitive in structure, easily revealing to the casual viewer how they were constructed. Just pretend that you're bringing everything you need with you in your car or truck and you're going camping. Extreme Camping. Really Extreme Camping.

The other thing you need to know up front is this: Both Burning Life and Burning Man are completely non-commercial. There is no buying or selling in this city...no sponsorships, no logos, no advertising, but acts of unconditional gift-giving that play a large part in Burning culture. It's all about about the radical inclusion of participants, it means welcome and respect — with no prerequisites for participation. It's all about us and what we have made for each other to enjoy.

Burning Life is a Resident-Created Event held on Linden land. All Linden Lab TOS and Community Standards will be in effect.

Upcoming Episodes:

• More history and Philosophy
• A few words from Philip Linden

Stay Tuned!
Dusty Linden
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What Needs Doing & How To Play

How do you get involved? Use the Burning Life '08 Volunteer Signup Form But before you start filling this out, you may want to take note of the volunteer positions listed below. You will be able to apply for specific volunteer positions from those lists by using this form.

Burning Life '08 Volunteer Positions

Browse all volunteer positions

Browse by Department:

• Administration
• Art Department
• Burning Man Regional Group
• Communications
• Community
• Dispatch
• DMV- Department of Mutant Vehicles
• DPW- Department of Public Works
• DPW Coders
• Rangers
• Performance

Browse by Major Skill Set:

• Building- Expert
• Scripter- Expert
• Textures- Expert

Burning Life 2008 Builder's Info

THERE IS A LOT OF INFORMATION HERE. PLEASE READ IT. If you IM us with questions that are answered here, you may be ignored for a month or so!!

1. GROUP. If you haven't already, you must join the group called .:Burning Life:. It's open enrollment. Region access will be restricted to Burning Life Group Members only. You will need to wear your Burning Life Group tag in order to Teleport in and build.

2. GETTING TO THE LAND. Parcels and who they are assigned to can be viewed here - http://vburn.org/landaccess/ SLURLs are provided for each. A map of the estate is below.

3. DEADLINES. After you claim land, you will have 3 days to begin building, before we put the plot back in the pot for someone else to claim Your build must be finished by Friday, Sept 26.

4. CREW ACCESS. Other members of your team will need to be added to the builders' role by hand. That's a lot of people. Please only bring the people you really need right now, to reduce load on our staff.

5. TERRAFORMING. There will be no terraforming and no water exposed from terraform. The Real Life Playa we emulate is big, flat, and hard, so ours is too ;-)

6. SCRIPTS. Low lag scripts are vital! Please bear this in mind. We will be checking script times to ensure that lag is manageable. If you need help refining your scripts, our DPW Lead, Talia Tokugawa, can probably hook you up with help.

7. MEGAPRIMS. As with ALL events help on Linden land, Mega prims are not permitted, and will be returned to you if used.

8. BUILDING Do's and Don'ts. You must wear your "Builder" Role Tag when building or your work will be auto returned. (You may need to select it from the group drop down menu in the "General" tab.) When you wear the "Builder" role tag, the Build button at the bottom of your screen will still be greyed out. This does NOT mean you cannot build. Just rez your items as normal. Please note that the Playa is not your own personal sand box and keep your building within your camp area! You can view your area by going to "View" in the top menu bar then "View Property Lines".

9. PRIMS. You can see how many prims you have by looking at your land terminal. It shows your total and how many you have used. Your neighbors can see this too, so behave yourselves ;-).

10. PRESS. If members of the Press request event information from you, please direct them to Katt Linden.

11. IMAGES. Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/burninglife/ Please do not post images giving away a huge amount of info about the event until it opens. Teasers only! It's more fun that way.

12. DECOMMODIFICATION. Burning Life is completely non-commercial. There is no buying or selling in this city...no sponsorships, no logos, no advertising, only acts of unconditional gift-giving that play a large part in Burning culture. Builds that seem like advertising will not be allowed.

13. AESTHETIC. We are emulating a temporary desert encampment. We are not building houses or anything that looks permanent or prefab. If you disregard this, the community reserves the right to vote you off the island ;-) Please join in the spirit of the project, and help make this event a visual whole. Please design with illumination, fabric, art, wood and other lightweight materials! Be imaginative!

14. BEHAVIOR. TOS will be strictly in effect; we wlll not tolerate people abusing one another. TOS violations will be grounds for removal from the event. We will also be following the Burning Man Network Principles as much as Second Life will allow. http://regionals.burningman.com/network_principles.html

15. EVENTS. We're trying to get away from the "build it and walk away" model. Consider hosting some get togethers or events at your build. We will provide an online calendar for you to list your events. We will alert you when that's ready for use.

16. MATURITY RATING. Please note: By building, performing or holding events at Burning Life you accept responsibility for maintaining PG ratings on PG land and following standard Linden Lab terms of Service and Community Standards.

17. EVENT RESOURCES. The Event Staff you are most likely to need are:
Dusty Linden, Administration/Communications;
Talia Tokugawa, Department of Public Works (Infrastructure builds);
Poid Mahovlich, Art Department,
Daaneth Kivioq, Performance Department;
Blondin Linden, Event Scheduling;
Eden Toll, Center Camp Stage Scheduling
Joao Mastroianni, Linguists
Velvetina Sodwind, Greeters
Countess Decosta, Tour Guides
Darek Deluca, Pyro Team (available to help you with fireworks and burning effects)

Map of Burning Life '08

Below is Version 1 of the Burning Life '08 map. It may change a bit!
Orange= reserved theme camp area (make a proposal to get one of these spaces)
Lavender= theme camp space awarded by lottery
Greys= first-come-first-served theme camp areas released on different days/time zones
Salmon/pink= Infrastructure builds
Light Blue= Land released after RL Burning Man
Grey Central playa, art spaces

Burning Life Events Calendar

Please add events here: ADD EVENTS

You can browse your events and others in Calendar View here: VIEW CALENDAR
or in a sortable and filterable list view here: BROWSE EVENTS LIST

Staff list

• Burning Life Staff 2008
• Burning Life Staff 2009 Still under construction

Group Chat Guidelines

In the interest of keeping the peace in group chat, we have new guidelines for chat in the .:Burning Life:. Group. They are adapted from the same guidelines that the gigantic Mentor's Group uses.

Please remember, the Group Instant Message (IM) channel can reach over 2500 people and is not intended for idle chatter. Make sure to use the channel only for important issues. Questions and concerns that do not need to be broadcast to the whole group should be brought up in a separate communication venue, or you can get together in Center Camp to socialize.

IM Policy:

   * If asking a question, add: "Please IM me" at the end of the question. This will help remind about the correct procedure.
   * If there has been a question posted, please refrain from further commentary on the topic.
   * If you can answer a question, please send the answer in private IM. 

Use the Channel for Helpful Reference:

   * Do encourage the use of the wiki, http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Burning_life. 
   * Do use the channel to ask technical questions of other builders, then take it to IM or Center Camp.
   * Do file a Abuse Reports via Help->Report Abuse... for abuse, harassment or griefing concerns. 

Use the Channel to Rally Volunteers:

   * Do use the channel if you would like to gather a group of helpers.
   * Do use the channel if you are seeking a volunteer who speaks a certain language. Only reply to those type messages if you do speak the language. 

Use Channel Etiquette:

   * Do be courteous to your teammates in the group channel.
   * Do avoid general conversation...Try other venues for friendly chatter, such as a meetup at Center Camp.
   * Do avoid disputes. Agree to disagree! Please keep debates in Private IMs.
   * Please remember....there's no need to respond if your answer is "sorry I don't know." 

Consequences:

Group members are expected to know the group channel guidelines and abide by them. If a member does not follow the guidelines they may be muted or removed from the group. After two warnings we will mute you. We don't want to stifle communication, we just want to keep it relevant. Thanks!

Links

Burning Life

• Burning Life Home Page
• vburn.org Resident Resources Website
• Second Life Forum for Burning Life To discuss the event and preparations

Additional Burning Life Links

• Burning Life History Past Burning Life Events
• Burning Life Flickr Group Post Burning Life Event images here
• Burning Life Sims Directory on Koinup share Burning Life Slurls here

Burning Man Links and references

• Burning Man website Annual Art, Fire and Community festival
• Burning Man on the Wiki Wiki Look- Up
• BurningMan Image Gallery Images from Burning Man
• Ten Principles Of Burning Man 10 Reasons why

Zero Drama Tolerance

If you are thinking of volunteering to work on the pre-event set-up, read this: The Burning Life Production Team will be a no-drama zone. It's goal-oriented, get-'er-done work, all accomplished behind the scenes. While it's very fun and satisfying, it is no place for a big ego or someone who needs to be the center of attention or in control. It's collaborative. "Team" is a big word around here; be prepared to work with others and be good at reaching a goal, even if the road to it is not the one you might have chosen if working alone! We're all about "get 'er done, lighten up, and have fun".

Terms of Service

Please note: By building, performing or holding events at Burning Life you accept responsibility for maintaining PG ratings on PG land and following standard Linden Lab terms of Service and Community Standards.

Image by Poid Mahovlich