Here's a bit of background to the project.
It all started with a discussion at the start of January among the team behind the Sign of the Kite (Graham, Serene and myself) about how we might best welcome newcomers to Kitely. We knew this had to be community-led.
One of the factors we identified was how to help newcomers settle into their own trial world as quickly as possible, and to enjoy being there.
Those with an OpenSim background know about OARs -- ready-built regions that they can upload when they create their first trial world.
However, those from SL or who are completely new to virtual worlds are not aware of those options. So when they created their first world, they had a choice of flat land or two education/business-oriented builds.
To quote from the SotK discussion:
I still think Kitely needs to provide templates so that people immediately can "make a home". Then they could use their 6 hours inviting people and socialising, not panicking "What on earth do I do now?
So we approached Ilan with this idea -- he responded positively, and suggested it might be possible to replace one of the existing slots.
Next we talked to Ozwell. His enthusiasm for the project can be seen in the end result! Zuza joined in too, providing the lovely log cabin as a starter home.
All this was built over January and early February 2016, all as volunteers.
We hope it will help to inspire people to see what they themselves can do in virtual worlds -- to enable them to build on from a starting point that is more than just "good enough", to make it their own.
And if you would like to show appreciation to Ozwell and Zuza for their generous creativity, do consider buying some of the items that went into making the island so inviting in the first place.