Blog – Page 64 – Nonprofit Commons

August 10, 2010

NEWS! Weekly update for 8/9/10 from the Nonprofit Commons

NPCommonspeak
Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Events this week:
8:30AM Friday meeting at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre
http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons will give you a direct teleport to our main gathering area!
We will be doing special tutorials during the month of August during our Friday morning meetings, so come this week for tips and tools on using Flickr for your organization.

There will be no Grant Station webinar in Second Life this week as previously noted in our weekly update – however you can register and attend this webinar through www.techsoup.org web access.

Last week at the NPC:
EmmaGNP Seaside from Great Nonprofits shared an opportunity to be featured as part of the Science and Technology Campaign. Eligible nonprofits should visit the www.greatnonprofits.org website and ask others to vote for their organizations.
Penguin Kuhn from TechSoupGlobal shared changes to the Nonprofit Commons blog and website. The blog is now the front page to our site and tenants are welcome to apply to blog with NPC.
We discussed plans for the new Community Gateway being installed on Aloft Nonprofit Commons.
Layal and Evonne (Ninlil Xentiltat and In Kenzo) shared the Stories of Impact production plan for short machinima videos to feature our tenants, events and partners at NPC. Virtual Helping Hands and the National Service Inclusion Project are our first featured partners and you can look for more videos up this week at http://youtu.be/E3vuBsIK3NI and http://youtube.com/TechSoupVideo
Glitteractica Cookie will be away for the next two weeks but Kali, InK, Ninlil and Penguin will be around to assist any tenants by emailing nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

Classes:
August 12th at 6PM with Builders Brewery:
BEGINNING BUILDING – Learning the basics, lesson 1 with instructor DeAnn Dufaux Builders Brewery – Dockside (Class 1 of 5) – This is the first class of the series. During this series, we’ll go over some of the building tools that, even if you have built something, perhaps you haven’t thought to use or don’t know what they’re for. Instructions will be for both viewer v.1.23 and v. 2.0.

In case you missed:
The Online Community Managers Meetup is hosted monthly at TechSoup Global in San Francisco and at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre on the fourth wednesday of the month and the next live event will take place September 22nd. From last week’s event here are two quick links—
The first link to Ben Rigby’s presentation on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/benrigby/ocm-presi
The second link is to the follow-up discussion with The Extraordinaries, prompted by our in-person discussion: http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/t/30701.aspx

Thank you for your contributions to the Nonprofit Commons! For questions contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org for fastest response.

Written by: InKenzo

August 3, 2010

Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons: August 3rd Edition

NPCommonspeak
Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Events this week:
8:30AM Friday meeting at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre
http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons will give you a direct teleport to our main gathering area!

Wharf Ratz every Tuesday at 8PM on Aloft Nonprofit Commons
http://bit.ly/wharfratz

New Residents:
Welcome the Topia Arts Center and CarynTopia Silvercloud to NPC! Topia has moved into Aloft Nonprofit Commons and is looking for mentorship so please reach out, say hi and help out as you are available!
http://bit.ly/topiaarts

Last week at the NPC:
Anna (Sage Qvetcher in Second Life) joined us from the TechSoup Global offices to share the redesign of TechSoup Stock for easier usability and language that more closely matches nonprofit grant terminology. We hope this will make the TSG Stock program easier to use for everyone.
Cheryl and Henry (RevCheryl Swansen and Jaywick Forcella inSL) shared a new event update system including a notecard submission form that will help the events team craft a press release with you prior to your event and share it with all relevant media. Please plan to submit event listings four weeks in advance for best results.
Evonne (In Kenzo inSL) shared a new mailbox HELP system that allows residents and potential tenants an easy way to reach mentors at NPC. You will find mailboxes in the public areas on each sim where you can click, write your message and it will automatically send an email to our mentor team at NPChelp@techsoup.org.

Classes and Webinars:
Webinar on Grant Station with Cynthia Adams on August 11th at 11AM at the Plush Amphitheatre.
http://blog.techsoup.org/node/1400?cg=sp
For a direct teleport click to http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons

Class at Builders’ Brewery: 3:00 PM SLT LET’S PUT IT TOGETHER BUILDING A HOUSE (or office!) with avatar instructor Auryn Beorn at Builders Brewery, Dockside
When we build a house, it’s common to want to add some nice features – doors that open/close remaining linked to the main build, having a controller that allows us to tint the windows or set lights on or off. In this class you will build a fully featured building.

Thank you for your contributions to the Nonprofit Commons! For questions, comments and ideas please contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org for fastest feedback response.

Written by: InKenzo

July 30, 2010

Extra, Extra!: Ben Rigby talks micro-volunteering and community

Written by guest blogger, MeiMei Fox, @meimeifox and cross-posted to TechSoup blog.

Ben Rigby of the Extraordinaries spoke at the SF Online Community MeetUp and got the conversation rolling on micro-volunteering and building mobile communities.

Update: Ben Rigby’s presentation on SlideShare.

The Opportunity: Why don’t people volunteer?

They don’t have time. Or so we say. Yet we play hundreds of hours of solitaire. We watch 1 billion YouTube videos and spend 270 million hours on Facebook every day. With that time, we could build 40 Empire State Buildings every year. So we have spare time. We have instant internet access thanks to smart phones, and even in the developing world people have mobile phones. And surveys show that we want to help – so there is a desire.

The Solution: Micro-volunteering!

You can volunteer in minute moments, like when you’re standing in line at the post office- you don’t need to go anywhere. You can do it from your mobile phone- you don’t even need to be on a computer or have internet access. Obama raised $500 million, $80 at a time through crowdsourcing micro-donations. The Extraordinaries is doing the same thing for volunteering.

Here are a few examples:

Google image labeler is a technology where you see an image, and you write tags describing what you see. That meta-data makes the image accessible to search engines. So the Extraordinaries built an app whereby, as a volunteer, you could scroll through images and tag them for non-profits like the Smithsonian, which has archives of millions of photos that are untagged and therefore unsearchable.

One day after the Jan 12 earthquake in Haiti, the Extraordinaries turned this technology into a way to find missing persons. They brought images in from news agencies, then put together a survey asking their volunteers to identify what they saw: “Can you see a person in this photo? Age? Gender? Buildings nearby?” People would add meta-data to the photos, and the Extraordinaries created a search engine that allowed you to narrow down images from the news based on this info. You could type in, for example “young, female, pink shirt” and it would narrow down thousands of images to 50 photos. Then they pulled the missing persons feed from Google’s database, and had volunteers sift through one-by-one: Do you see the missing person in the photo on the right in this photo on the left? They found 24 missing persons in this way!

Another example of an Extraordinaries app was when they asked micro-volunteers to find defibrillators, take a picture, and tag them with mapping software. This generated a map of defibrillators everywhere, which is vital because emergency responders only have ten minutes to get to a defibrillator before a person dies from a heart attach.

The Extraordinaries is a for-profit company, in that it wants to generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining. Its original funding came from angel investors, and grants they won from Netsquared and the Knight Foundation. They tried selling their micro-volunteering services to non-profits, but it didn’t work—the non-profits all said no. So now the Extraordinaries offer their services to non-profits free of charge. But they’re selling their services to corporations. 92% of Fortune 500 companies have volunteering efforts, and The Extraordinaries allows them to add an online component to their existing programs.

Unlike VolunteerMatch or Idealist, the Extraodrinaries operates on a networked model. The key is many people doing many, small bits of work that add up to task completion.

The main problem the Extraordinaires is having at the moment is attrition. People register—the iPhone app has over 40,000 downloads—but then they get bored after four days and stop volunteering. So the company’s top priority is to figure out how to build community in order to keep people engaged. How can the Extraordinaries make micro-volunteering as exciting and fun as Farmville?

They know that people don’t like interacting in a vacuum. At first, people had no way of knowing who else was volunteering or, even more importantly, of sharing what they were accomplishing. So now the Extraordinaries has started to add community features, such as being able to Like a piece of advice that someone gives to a non-profit, or being able to share how many hours you’ve volunteered with your friends/team members. But they’re still looking for solutions to this issue – so please share your ideas with BeExtra.org!

Written by: penguin kuhn

July 26, 2010

Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Weekly Roundup from the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Upcoming events @NPSL
Friday meeting 8:30AM every week at the Plush Nonprofit Commons (NPC) Amphitheatre
Weekly Tuesday night social meetups are happening on Aloft NPC at Wharf Ratz, 8PM
Grace Culbertson is hosting a discussion and prayer group at the National Day of Prayer/Tennessee office on Aloft on Tuesday at 7PM.

Events streaming at the Plush NPC Amphitheatre:

July 27th at 11AM: Microsoft 2010 Assistance, learn more about Office 2010: http://bit.ly/Microsoftwebinar

July 28th at 7PM: Online Community Managers Meetup with Ben Rigby from the Extraordinaries live @TechSoup in San Francisco: http://www.meetup.com/octribe/calendar/13319849/

Self-Guided Tour Text Needed!
If you have not submitted your tour text please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

with:
Sim Name (Aloft, Plush, Health or Eco)  
Office Number (if you don’t know it please leave blank and we’ll find it for you)  
Avatar Contact information (in world name and possibly email address)  
NPO Name  
Website URL  
Purpose or Mission of your org
Please keep text to three sentences and send this in by Tuesday July 27th for this update!

Last Friday’s meeting:
Amy Sample Ward (Amytron Helendale inSL) came to share about the Netsquared network connected to TechSoup, including local meetups in many cities and innovation challenges for social benefit organizations. To find a local meetup visit http://netsquared.org/local
Jori Clarke (Mali Sunflower inSL) who met Susan Tenby (Glitteractica Cookie inSL) at Games for Change, shared her work providing safe online spaces for kids with KidsCom.com across game worlds and virtual spaces, her slides are available online at http://bit.ly/KidsCom.
Sapna Cheryan (Marie Dirval inSL) led us through her research on stareotypes in Second Life as we looked at ways in which race, gender, age and other distinctions affect our inworld relationships: her slides can be viewed at http://bit.ly/DebunkTypes.
Volunteer questions and ideas please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org or find Layal Rabat (Ninlil Xentiltat) inworld. For mentorship needs please find Sandra Andrews (Ozma Malibu inSL) at the NPC.

Featured Org of the Week:
Steven Toussaint of the Alzheimer’s Association of New York has been building a new office on the Health Commons sim where he will be focusing on Alzheimers education. Please welcome him to the hilltop! For more info visit http://www.alznyc.org

Community Gateway:
Brena Benoir and Ninlil Xentiltat are working with our amazing volunteers at NPC to redo our community gateway, updating lessons for Viewer 2 and streamlining the orientation process for new avatars. Please contact Brena or Ninlil to assist in this endeavor on Aloft.

Event Listings:
Avatars RevCheryl Swansen and Jaywick Forcella will be sharing more with us on event listings in our upcoming meeting. Visit the NPSL event calendar at http://nonprofitcommons.org/content/event-calendar

Learn to do more in Second Life!
There are many classes every week inworld that can help you improve your skills at scripting, building, hosting events and creating unique interactive experiences.

Builders Brewery – Seamless Textures
Jul 28, 2010 6PM: www.buildersbrewery.com
Instructor: Avatar Robin Sojourner at Builders Brewery, Dockside
This class shows how to make seamless textures in Photoshop. Examples are given in PS, but the theory is good for any graphics application.

It is always good to see you at NPC for events, collaboration and common causes! If you have specific questions for our team or would like to be added to the agenda for an upcoming meeting please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org. Thanks for your volunteer service!

Written by: InKenzo

July 8, 2010

Feed a Smile Benefit Event For Live and Learn in Kenya Int

Brique Zeiner, CEO Brique Topaz in Second Life

The goal of the Feed a Smile benefit event is to raise funds to pay for the meals for the children on the Live and Learn in Kenya Intl. NPO program in Nakuru – Kenya. We have nearly 500 mouths to feed.

A huge array of live musicians, tribute groups (U2inSL – Michael Jackson – The Rolling Stones), artists, a modeling and fashion show agency, designers and builders have come together to turn this event into a successful one-week mega event – and to “”feed many, many smiles””.

Begins on July 10, 2010 at 8 am at Pepita (120,86,43) (this is where most of the events will be held unless otherwise noted)

Ends on July 18, 2010 at about 2 pm with a U2inSL concert at Dragon Moon (75, 120, 22)

A more serious discussion group will take place at Aloft Nonprofit Commons Live and Learn in Kenya Int (LLK) (185, 167, 39)

LLK Website: http://www.llk-selb.de

BLOG:

Event calendar:

Georg Stonewall (G&N Quality Design) – Building
Nikki Heron G&N (Quality Design) – Fashion and Blogging
Chriscloud Loon (Crossing Culture) – http://www.bluesflavor.com/ – Music

Please help us get the word out by linking people to this blog using this link: http://bit.ly/FeedSmile

For Twitter, use this: Feed A Smile benefit for NPC org: Live and Learn in Kenya 07/08-07/18 http://bit.ly/FeedSmile #secondlife #sl #npsl

Written by: Layal

June 21, 2010

Mixed Reality Learning Lab & more at the NCVS Conference in NYC next week

From Evonne Heyning with Claire Sale @techsoup:

The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) is June 28-30 in New York City. The NCVS conference is an opportunity for volunteer and service leaders to get together for in-person networking and learning. If you’re going to be there we’d love for you to get in touch — or if you cannot attend, join us in Second Life or on the web!

Here’s a listing of live sessions and spaces hosted by TechSoup:

Mixed Reality Learning Lab
Susan Tenby from TechSoup Global along with Nonprofits in Second Life team members Evonne Heyning and Josephine Dorado

Dates: All conference long! 

Location: In the lounge near the ballroom entrance corridor between the conference host exhibit spaces.
The team at TechSoup has brewed up a select menu of tools and strategies to provide a social media curriculum to conference attendees on how to explore Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and applications for engaging volunteers and supporters around the world.

Attendees can join a tour of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life or learn how to use digital storytelling and Facebook for quick and easy updates to keep connected to supporters. Quick tips and tools will be provided on how to get started as well as support for more advanced users. Also, engage in mixed reality events as avatars and representatives from nonprofits around the world discuss their work both virtually and in their communities.

Join us in Second Life at the Nonprofit Commons!
Monday June 28: 7-10AM PST (10AM – 1PM EST)
Tuesday June 29: 7-8AM PST and 11-12:30PM PST (10-11AM or 2:00-3:30PM)
Wednesday June 30: 5:30AM PST (8:30AM EST)

You can also watch this stream on the web directly.

Community-Driven Social Impact Session
Amy Sample Ward from NetSquared 
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Eastern  Room: 1471
This session focuses on strategies and case studies for creating successful community-driven media, events, and campaigns. Participants will learn about best practices and work in small groups to put learning into practice.

Technology Planning for Nonprofits Session
Catherine Hurd and Elliot Harmon  from TechSoup Global 
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eastern   Room: 1374
This session will help participants to assess their organization’s technology needs and capacity; work with technical volunteers; and understand the role of technology planning as the foundation for an effective operating environment.

Get in Touch via Twitter
Will you be at the NCVS? We’d love to hear from you at @NetSquared, @TechSoup or @npsl. Or connect with us directly:

Amy Sample Ward: @AmyRSWard
Elliot Harmon: @ElliotHarmon
Susan Tenby: @Suzboop
Evonne Heyning: @amoration
Josephine Dorado: @funksoup

TrackBack: http://blog.techsoup.org/trackback/1360

Written by: InKenzo

June 19, 2010

Jolie Mason Presentation on June 11th and Helen Keller Day June 19th

On June 11th, after our weekly Friday meeting here at the NPC, we were honored to have Jolie Mason / Jolie1 Magic with us. Jolie Mason is known as the first blind person to enter Second Life, and she gave an amazing presentation about virtual worlds, accessibility, and why Helen Keller is a dangerous hero to have.

Her presentation wowed the audience, and you can read a summary by downloading this PDF file and click here to read the chat transcript of Jolie’s presentation.

On a personal note, Helen Keller is a hero of mine as well. When I was a child, the story fascinated me. The fact that she overcame so much and stood up for her independence gave me strength, and made me love and adore humanity. I used to sometimes fantasize that Helen Keller and Marie Curie were the same person, and wondered if Helen Keller would have been able to see herself glow in the dark after her many scientific experiments.

Helen Keller was an ideal person to have as a role model also because she was a strong independent woman, and I wanted to be as eager as she was to learn. Helen Keller’s story also lead to my extreme admiration for teachers, whose patience knows no limits. So here I am, older, wiser, and Helen Keller’s story continues to fascinate me.

It is her struggle that lead to my fascination with Max, the Guide Dog, a screen reading dog scripted for Second Life users who are blind. Max allows those who are blind to interact with Second Life in ways that were never imagined by any of us. I am a huge fan of Max the Guide Dog, you can read more about him here VirtualGuideDog.com and follow him on Twitter here @VirtualGuideDog

Basically, Jolie stated that Helen Keller is a dangerous hero because she challenges use.

After Jolie’s presentation, she was asked a couple of questions:

Louise Later asked Jolie:
How did you heard about SL?

Jolie Answered:
I love technology — computers and science, I am a regular listener of radio, and in particular Science Friday. A couple of years ago they talked about SEcond Life and I loved the idea of community. It was interesting to see how the second life community participated in the political debates. How about a snowman asking about global warming? I suggested my nephew create diversity training in second life.

Glitteractica Cookie asked Jolie:
I would like to know how many other users with disabilities that you know of are using virtual worlds?

Louise commented:
Actually, about 1 out of 5 people in Second LifeÆ have a disability
Jolie answered:
I am very interested seeing more blind people in second life there are 6 that I know of.

Louise also shared a very memorable quote:

“Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained though self- gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Rik Xaris, a member of the audience, stated:

“I would just like to say that i think this is amazing and hope that more blind people will hear about the virtual world and join us thank you for enlightening me about the branch of sl that i knew nothing about.”

You can hear Jolie on her radio program called Access Unlimited by going to LARRS.org . According to Jolie, her program often features accessibility issues and technology for persons with disabilities. You can also email Jolie at jolie1magic[at]gmail[dot]com.

The event was a beautiful preview to today’s Helen Keller Day Events in Second Life, where our very own Brena Benoir will be presenting. You can find more information on the Second Life Helen Keller Day wiki page.

Many thanks to Saxet Uralia, Louise Later, and LoriVonne Lustre for making the presentation possible.

A great big thank you to Jolie for visiting us and doing this fantastic presentation!

11:00AM-12:00PM Co-Occurring Disorders in Adolescents Brenda Bryan aka Brena Benoir with Preferred Family Healthcare
Description: We will be examining the prevalence of substance abuse issues and mental health issues among the adolescent populations. We will look at symptoms of mental health issues among the adolescent population. We will examine the concept of self medication and how this relates directly to substance abuse. We will also be focusing on how to increase long-term stability for both substance abuse and mental health issues.

Image: Louise, Max, Jolie, and LoriVonne

Written by: Layal

June 10, 2010

How Does SL Help the Blind?

Interested in accessibility and disability issues? Ever wonder how Second Life can assist people with disabilities?

Join us this Friday, June 11th at 9:30AM SLT for a special presentation by Jolie Mason, the first blind person to ever join Second Life.

She will talk about the personal value she has found in SL, along with Helen Keller’s philosophy on the discussion of ideas to bring about change and awareness. The event is called “Diversity: Why Helen Keller is a Dangerous Hero” and will be held at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life, accessible here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/88/126/26

Written by: sparker2

June 2, 2010

Nonprofit Games Brainstorm Bash Revisited

On Sunday, 05.23.2010 the Nonprofit Commons held a brainstorming session in New York City that was streamed into Second Life. This mixed reality event brought interested people from all types of disciplines together to share their ideas and imagine what an NPCGame would look like. Here is my breakdown of the chat transcript, organized for clarity for your viewing pleasure. If I left anything off, feel free to discuss this in the NPCGames Google Group

Our Goals

To launch a community and create a collaborative game for nonprofits focusing on a specific mission/campaign/issue
To discuss platform ideas, On the question about connecting gamers and nonprofits
To develop a game together
We’re talking about methods and practice steps, Create a collaborative game, perhaps coalition of nonprofits working together to create a social issue game that’s fun, engaging and benefits many groups.
We’re thinking about helping communities, locally and globally.
Because we have a lot to learn from one another here
To find a direction to move toward for NPCGames
To bridge the gap between gaming people and virtual world avatars
TechSoup teaches these tools, offers webinars and shares how to do these sorts of development projects,
We aim to create a gateway for all of you to do more with serious and social games
TechSoup provides community resources for nonprofits, 500K users per month

Brainstorming Ideas from the Second Life Chat

Specific Ideas for the point of the game

Teaching about Universal Human Rights
Teaching about Millenium Development Goals
MMOG was where people would pick one or more disabilities instead of superpowers

General Ideas for the point of the game

Reward system for altruism and goodness
Think of this as coalition-based cooperative gaming that can benefit many causes at once
sustainable
engages non-gamers
MMOG – Massive Multiplayer Online Game

Platforms

Most people were for immersive gaming
Some mentioned text-based as a need for countries where mobile phones are available, and the Internet is really not.
Mobile Apps
Augmented Reality
Alternate Reality
Xbox Live
OpenFeint
OpenSim
Google Wave API

Possible Obstacles

accessibility
learning curve
sustainability
digital divide
cost of development
participation levels

Metrics
measurable world change, outcomes,
“yes….The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.” –> if anyone can explain this last one, I’d love to know what this means. —-Update: MDG is short for Millennium Development Goals—-

Questions

Hour Destiny
QUESTION: Do we want it to be graphic or text-based? CoffeeMUD is a great Java-based MUD server, but is text-only.
A: Cross-platform

In Kenzo
QUESTION: METRICS, OUTCOMES? How do you fund this? This is the question from Dan Carli
A: BASELINES, METRICS — > Linked to mission, vision

Jackie Rexen
QUESTION: How can this group include folks from developing countries like Africa?
A: Text-based gaming.

Jackie Rexen
QUESTION: What is the mission and visions of this group? How will this game be different then other good ones out there – like Saving Darfur – Urgent Evoke. What can this group produce that is unique, engaging, user-friendly. How can we get gamers and nonprofits with similar interests to get together?

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Should the group consider development of a table-based game creation tool? This would allow creation of many types of games with much less programming effort per each new game.

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Do we consider poverty a disability? Life in a repressive regime? Or in a badly degraded environment? Or an overpopulated one?

Previously listed as:
Question: Or in a badly degraded environment? Or an overpopulated one? Do we consider poverty a disability? Life in a repressive regime?

(thx to Moundsa for contact me to get this corrected)

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Why not make sustainability as the KEYSTONE of the entire framework?
A: Moundsa — your question on sustainability was also asked here….mentioned as a framework for all we want to do

Zinnia Zauber
Question: Will orgs with like missions work together?
A: On Zinnia’s question about orgs with like missions working together == YES!

As you can see, some of the questions were answered, whereas others were not. To help us answer these questions, please join the NPCGames Google Group

Attendee List and Shared Links
To view the list of links that were shared during the chat, and a list of attendees both in New York City, and in Second Life, visit the NPCGames wiki page and click on the NPCGames Brainstorm Session Attendee and Link List link.

Written by: Layal

May 25, 2010

We’re a Finalist for the 2010 Linden Prize!

UPDATE:: The winner of the 2010 Linden Prize is the Tech Virtual Museum, set to receive an award of $10,000 USD. Check out the Winner’s Announcement!

Nonprofit Commons in Second Life was recently chosen as one of ten finalists for this year’s Linden Prize, which recognizes outstanding innovation in improving the lives of people both inside and outside the virtual world of SL.

Each Finalist gave a video interview to Treet TV, and we encourage you to view ours here. Watch Our Video Interview with Treet TV for the Linden Prize. TechSoup Online Community Director and Nonprofit Commons Founding Director, Susan Tenby, (avatar name: Glitteractica Cookie) explains the purpose of Nonprofit Commons in Second Life: “We want to lower the barriers of access to this kind of technology, and allow nonprofits to showcase their mission in a way that they can’t do with the 2-D web.”

Thank you to all who have helped to build this community–your hard work has been recognized in a big way! Be sure to check out The Official Second Life Community Blog for coverage of our 2010 Linden Prize nomination. To learn more about the Winner and other Finalists, click here.

Written by: sparker2