Blog

Posted on

Halloween Party Preparations – Ghoulishly Grand!

The NPC Halloween party is just around the corner and Mercedes and Anika are kicking butt and taking names! =) If your NPO wishes to participate in the party, please send Mercedes or Anika the following with full perms (copy mod and transfer):

  • a Landmark to your office in NPC
  • a LOGO
  • a notecard about your NPO
  • a full perm item for your treat bag

    • These need to be submitted by October 15!

    Dress up and get the word out about your organization and P-A-R-T-Y with us on October 25! Here are the details…

    October 25, 2008
    4PM-11:30PM SLT

    NPC community-wide Halloween Party, with trick or treating at nonprofit offices (4PM SLT), dance party on NPC2-Aloft (4PM SLT), and a movie on NPC1-Plush (9PM SLT). The purpose is to promote the NPC two-island community as well as the individual 80 nonprofit residents, and to just have fun on Halloween. (PG costumes only as NPC2 is a PG sim). The venue is “in world” (inside Second Life): See SLURLS below under links. For more information, IM Anika Pastorelli inside SL.

    Written by: Beth J. Bates

    Posted on

    GRAND OPENING PARTY – ABLE (Association for Better Living & Education)

    Don’t be left out!! JOIN us for the grand opening party for ABLE (the Association for Better Living & Education). There will be fireworks, dancing to a live DJ, games and refreshments, as well as networking opportunities and a seriously fun time!

    ABLE (the Association for Better Living & Education) is an international nonprofit organization working in the fields of: Improving education & literacy; Drug rehabilitation & education; Inmate rehabilitation and life skills; and Campaigning in common sense values that bring communities together in harmony and cooperative achievement.

    October 11, 2008
    8PM SLT
    Aloft Nonprofit Commons
    More details…

    Come hang out and meet other NPC residents, volunteers and supporters!

    Written by: Beth J. Bates

    Posted on

    Columbus Day from a Native American Perspective – Oct. 12

    Many thanks to Nany Kayo for this great information…

    Virtual Native Lands will host an observation of the significance of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas from a Native American perspective on Sunday, October 12, 2008, on the beach at Commonwealth.

    Columbus arrived in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 setting off a chain of events that changed the world. The first Columbus Day celebration was held in 1792, in New York City. In 1892. Columbus Day has been celebrated as a federal holiday in the United States on the second Monday of October since 1934, and is also celebrated as a state holiday in all but 17 US states, at taxpayer expense.

    For Native Americans, the celebration of Columbus Day is a celebration of a holocaust. People react to this observation in different ways ranging from pride, to defiance, to sadness, or to indifference. Many Native choose to protest the holiday as an insult with varying degrees of irreverent humor or rage. Others feel that the observation of a holocaust is beyond protest. Each person is invited to observe the Columbus Day holiday in their own way at the Commonwealth gathering.

    There will be a memorial and celebration of the lives of the Tiano people, who were almost entirely exterminated by Columbus and his crew within a few years of Columbus’ arrival, on the beach. Other meeting facilities on the Commonwealth sims are also available for use for pretty much anything anyone can dream up within legal and prim limits.

    Please contact Nany Kayo if you would like to arrange an event.

    Written by: Beth J. Bates

    Posted on

    Addictions Treatment in VR

    “Are services in the virtual world near?” is an article in this months Addiction Professional Magazine, highlighting Preferred Family Healthcare’s work in Second Life. Addiction Professional is the addiction treatment and prevention field’s premier trade journal.

    The article focuses on Dick Dillon’s (Coughran Mayo) work at NPC and his organization’s plans for delivering behavioral healthcare and substance abuse treatment in world. It’s a positive article that will reach lots of healthcare leaders and professionals. Click here to read or here http://tinyurl.com/4r3pyt

    Thanks Coughran for mentioning the National Council! That helps us put a shining light on Second Life and NPC for our members, and helps us all. Yay to the power of networking!

    Written by: gale.beckwith

    Posted on

    New York teens wanted for Second Life machinima project!

    Vvpflyer08_450

    I’m excited to announce that Global Kids is starting up again its youth machinima initiative called the "Virtual Video Project."  If you know of a teenager in the New York area who is interested in global issues,  politics, digital media and having fun, then send them our way! Applications are due by October 17.

    Students get training in how to use Second Life as a filmmaking platform, decide among themselves a particular social issue they would like to make a machinima about, and then do all of the work to create the film. Our past machinima have won a number of awards and been featured at various film festivals and conferences around the world.

    The program runs from October 30 until late June, so it’s a big commitment. The sessions are facilitated by my fabulous colleagues Tabitha and Shawna.

    For more information or to receive the application contact shawna@globalkids.org or call 212-226-0130 ext. 143.

    Written by: rikomatic

    Posted on

    Draxtor’s report on the USC Public Good Challenge

    Here’s another great machinima news report from my buddy Draxtor Dupres.  This time he covers the USC Network Culture Project’s Public Good Challenge in Second Life.  It’s a nice frame for looking at the potential of virtual worlds for more than just commerce and entertainment.

    I was honored to serve as one of the selection panel members for the Public Good Challenge.  You can even see a bit of my avatar sitting besides my hero Howard Rheingold.

    Good stuff, Drax!

    Written by: rikomatic

    Posted on

    Who Can Use the Calendar?

    The event calendar belongs to this community! However, if you’d like to add events to the calendar, you need to have special permissions. You can ask Glitteratica, Penguin, or me to set you up! After you have “the keys”, pop on over to the EVENT PAGE. There is a tutorial if you’d need some HELP.

    Written by: Creech

    Posted on

    $1000 USD seed funding for youth-led social entrepreneurial ventures in Second Life

    DIDI hits SL's Main Grid
    Beginning this Fall, Global Kids is excited to announce opportunities for a group of young people to receive $1000 USD in seed funding and social entrepreneurial training through the “Dream It. Do It.” Initiative in Second Life.

    The D.I.D.I. Initiative is an exciting partnership between Global Kids and Ashoka’s Youth Venture. Through January of 2009, the D.I.D.I. Initiative is supporting up to 40 teams of young people with up to $1000 USD and tools and training to launch ventures that benefit their communities, either within or outside the virtual world of Second Life.

    Overview:
    D.I.D.I. empowers young people to identify social and health issues in their communities and to create and lead their own social ventures to address these issues. A venture can be a club, organization, business, or program that is ongoing and benefits one’s community in some way. With the D.I.D.I. Initiative’s support, each team of young people develops an action plan to design and launch their own social entrepreneurial projects. When the teams are ready to launch, the Initiative offers:

    • Seed funding (up to $1,000 per team)
  • Technical allies to provide additional advice and expertise
  • Ongoing tools and support sessions

    For more information, we invite you and your students to stop by one of our info sessions to be held at the Global Kids HQ in Second Life at the following times this week:

      Thursday 9/18, 1pm PDT
      Thursday 9/18, 6pm PDT
      Friday 9/19, 12pm PDT

    http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/222/165/24

    Should you have any questions, please feel free to email Amira at amira@globalkids.org
    ————–

    Ashoka’s Youth Venture leads an international community of young people who are powerful now, changemakers now. Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people to create and launch their own sustainable, community-benefiting Ventures and then connects them into a global movement of young changemakers who are together redefining the youth years as a time of leadership and positive social change. This is the foundation of an Everyone a Changemaker™ world – the key factor for success in every part of society.

    Global Kids, a non-profit organization based in New York City, is dedicated to developing youth to become global citizens and community leaders. In 2006, Global Kids became the first nonprofit to develop a dedicated space for conducting programming in the virtual world of Teen Second Life (TSL). Within TSL, the organization has established the D.I.D.I. Initiative Island, which hosts interactive, experiential programs for teens from around the world.

    • Written by: rikomatic

    Posted on

    Kelly Jolkowski (SL: Kellyj Shepherd) to speak about missing persons issues, and how YOU can make an ID kit for your family.

    When: September 28, 2 SL time
    Roughly 45 minutes in length
    Where: NCI — specific NCI campus TDB but probably Caledon

    Kelly and her husband have lived for seven years not knowing what became of their son. After Jason disappeared, the Jolkowski’s found what other families had found and something that is always found out the hard way – that there are few resources for families of missing adults.

    The Jolkowski’s vowed in founding Project Jason ithat no family should have to be left alone and without resources in a heartbreaking situation where time is so critical.

    Just a couple of the many accomplishments: the organization has assisted more than 400 families of missing persons, has distributed more than 50,000 missing persons posters, and has given away 13,500 personal ID kits.

    Kelly will talk about her ordeal with her missing son, the successes of Project Jason as it approaches its five-year anniversary, current programs that let the public (YOU!) get involved in helping to find missing persons, and the importance of creating I.D. Kits for every member of your family. The kits are FREE and Kelly will tell you how to get yours.

    She will also discuss Project Jason’s activities in Second Life.

    Written by: Ronnie

    Posted on

    Mollom Spam Filter

    The NPC site was getting a fair bit of spam–mostly dealing with World of Warcraft gold–so we’ve decided to install Mollom to the site. Mollom is a spam catching service that will try and determine if your comment is a) spam, b) could be spam, or c) is spam and it takes appropriate action ranging from nothing, to a captcha challenge, to blocking the content.

    Let me know at matthew [at] dogstar [dot] org if you see anything strange. Otherwise, happy posting!

    If you are interested in how to install Mollom on a Drupal website, I have put together a short tutorial on my Nonprofits and Web 2.0 Site.

    Thanks!
    Creech Antwerp / Matthew Saunders

    Written by: Creech