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Gone Gitmo Launches on Monday, September 17th at 10:30 AM PST

USC Institute for Media Literacy and the Seton Hall School of Law will be launching on Monday a “Virtual Guantanamo” to focus on public policy issues surrounding the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.  The first in a series of monthly discussions about various political, legal and ethical questions surrounding the detention center, the program on Monday will center on constitutional questions relevant to Guantanamo. It looks like this will be a mixed-reality discussion, taking place both at Seton Hall and in-world at a simulated Guantanamo detention center.

Rik Riel has a great write up with photos and videos.

That’s this Monday, September 17, beginning at 10:30AM PST at IML sim (teleport SLURL).

Written by: kanter

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Kiva in Second Life: Interview With Official SL Volunteers


Second Life kiva.org volunteer: Julles Boucher

Kiva.org, a micro-finance organization, has funded nearly 17,0000 loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries and last week crossed the $11 million rank. Kiva.org has already had a very big year, funding about $9 million worth of loans so far, and having been featured in the mainstream media including the Wall Street Journal and on ABC News.  With the assistance of dedicated volunteers, Kiva also maintains a presence on different social networking sites and has recently established a presence on Second Life through the Techsoup Nonprofits Commons Project. 

I discovered this when I clicked on Skeeboo Tammas’s profile while chatting with him in Second Life.   His profile said.

Do good at Kiva.org! For $25, you can help fund a small loan to someone in need in a developing country. Kiva is not a charity. You get repaid and e-mail updates as the business succeeds! From there you can withdraw your funds or lend it back out. You can also donate Lindens to one of our Fundraisers, or drop it into the donation box at our virtual office here on Second Life. Click on the Picks tab above to teleport there! For more information about this amazing social lending network, visit Kiva.org

That’s only one method they use to help educate Second Life users about Kiva’s work.


Skeebo Tammas
 

Skeeboo Tammas (or Joe Alamo in real life), a volunteer who also runs KivaFriends.org, Kiva’s MySpace page, their Change.org profile and created the kiva.org browser bar.  that the staff does not have time to manage.

Julles Boucher or (Julia Bailey, PhD) serves as kiva.org’s Second Life Coordinator on a volunteer basis.   She entered Second Life because of her relationship with kiva.org, but has purchased land and operates a shop called Garb the World.  She is scientist in real life and a self-described philanthropist who has invested $5,000 plus in kiva.org.   She is interested in technology and is an owner of an Internet-based business.

I sat down with to learn more about their efforts on Kiva’s behalf in the virtual world.

What is kiva.org doing in SL?

Expanding marketing and awareness. We had an office a while back that someone donated but it disappeared, so we got a booth at 1st Life Aid, a few other places and we are just starting to set up a presence with the Nonprofit Commons Project. We think it is a good idea to be located with other nonprofits.

Why do you think Second Life  is important for nonprofits – particularly fundraising?

Second Life is a good way to disseminate information.  There is a large audience and it has been very helpful for other volunteers to work on kiva.org projects in here.  For example, one morning I worked from my home in California with Joe in NY and a volunteer in Belgium in setting up an information booth. We also had help from the preson who runs the booth and who is in South Africa.  It’s exciting to meet other people in world who care about kiva.org and work together.

What are your goals for having a presence in SL with an office?

Exposing the Kiva organization to new people in this interesting digital world and raising money to fund loans.  The strategy is kind of loose at the moment for us as we feel our way around this world.  We’ve set up a booth and got 15 loans (at $25 each), but donations really started pouring in when wwe got the first Life Aid booth.  Mostly we’re attending events and doing virtual guerrilla marketing.  There is another group that has raised $300 USD for Kikiva on Second Life and we also work with them.

Given your experience with managing kiva.org’s presence in other social networking sites like myspace, how do virtual worlds compare in terms of the ROI?

Second Life is 3-D and very interesting in things can be done in terms of virtual marketing. It can go beyond a standard web page and we’re taking advantage of that.  I think it’s been very good. Kiva has had it’s biggest year ever and our digital marketing has had a big role in that. Maybe not as big as Oprah, but still …

What advice would you give to nonprofits just starting off in second life?

Start a team to figure things out, invite your volunteers/donors to help and empower them as the Official Second Life volunteer, look for gamers who are already familiar with these virtual worlds.  Attend lots of meetings and talk to people and ask questions and get help.  There are lots of people in Second Life who want to help and there are many users here hanging out who would love to volunteer for a non-profit.

Written by: kanter

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Griefing

Photo by Peacemaker

According wikipedia:

A Griefer is a slang term used to describe a player in an multiplayer video game who plays the game simply to cause grief to other players through harassment. Griefing could be considered a malignant form of emergent gameplay.

Here’s some more about griefers in Second Life according to the Second Life Insider blog:

A griefer, is generally accepted as a person who derives enjoyment from
being obstructive, diminishing the enjoyment of others, preventing the enjoyment of others, wasting your time, and so forth. Depending on the environment, there may be a wide variety of specific behaviours (kill-stealing, blocking, training, player-killing, team-killing etc). They don’t enjoy Second Life the way you or I enjoy Second Life. They enjoy it when they make you sad, or unhappy, or frustrated. Especially when you show it. Face it – it’s easier to destroy than to create – and it requires comparatively little effort or talent.

So, in some ways griefers are the virtual world equivalent of trolls, cyberbullies, and hackers.

I first heard the term over a year ago when I first started exploring Second Life and we implemented the first TechSoup Nonprofits in Second Life event. What about griefers? someone asked at the meeting.   While everyone was a little nervous about the potential for these virtual bad people to show up at the event and be destructive, no one did.  At the Nonprofit Commons recent laugh party last month, there were concerns about griefers, particularly because of the experience of the honored guest. 

Today, the griefers arrived.  The Nonprofit Commons was one of many sims attacked with mutant ninja turtle posters.  Susan Tenby, on the Second Life and Nonprofits Blog, reports what it is like to be in the middle of a griefing event:

The griefing made it dizzying and unpleasant to be in the NPC sim, but I
was still able to talk to avatars. I got bumped around a bit, but it
was a little like trying to have a conversation in a hailstorm or a
typhoon. The rain though, in this case was hundreds of little square teenage mutant ninja turtle posters. There was also a deafening scream, but I just muted my computer.

Susan Tenby wonders whether the attack was from someone trying to get into a group called ‘The goons," an elite group of griefers who only accept members after proving themselves for at least three months. The act of greifing becomes a sort of fraternity hazing activity.  Perhaps matching the age profile of griefers, although there is debate whether or not all griefers are 19 year olds.

It is unclear whether griefing attacks can be entirely prevented.  Like troll behavior and cyberbullying, it can’t be entirely avoided.   There are ways to minimize the risk as this Businessweek article recommends, but as Susan Tenby notes in her blog post, "It does also give me pause to think about how vulnerable SL is to hacks, though".

What do nonprofits need to be aware and be prepared for, if anything, of in terms of griefers if they are doing a project in Second Life?

Written by: kanter

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Nonprofit Commons and dozens of other sims get griefed

This was my first live experience with a griefer and it brought many thoughts to mind about the act of griefing.

  • Is it really disruptive if the technology does not get shut down? The griefing made it dizzying and unpleasant to be in the NPC sim, but I was still able to talk to avatars. I got bumped around a bit, but it was a little like trying to have a conversation in a hailstorm or a typhoon. The rain though, in this case was hundreds of little square teenage mutant ninja turtle posters. There was also a deafening scream, but I just muted my computer.
  • It became a spectator sport. Avatars whom I rarely see showed up, as if it were a show of fireworks on the fourth of July.
  • It was a mass attack on dozens of sims
  • Coughran Mayo IMed the griefer who designed the attack and he said he did it because he was sick and tired of being spammed with Second Life emails. When Coughran asked him to stop, he said he was not done playing yet. Then his avatar disappeared off the fact of the grid. I searched for the griefer and he was gone.
  • I was wondering if this was the work of a Goon or a Goon-in-training. At SLCC I learned about the goons who are an elite group of griefers who only accept members after proving themselves for at least three months. The act of greifing becomes a sort of activst protest for them.

    We are working towards reconciling this attack. Master Quatro is on the case. It seems too simplistic to just question why people want to be greifers. It seems more apt to wonder why more people are not griefers, and frankly, I am worried about that.

    It does also give me pause to think about how vulnerable SL is to hacks, though.

Written by: Glitteractica_Cookie

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Doonesbury strip features philanthropic uses of Second Life

Doonsbury_2

I got a tip from a comment on New World Notes by Neptune Rebel that the recent Sunday "Doonesbury" comic strip featured a reference to Second Life.  A character talks about how he has been fundraising for a charity using his "private foundation on Second Life," his avatar raising "nearly $600."  Great to see some of the charitable, non-profit work that goes on in-world being focused on by a major comic. Nicely done!

Written by: rikomatic

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Share your “best practices” in non-profit activity in SL!

I am preparing a report on “best practices” for non-profits in Second Life that will be submitted to a major foundation. I know many of you are already doing great work in SL and have learned some valuable lessons that others could benefit from. I would love to get some anecdotes and thoughts on what has worked best (or worst) for you in promoting your work and mission within SL and what you are learning. I.e.:

  • We have learned that holding dances is a great way to bring avatars to our offices, and builds friendships and connections among our members.
  • In-world fundraising was our initial goal, but it hasn’t worked out for us.
  • We think it’s important to maintain a presence on the mainland, so random avatars can find us, versus being on our own private island
  • Freebies are a great way to draw traffic, and can spread your message far and wide.

I’d like to follow up with a quick interview, if you are available. Otherwise just drop me an email at rik@rikomatic.com or a notecard to Rik Riel.

I’ll give you a fresh cup of virtual coffee for your help! And I’ll be sharing these insights with the NPC and techsoup groups afterwards.

Muchisimas graçias!

– Rik Panganiban / Rik Riel

Written by: rikomatic

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DOJ OKs Killing Net Neutrality

Imagine you and a friend are driving down the highway. Both of you are going the exact same speed and you are headed to the same Mall. On the way, you decide you are going to go to Sears and your friend decides that she wants to go to Barnes and Nobel–still at the same Mall. Mysteriously your car drops from 65 miles an hour to 35 miles an hour but your friend, she is still going full speed ahead. When you get to Mall, you find out the reason your car slowed down was because the Sears hadn’t paid a fee to the municipality that owns the on ramp to the highway but Barnes and Nobel did.

Absurd, isn’t it?

This is exactly the scenario that will play out except online if something isn’t done soon. The Department of Justice ruled today that it would be OK to scrap Net Neutrality.

The phone and cable companies are drooling at the opportunity to control content and how it is served up over the Internet. This is precisely what happened to radio and to tv–do you see much independently created content on radio and tv anymore?

Wired Reports:

The agency said providing different levels of service is common, efficient and could satisfy consumers. As an example, it cited that the U.S. Postal Service charges customers different guarantees and speeds for package delivery, ranging from bulk mail to overnight delivery.

This argument is absurd as it is the consumer–me, who decides the speed at which I want to send my package. This scenario is more akin to me, paying my ISP for a faster connection to my house. Every site I go to is accessed equally as slowly or as quickly.

The real scenario here would be, I buy postage to send two cheques to pay two different credit card bills. I choose to pay to expedite delivery. The two company’s have offices in the same building. Each costs me $2.50. But Citi hasn’t paid the postal service the, "good service" package while Wells Fargo has. The cheque to City takes a week to arrive but the cheque to Wells Fargo arrives the next morning. This fundamentally unfair to the consumer.

The Department of Justice is giving the nod for the Telecom industry to charge protectionism money.

Indeed, even those who run Web-sites can choose to lease bigger or smaller pipes from server to Internet. But the point is that every bit of information that is requested by a user (the person pointing the browser) is currently treated equally. If I make a request first, my request is handled first. I can choose to personally pay for a fast connection or a slow connection.

To add insult to injury, the cable and telcos were paid large amounts of money by the Government–tax dollars–to buff up infrastructure. This never came to pass. They pocketed the cash and then dragged their collective heels. Now the cable and telcos are pushing to control what can be seen on what is supposed to be a public commons.

If this pushes through all the way to becoming law, it will have the effect of mangling nonprofits who provide Web services. It is just bad policy.

I am deeply disappointed in the DOJ.

If you care (and you should), contact your Congress people. Let them know what you think.

Written by: Creech

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Second Life Accessibility Center opening on September 9

At the Non-profit Commons launch event last month, there was a question about Second Life and accessibility issues. I just saw this press release about the new Accessibility Center on a couple of blogs and thought I should post it here.

On September 9, at 4PM PST, the Accessibility Center will officially open on HealthInfo Island (Teleport SLURL). The Accessibility Center provides continuing education and awareness about disabilities to the residents of and visitors to SL. The information available at the Center includes material about specific types of disabilities, accessibility in electronic games and virtual worlds, as well as assistive technology in the real world.

The complete press release after the jump…

Accessibility Center to Open on HealthInfo Island

Press release
For immediate release
Questions should be directed to Kristan Hall, at kristan.hall at gmail.com

The Accessibility Center, a resource for disabled persons in Second Life, will host a grand opening celebration on Sept. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. SLT at their location on HealthInfo Island.

The event will feature tours of the facility, speeches from various center personnel, as well as a panel comprised of Gentle Heron, Lorelei Juno and Carolina Keats. Other activities include discussions on the various exhibits and a live music concert.

The Accessibility Center provides continuing education and awareness about disabilities to the residents of and visitors to SL. The information available at the Center includes material about specific types of disabilities, accessibility in electronic games and virtual worlds, as well as assistive technology in the real world.

Displays at the Accessibility Center currently focus on mobility, vision, hearing and learning impairments. In-world resources for people with disabilities are also highlighted. Several sitting areas provide a pleasing place to sit for frank discussions on disabilities.

The center is funded by the National Library of Medicine with the University of Illinois at Chicago, Library of the Health Sciences, working in conjunction with the Alliance Library System (ALS). The center has also received funding from www.iViNNiE.com, your virtual news network.

ALS is a regional library system located in East Peoria, Ill. The system has 260 member libraries of all types (public, school, academic and special). It provides consulting, delivery service, continuing education, a shared computer system, assistance in writing grants and many other services.

For more information about the Accessibility Center , visit it in-world on HealthInfo Island (Teleport SLURL). To attend the Sept. 9 event, message Lorelei Junot, Gentle Heron or Katt Kongo for a teleport.

Written by: rikomatic

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SL designers sought for “Pink for Life” Breast Cancer benefit

Pinkforlife

I just got this call for contributions for a mixed reality Second Life / real life benefit for cancer research called "Pink for Life."  The European cancer research Gustave Roussy Institute is throwing a fashion exhibit and auction on the Champs Elysee in Paris from October 9-10 to raise funds and awareness towards breast cancer research.  Meanwhile from October 1-10 in Second Life there will be a corresponding exhibition and auction (done over eBay) of virtual world goods. 

They are looking for donations of objects, designs, and artistic creations for the exhibition in the categories of
Furniture, Clothes, Accessories, and Misc. Oh yeah, everything has to be PINK. The SL event will take place on Elyseum (direct teleport). 

Read the full event information after the jump or go to http://www.conceptsl.com .

ConceptSL teams up with IGR for the fight against breast cancer

Operation ‘Rose For Life’

In a sequel of last year’s operation "100 women for life" which gathered 126 famous women in favor of breast cancer fight, the cancerology Institute Gustave Roussy, first European research center in cancer research, is launching in October 2007 : "Rose For Life". This operation is organized to raise awareness about breast cancer, during Pink October, international month for the fight against breast cancer.

October 9 and 10, 2007 on the Champs Elysees (Paris), will be organized an exhibition followed by an auction of exposed items. Items are donated by famous fashion designers and luxury brands. All Items and artistic creations will share a common point: they have to be pink !

ConceptSL organizes the Second Life side of this event :
The Second Life operation will be in two phases : a Second Life exhibition of items/creations from SL designers and an EBay auction of these items. To allow a maximum of people to see the exhibition and bid in the auction, the exhibition will take place from October 1st to October 10 on Second Life. Auctions will be opened on Ebay in the same period. They will be closed October 10; and items will then be given to their new owners.

Second Life Designers
We are looking for items, objects, designs, artistic creations to prepare the exhibition. Items will be sorted in 4 categories : Furniture, Clothes, Accessories, Misc. A maximum of 20 objects will be exposed and sold for each category. Only one design constraint : the items must be pink (a pink painting, pink jewelry, pink dress, etc.).

The event will be hosted on Elyseum, in the exhibitions hall. All the sales profit will be donated to breast cancer research.

How can I contribute ?
To contribute to the exhibition, please send us the pictures of your creations by email : fashion@conceptsl.com. Submissions will be closed on September 20.You’ll be notified by email if your object has been selected for the exhibition. Selected objects will have to be transferred in-game to Yogi Huldschinsky (the organizer) [no copy + modify + Resell]

Recruiting Mentors

We are looking for mentors and guides to assist Elyseum visitors during the exhibitions. If you are interested, send us your application.

Written by: rikomatic