Save the Date: April 12 Global Kids Roundtable on Nonprofits & Virtual Worlds

You are cordially invited to Global Kids’ Winter 2010 Roundtable on Virtual Worlds and Nonprofits on Monday April 12, from 12-1pm PST on MacArthur Island in Second Life (teleport link). Representatives of six nonprofit organizations will give brief presentations on their initial explorations of Second Life and other virtual worlds, and how they are thinking of integrating these virtual tools into their organizations’ respective missions. Afterwards, there will be an open discussion about the applications of virtual worlds for various public good purposes.

The event is open to the public, with a special welcome to nonprofits, activists, educators, and developers.

Representatives of the following organizations will be presenting:

  • Child Welfare League of America
  • Health Consumers Alliance of South Australia
  • Hip-Hop Education Center
  • Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health
  • United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc
  • V.O.I.C.E. Community Development Corp

Each of these organizations has just completed the Global Kids’ Virtual World Capacity Building Program, a four-week intensive exposure to virtual worlds for public good institutions. The event will be moderated by Global Kids and take place at the MacArthur Island Amphitheater (click here to teleport.) For more information about the Virtual World Capacity Building Program join the program’s group on the EdgeProject.org or Contact Amira Fouad at amira@globalkids.org. The VWCBP is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

About Global Kids
Founded in 1989, Global Kids’ mission is to transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences. Through its leadership development and academic enrichment programs, Global Kids educates youth about critical international and domestic issues and promotes their engagement in civic life and the democratic process. Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program (OLP), now in its ninth year, integrates the use of social media — from blogging to games to virtual worlds — into GK’s innovative pedagogical approach. See http://www.globalkids.org for more info.

Written by: rikomatic

Panel speaks about alliance building in Second Life

Nonprofits are finding that one of the major benefits of Second Life work is alliance building. I had the pleasure of attending Monday’s panel on virtual world partnerships and collaborations. Moderated by Glitteractica Cookie of the Nonprofit Commons, the panelists included Gentle Heron and Eme Capalini of Virtual Ability, Buffy Beale and Ozma Malibu of the Transitions Project and Peterpan Slade of OneWorld island and soon to be EcoCommons.The panel was part of “Real World Impacts from the Virtual World”, an afternoon of events giving a sneak preview of MacArthur Foundation’s new island in Second Life and was sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the USC Network Culture Project and Global Kids.

Buffy Beale and Ozma Malibu discussed how their partnership of five core groups (Bridges for Women, Floaters, Amoration, the Vesuvius Group, and Community Voicemail) came together to begin working on the Transitions project. These five groups had been attending the Nonprofit Commons Friday meetings for some time, and had grown to know each other, Ozma explained. “We met one day to discuss issues of technology access for homeless and other displaced people. The first time the five of us met as a small group, our ideas flowed like water and we saw that we each had a piece of a larger puzzle.” It was at this first meeting that the Transitions Project was born.

The Transitions project is using a number of social networking tools in addition to Second Life, including Twitter, Facebook, Google applications, and are looking into online worlds such as Lively and Sakai that could have specific uses within the full Transitions program. They are starting to layer these tools with the goal of having all of these tech tools eventually available in Second Life to help further their mission of extending access to opportunities and technology to those in transition. Second Life has allowed them to connect with other like-minded groups and sharing information and resources that translate to real life impact.

Next, Gentle Heron of the Heron Sanctuary and Virtual Ability groups in Second Life spoke about collaborative efforts in the disability resource community. Gentle started off entering the online world with some friend specifically to set up a support community for people with disabilities after not finding many real world support options. She found that there were numerous disability support groups in Second Life already, but none of them focused on helping individuals venture in-world. Virtual Ability seeks to fill this niche by assisting newcomers to Second Life and providing them with additional assistive resources in Second Life.

While Virtual Ability started off as Second Life group, it has spurred all kinds of connections with other disability communities and groups interested in improving the accessibility of Second Life for people with disabilities. The community has grown organically and as membership continues to increase, they’ve found themselves involved with additional related projects in Second Life.

Second Life was a natural fit for OneWorld, PeterSan Slade explained, as their interest lies in tackling climate change – and what better way to meet with folks across the world then “traveling by laptop” without the carbon cost of flying. OneWorld’s in-world presence is closely linked with their online social network oneclimate.net where people can easily find one another by geographic location to see events happening around them. So far the majority of their partnershipa have come from their web presence, but they are quickly creating in-world partnerships, including one with the Nonprofit Commons! The Eco Commons will be a partnership between OneClimate island/OneWorld.net and the Nonprofit Commons specifically geared towards groups involved with environmental issues. This third Nonprofit Commons location is due to launch in mid-December.

PeterSan also let folks know about OneWorld’s December event with live conferencing in Second Life across four islands of the UN Summit in Poland. This event offers multiple options for participation and interaction, as there will be participants at the real life conference, web streaming, and live conferencing in-world with both voice and text chat. While there are still technical challenges of real-time communication between the two worlds, OneWorld is expanding the ways that people and avatars can take get involved.

More and more in-world alliances are popping up in-world so it was interesting and informative to hear from these trailblazing groups paving the way for future alliances and positive real and virtual world impact.

You can check out the complete text chat from the panel here.

Written by: penguin kuhn

Robin Linden and Jack Balkin to talk on “avatar civil rights” on January 28

Balkin_robin_composite

On Monday, January 28, there will be a public forum on the topic "Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?" featuring Jack Balkin , First Amendment legal expert at Yale Law School, and Robin Linden, head of marketing and business development at Linden Lab. Part of the "MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds," the event is co-presented by the USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids . This will be a multi-verse event, taking place both in Second Life and Teen Second Life, as well as audio streamed to the web for the VW-impaired.

The complete announcement after the jump….

Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?

MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds

The USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids present a discussion on Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?

11:30a.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008

Please join the USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids for the first event in an upcoming series on philanthropy and virtual worlds.

The event, “Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?” will be held on the USC Annenberg Island or on the Global Kids estate on Second Life at 12: 00 p.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008.

Jonathan F. Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, will chair a discussion about avatar civil liberties. Joining him will be Robin Harper, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development from Linden Lab, and Jack Balkin, professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School.

Prior to their remarks, Douglas Thomas, Professor at USC and Director of the Institute for Network Culture, and Barry Joseph, Director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, will give updates on and announce a dramatic series of programs as part of MacArthur’s year exploring philanthropy in virtual worlds. Thomas and Joseph are MacArthur grantees.

The live audio from the event will be available at this Web location during the event, to be followed the next day with an archived version.

Written by: rikomatic