Tag: npsl

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Top 10 Reasons Why Second Life is Worthwhile for Nonprofits

This recent Second Life scandal has some nonprofit board members concerned about the value for nonprofits using Second Life. Much like the Web, Second Life also has some seedy people out there. But as many nonprofits can attest, the ever-growing community of amazing avatars working for good far outweighs the few “bad apples” or rather “bad avatars.”

Here’s a list of 10 reasons why Second Life is worthwhile for your nonprofit:

1. Over 2 million people use Second Life. That’s a large community of people–and potential folks that your organization can reach.

2. Second Life offers new ways to collaborate and get work done. Through in-world meetings, people from disparate parts of the globe can chat (by text and voice), share documents and information, and work together on virtual projects.

3. It’s a carbon-friendly way to connect with people worldwide. Imagine the carbon (and cost savings) of participating in a global conference from the privacy of your own computer. OneClimate‘s OneWorld Island is offering just that with their Virtual Bali conference this fall, offering an alternative for people to participate virtually in the annual UN conference without the carbon cost of flying.

4. Low cost. The basic Second Life account is free, though there are additional costs for purchasing land. The Nonprofit Commons virtual space is donated land that allows nonprofits to set up virtual shop at no cost to the organization.

5. It gives your organization the opportunity to be thought leaders and innovators in your field of expertise. For example, Global Kids has run a series of virtual workshops on global issues and leadership to teens and are developing best practices for bringing this type of education into Second Life.

6. Second Life can provide a virtual sandbox for NPOs to experiment with different ways of building awareness and support for their cause. For Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York, developing a Second Life presence was a pilot project as a new program to contribute to their mission. Just as you have to try out a new fundraising or membership strategy, organizations can experiment with Second Life as another approach for meeting its goals.

7. Second Life awareness often translates into real-world donations. Consider the case of the Digital Campfires Foundation. Through connecting with others in Second Life, Digital Campfires received nearly a semi truck load of real-world donated monitors and computers.

8. Virtual worlds offer a level of interactivity that the Web can’t match. Take the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) developed the Gone Gitmo project. This Second Life representation of Guantanamo Bay gives avatars a temporary simulated experience of what it’s like to be imprisoned in Guatanamo Bay and to teach about issues of habeas corpus.

9. Second Life fosters innovation and creativity. Nonprofits are continually coming up with new ways to gain awareness and touch people. Whether that’s through in-world concerts, virtual political debates or art exhibits, Second Life offers endless possibilities for creatively combining visual, text, and audio technologies.

10. Second Life is continually evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated as technologies are developed. The possibilities for technical and social innovations in virtual worlds abound!

Written by: penguin kuhn

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Oleander Health Fair raises dollars and awareness

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This past Wed. Nov. 7th, Oleander Island was host to the Womens’ Health Fair/Expo. This event sought to educate women on the health issues that concern them in their everyday lives, share ideas, and talk to professionals in the field. In addition, the health fair helped raise linden dollars for the organization, Drive By Agony/Life Learning programs, a non-profit organization that helps victims of crime.

The event featured a variety of speakers involved in health issues. In-between speakers, participants could check out the dance floor, refreshments from the bar and buffet table, and visit the variety of projects on display.

Highlights from the speakers included:

PCOSGurl Infinity of Project PCOS on the importance of education and awareness about PCOS, a hidden syndrome that many women have.

Coughran Mayo of Preferred Family Healthcare speaking on issues dealing with body and mind.

MB Chevalier of the University of Plymouth discussing concerns surrounding Sexual health education

Carmen Gray of Drive By Agony/Life learning programs speaking about the thousands of youth victims in America and why the organization made the decision to come to Second Life.

Jacmacaire Humby of Humanbe highlighting his organization’s peace project and a need to create more peace in the world.

This Penguin stopped by and said a few words about the Nonprofit Commons, and was very impressed by the event and speakers.

Written by: penguin kuhn

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Residents of Second Life Stood Up against poverty

Over 38.8 million people, in 110 countries participated in this years Stand Up and Speak Out event, a global initiative launched by the United Nations Millennium Campaign, to show support for the UN Millennium Development goals and against poverty. We joined them in their call by organising a Stand Up Against Poverty event in the virtual world Second Life. We had 70 visitors to our virtual Fight Hunger office at the Nonprofit Commons during the both events and it was really nice to meet so many interesting people and discuss ways to help end poverty and hunger. Our avatar Fight Hunchke had invaluable help of the avatar DrChaos Torok with organising the Stand Up event.

During the Stand Up in Second Life, the visitors were given free Stand Up bracelets and T-shirts to show their support for the UN Millennium Development goals. Here you find a link to our Fight Hunger office in Second Life.

The worldwide “Stand Up and Speak Out” event broke the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to “Stand Up Against Poverty” in 24 hours. The record attempt took place over 16th and 17th October and was jointly organised by the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the Global Call to Action against Poverty with a wide range of other partners. The challenge saw millions of people physically and intentionally standing up against poverty, inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals. They spoke out to demand a more urgent political response to the growing crisis of global poverty.

Written by: FightHunger.org

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California Association of Nonprofits Broadcast from Second Life…in Voice Chat

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Yesterday Glitter, Jessika, Ine Kenzo, and Beth Kavka were all presenting in-world for the California Association of Nonprofits conference. As a last minute idea, I decided to join the conference in-world as an audience member. Glitteractica Cookie sat across from in the real world as her avatar fielded questions and answers from the presentation.

I’m a relative newbie to Second Life and this was my first trying out voice chat. It was a challenge to get the audio to work just right. We experienced some connectivity trouble at our end, which meant we had trouble hearing the speakers; other times, it sounded like voices were gargling when they spoke and a couple of times we lost audio completely.

However, when the audio did work, it was this amazing experience. There were so many levels of simultaneous communication: audio from Second Life, the visual in-world slide presentation and text chat conversation. Then in real life, I could see and hear Glitter speak in the room with me, then hear her voice echo back in-world. I couldn’t hear the questions from the live conference in Los Angeles, but that adds yet another layer to the multiple communication channels.

I was nervous because I was trying out many things for the first time in-world. In addition to juggling the audio, I played around with taking pictures of the event and even teleported another avatar into the session. I’m finding that Second Life is a lot like learning a new sport. It’s hard not to get discouraged at first because you don’t yet have the skills or the rules down to be a competent player. But just as exciting as it is when you make that one catch or hit that one ball, when I’m successful in doing a new thing, it adds to my confidence and interest in wanting to keep practicing.

I can see where many people might try out the voice chat and after finding the configuration and sound quality to be frustrating, dismiss voice as something too problematic to use. There were certainly a few times where I felt the same way, but then I thought back to the earlier days of the Internet. I remember when it took fifteen minutes to send an email or I’d have to try to dial up multiple times to get an Internet connection. Technology has come a long way since then, and I think voice chat is the same way–it’s still a relatively new feature in Second Life and it will gradually become an easier tool to use over time.

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Written by: penguin kuhn

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Nonprofits Celebrate New Home in Second Life: Nonprofit Commons Grand Opening

Event is tonight at 5:30pm, SLT/PDT! In case you can’t get into the Plush Nonprofit Commons, the overflow sim is at SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Lake%20West/127/1/26

—————–

Contact: Susan Tenby, susan@techsoup.org
Phone: (415) 633-9333
SL avatar: Glitteractica Cookie
http://www.nonprofitcommons.org
http://npsl.wikispaces.com/

San Francisco Meets the Metaverse: 32 Nonprofits and their supporters will host a grand opening celebration Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. PT/SLT, in their new locations at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life.

Generously donated by the world’s first virtual millionaire, Anshe Chung, this nonprofits-only space, managed by TechSoup, creates and houses a community of nonprofits in the online virtual world of Second Life. This community of practice is entirely volunteer-run and hosts organizations from across the globe. To date, they have created a community blog and a resource-rich wiki, and have held mixed-reality events, workshops, and regular weekly town hall meetings.

The Gala event will be a mixed-reality launch party, complete with networking, a panel of speakers (featuring Susan Tenby of TechSoup and Jeska Dzwigalski of Linden Lab in the live-event, and Anshe Chung in Second Life). Audio and video content will be streamed live between the two worlds.

This “sim,” or virtual acre of land, was designed as a pilot project to lower the barriers of access to Second Life, and to create a community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the virtual world. The Nonprofit Commons provides free office space to qualifying groups to meet and collaborate, create a cooperative learning environment, and foster outreach, education, and fundraising, all in a virtual space

“We believe that Second Life provides a unique platform to collaborate, educate, inspire, and build awareness. In the Nonprofit Commons, our goal is to assist our community members achieve their dreams in this exciting new technology that we see as the future of the Web. We welcome all who wish to join us as partners or supporters,” said Glitteractica Cookie, avatar for Susan Tenby, Senior Manager of Community Development, TechSoup Network.

“Building vibrant communities starts with great events that bring organizations together for dialogue and exchange,” notes In Kenzo (Evonne Heyning), Creative Director at Amoration.org. “For nonprofits joining the virtual world for the first time, the Nonprofit Commons offers a free place to connect with other leaders.”

Audience members in the Second Life portion of the event are expected to include nonprofit commons residents and their invited guests, media representatives and journalists, Linden Lab staff, and those interested in nonprofits and philanthropy.

The live-event in San Francisco will be a part of NetSquared’s Net Tuesday. The Gala event’s activities include:

5:30 p.m.: Meet and greet
6:00 p.m.: Speakers and event
7:00 p.m.: Tours of the Nonprofit Commons

The events in Second Life will be at the same time, working in conjunction with the events in the real world, live event. Nonprofit organizations in the Commons will also be hosting their own events in conjunction with this Grand Opening Gala. To find the Nonprofit Commons search the places tab in SL for nonprofit commons or, go to:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/130/125/22/?titl…

Information and Inquiries: This event is free of charge, but space is limited, so please RSVP via email to Susan Tenby (susan@techsoup.org) for in-world attendance to this event or IM Glitteractica Cookie in Second Life. Join the TechSoup group, in-world in Second Life to receive announcements about this event and future nonprofit events in Second Life.

Attire: Avatar fabulous, if possible dress as your avatar or your favorite avatar.

RSVP on the San Francisco NetSquared Meetup site (http://netsquared.meetup.com/1/) for attendance to the live, real-world event.

Nonprofit Commons Gala Event

Written by: Glitteractica_Cookie

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Second Chance Trees a finalist in Amex $5 million challenge

Paul Young of Converseon sends news that the Second Chance Trees initiative has been selected as one of 50 finalists in a competition sponsored by American Express called "The Members Project." Second Chance Trees is an effort to raise awareness about and funds for rainforest re-forestation around the world.  Second Life residents can purchase virtual trees in a lush rainforest setting for L$300 (about one US dollar), which funds the planting of a real tree in a rainforest somewhere in the real world. 

Paul says that if Second Chance Trees wins the competition, they could get up to $5 million, which would fund millions of trees.  Amex card holders can vote for Second Chance (or any other member project) by going to http://www.membersproject.com.

There’s a YouTube video that explains the Second Chance initiative, but of course it’s best to teleport in and check it out yourself in-world (teleport SLURL.) Buy a few trees while you’re there. I’m partial to the "Golden Shower" and the "Mangium" myself. Second Chance Trees was conceived, developed and built by social media agency Converseon in partnership with the non-profit Plant It 2020.

Written by: rikomatic

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TechSoup’s Nonprofit Commons and Beth Kanter in New York Times today!

The New York Times covered our group and project in today’s NY Times. Here’s the blurb about our group:

More than 30 nonprofits have opened offices in a virtual business incubator in Second Life called the Nonprofit Commons that is operated by TechSoup, a group that helps other nonprofits with technology.

Not bad for a lil’ fledgling group like ourselves!

This was an article about the Mac Arthur event today. TechSoup’s group will be attending this event together this morning at 9am PST.

Written by: Glitteractica_Cookie

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Change In Focus

In my intersection with other nonprofits through the NPSL group and on the TechSoup site I am expanding my focus to deal with emerging technologies in general and how they can be utilized by the nonprofit community as a whole.  My background is in the arts, so expect to continue to see some bias for that industry but my personal experiences over the last two years have shifted my sense of self toward social justice (although being Canadian probably has something to do with that too.)
So, while the focus has been shifting over the last six months, expect it to be more apparent–including the updated header on http://dogstar.org .

Written by: Creech

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Marketplaces and Web 2.0

Social networking sites are gathering places.  When they are successful, they build community.  That community can interact through chat, forums, blogs and comments, virtual environments, text messaging and wikis. 
Those who are 18-35ish are rarely far away from these communities due to the prevalence of cell phones with text messaging and browsers.  In fact, many young people use the texting functions on cell phones more than the phone itself.  I understand this.  I use texting to keep in touch with my wife.  Often a quick text is a faster way to communicate with people. 
I also use texting with the programmers we work with at work.  It is fast and I don’t need a computer to do it. In Asia text messaging has become enormous.  Broadband services on cell are common place in Asia.  They will become common place here as well.  The trend for people to be online almost all the time will not diminish.  In fact, those who are between 18-25 spend more time online than watch TV and it is a vast amount of time–over 80 hours a month.
This trend has far reaching implications.

  1. Entertainment choices are shifting–the computer has become a primary source, perhaps THE primary source of entertainment.
  2. Where people "hang out" is changing.  Physical place has become less important.  If you see a teenager texting on a Sidekick, they are hanging out with friends.  Perhaps not at the mall, but it isn’t any less valid.
  3. Virtual spaces like Second Life will become more influential.  Second Life already has over 6 million residents and the GDP of a small country.  Commercial advertisers have already figured this out and have begun using the space to that advantage.
  4. The marketplace has begun shifting and will continue to do so.  If you want to reach the younger consumer you must meet them where they gather.  That is online.

Nonprofits must embrace the new marketplace.  If the community chooses to ignore how monumental of a tectonic shift this will represent the community will fail.  Theatres won’t have people in the seats.  Service organizations won’t be able to easily recruit volunteers.  Sales will plummet.  Grantmakers will lose opportunities to fund quality applicants
So, where is your best marketplace and has it moved online yet?  If it has started, don’t ignore how young people are gathering.  Find your way to where they hang out and you can find a place to plant a seed.

Written by: Creech