A community-led project, providing space to meet and network, all to create a cooperative learning environment and foster outreach, education, fundraising, all in a virtual environment.
Don’t miss Dancing in the Streets–well, virtual dancing, that is– on the streets of NPC2 this Sat. May 17th from from 2-6 pm SLT/PDT.
New Nonprofit Commons resident, Ophoenix will be having an in-world dance party/fundraiser in conjunction with their real life fundraising event. Come and enjoy music avatar DJ Namov Abramovic, dancing, and tours of the second Nonprofit Commons location, NPC2.
Want to help the fundraising efforts? Click on one of the virtual images of artist, Shirley Pinchev’s artwork and you can show your support by donating real-life dollars. All proceeds will be split evenly between Ophoenix, the Nonprofit Commons project, and OxFam America’s support for earthquake relief in China. As a thank you to supporter, contributors who give $40 USD will receive a copy of the image of their choice You can see all of the photo landing pages here.
Come show your support for Ophoenix and the Nonprofit Commons tomorrow afternoon at the Dancing in the Streets event and spread the word to any interested avatars!
Monday’s event will take place on Muse Arena on Muse Isle, as well as through Metanomics’ event partners, and filmed and streamed live on SLCN.tv.
Afterward, if you wish to discuss the topic further, miss the live event, or hope to network with others in the virtual business community, attend “Metanomics Rewind” on Muse Isle. This week’s episode of Metanomics will be rebroadcast on Tuesday at 3:00PM SLT.
Contact Bevan Whitfield or JenzZa Misfit in SL for more details or visit the Metanomics site.
The virtual event will bring together IT Pros and Developers to get an in-depth, up-close look at the new products and will give attendees an opportunity to meet with their peers as well as Microsoft employees.
The event is designed to give attendees a high level technical overview covering features and solutions of all three new products in a classroom environment.
This is an opportunity to:
See the applications in action.
Attend break-out sessions and meet with product experts.
Have Q&A sessions with the speakers and your peers.
Join in for this day long celebration!
Check out the schedule of the day’s events, find links to downloads for Live Meeting, and more information here.
Anika Pastorelli gave a presentation at our weekly meeting last Friday about the need to help the Nonprofit Commons (NPC) better articulate the rationale and benefits of nonprofits participating in NPC. Measuring impact, both qualitative and quantitative is a crucial part of our development efforts, so please take a moment to add your input to help support NPC:
Subcommittee chairperson, Congressman Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) moderated the hearing in-person while his avatar presented simultaneously in in Second Life. Some invited avatars were able to watch the closed hearings in a virtual version of the committee hearing room.
This hearing looked at the evolution, culture and future of virtual worlds. Its purpose was to "obtain testimony on the nature and growth of online virtual worlds; the types of applications and services, both commercial and non-commercial, supported and offered in such worlds; and any policy issues raised by virtual worlds that may need to be addressed or monitored." Susan spoke from her experience as founder of TechSoup’s Nonprofit Commons, a virtual community of practice for nonprofits in Second Life. She addressed the importance and significance of nonprofits using Second Life and the benefits of using this medium to help organizations achieve their mission. Other presenters included Philip Rosedale, co-founder of Linden Labs (the company which created Second Life) and Dr. Larry Johnson Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium.
Mark your calendars for Friday, Feb. 29th , 2008: Join us for a 1-day free online event happening on TechSoup.org’s Community forums and in Second Life:
Using Virtual Worlds and Emerging Technologies for People with Disabilities
This two-part, interactive event will take place in two locations online:
9 AM PST in the Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater in Second Life: Simon Stevens (aka Simon Walsh in Second Life) will be speaking about his work in Second Life. Simon Walsh is chief executive of Enable Enterprises which manages the Wheelies nightclub for people with disabilities in Second Life and the Second Ability Second Life simulator. In real life, Simon has cerebral palsy and lives in Coventry, UK. He is a disability consultant and trainer working with many organizations large and small. You can watch a profile of Simon Stevens on YouTube (see above).
Simon will give a virtual talk via text chat in the Nonprofit Commons amphitheater, in the virtual world of Second Life.
10AM PST- 6PM PST –the follow-on discussion will continue in an all-day, asynchronous (not-live) forum on TechSoup. This event will occur in a question and answer format in the TechSoup Accessible Technology & Public Computing forum, where we’ll discuss issues such as:
-Innovative ways that emerging technologies are making technology more accessible for people with disabilities
-Ways people with disabilities use technologies to expand their communities?
-How can we work to make accessibility a design priority in the virtual world as well as the real world?
-What are some free resources to help people with disabilities find accessible technology tools?
-How can nonprofit organizations help make technology more accessible for people with disabilities?
Ok, first you might be wondering, what is a mashup? Handyland started by explaining. Wikipedia has a pretty good definition:
In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data from Craigslist, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.
NetSquared is a project of TechSoup, that seeks to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations.
Got an idea of how to combine data from more than one source into an integrated tool that would increase awareness around an issue? Maybe you have an idea of how one or more applications can work with Second Life to help nonprofits? Then you’ll want to submit it to the NetSquared MashUp Challenge.
Handyland went on to share how the NetSquared project is awarding a share of $100,000 in prize money, and a trip to the NetSquared Conference, to the top 20 winners of the NetSquared Mashup Challenge. You can submit your idea for a mashup with social impact. Entries are accepted until March 14, 2008 at 5 PM PST.
Handyland explained that you don’t have to have the tech skills to create your mashup, just the idea. Your application will explain the change that you are trying to make, as well as the information/data sources that you believe can be married to help create that change. The NetSquared Team will reach out to web-savvy collaborators to help translate your idea into a Mashup Project.
From there, Handyland continued, teams of developers will start building your mashup. The week of March 17th, the NetSquared Community will vote for the mashups they think are the most innovative, and that will create the greatest social impact.
On March 24 the top 20 mashups will be announced, and the winners will be invited to attend this year’s NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) in San Jose, CA May 27-28, 2008. Each of the top 20 mashups will get an allowance for travel (including airfare to and from the Conference, along with a hotel room for two nights).
At the Conference, project teams will have an opportunity to display and discuss their mashups, and attendees will vote to select the top three. All twenty projects at the Conference will receive a share of $100,000 in prize money. The share will be determined by voting at the Conference.
Handyland answered questions from avatars about the challenge. The contest is open to everyone worldwide, though the submission form is in English. You can find out more information on the NetSquared site or contact net2 [at] techsoup [dot] org. And if you’re a developer who wants to help build the mashups, email Billy Bicket at bbicket [at] techsoup [at] org
Subcommittee chairperson, Congressman Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) moderated the hearing in-person while his avatar presented simultaneously in in Second Life. Some invited avatars were able to watch the closed hearings in a virtual version of the committee hearing room.