Author: Nonprofit Commons

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Mixed Reality Learning Lab & more at the NCVS Conference in NYC next week

From Evonne Heyning with Claire Sale @techsoup:

The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) is June 28-30 in New York City. The NCVS conference is an opportunity for volunteer and service leaders to get together for in-person networking and learning. If you’re going to be there we’d love for you to get in touch — or if you cannot attend, join us in Second Life or on the web!

Here’s a listing of live sessions and spaces hosted by TechSoup:

Mixed Reality Learning Lab
Susan Tenby from TechSoup Global along with Nonprofits in Second Life team members Evonne Heyning and Josephine Dorado

Dates: All conference long!


Location: In the lounge near the ballroom entrance corridor between the conference host exhibit spaces.
The team at TechSoup has brewed up a select menu of tools and strategies to provide a social media curriculum to conference attendees on how to explore Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and applications for engaging volunteers and supporters around the world.

Attendees can join a tour of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life or learn how to use digital storytelling and Facebook for quick and easy updates to keep connected to supporters. Quick tips and tools will be provided on how to get started as well as support for more advanced users. Also, engage in mixed reality events as avatars and representatives from nonprofits around the world discuss their work both virtually and in their communities.

Join us in Second Life at the Nonprofit Commons!
Monday June 28: 7-10AM PST (10AM – 1PM EST)
Tuesday June 29: 7-8AM PST and 11-12:30PM PST (10-11AM or 2:00-3:30PM)
Wednesday June 30: 5:30AM PST (8:30AM EST)
NCVS Schedule

You can also watch this stream on the web directly.

Community-Driven Social Impact Session
Amy Sample Ward from NetSquared

Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Eastern
 Room: 1471
This session focuses on strategies and case studies for creating successful community-driven media, events, and campaigns. Participants will learn about best practices and work in small groups to put learning into practice.

Technology Planning for Nonprofits Session
Catherine Hurd and Elliot Harmon
 from TechSoup Global

Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eastern 

Room: 1374
This session will help participants to assess their organization’s technology needs and capacity; work with technical volunteers; and understand the role of technology planning as the foundation for an effective operating environment.

Get in Touch via Twitter
Will you be at the NCVS? We’d love to hear from you at @NetSquared, @TechSoup or @npsl. Or connect with us directly:

Amy Sample Ward: @AmyRSWard
Elliot Harmon: @ElliotHarmon
Susan Tenby: @Suzboop
Evonne Heyning: @amoration
Josephine Dorado: @funksoup

TrackBack: http://blog.techsoup.org/trackback/1360

Written by: InKenzo

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Jolie Mason Presentation on June 11th and Helen Keller Day June 19th

On June 11th, after our weekly Friday meeting here at the NPC, we were honored to have Jolie Mason / Jolie1 Magic with us. Jolie Mason is known as the first blind person to enter Second Life, and she gave an amazing presentation about virtual worlds, accessibility, and why Helen Keller is a dangerous hero to have.

Her presentation wowed the audience, and you can read a summary by downloading this PDF file and click here to read the chat transcript of Jolie’s presentation.

On a personal note, Helen Keller is a hero of mine as well. When I was a child, the story fascinated me. The fact that she overcame so much and stood up for her independence gave me strength, and made me love and adore humanity. I used to sometimes fantasize that Helen Keller and Marie Curie were the same person, and wondered if Helen Keller would have been able to see herself glow in the dark after her many scientific experiments.

Helen Keller was an ideal person to have as a role model also because she was a strong independent woman, and I wanted to be as eager as she was to learn. Helen Keller’s story also lead to my extreme admiration for teachers, whose patience knows no limits. So here I am, older, wiser, and Helen Keller’s story continues to fascinate me.

It is her struggle that lead to my fascination with Max, the Guide Dog, a screen reading dog scripted for Second Life users who are blind. Max allows those who are blind to interact with Second Life in ways that were never imagined by any of us. I am a huge fan of Max the Guide Dog, you can read more about him here VirtualGuideDog.com and follow him on Twitter here @VirtualGuideDog

Basically, Jolie stated that Helen Keller is a dangerous hero because she challenges use.

After Jolie’s presentation, she was asked a couple of questions:

Louise Later asked Jolie:
How did you heard about SL?

Jolie Answered:
I love technology — computers and science, I am a regular listener of radio, and in particular Science Friday. A couple of years ago they talked about SEcond Life and I loved the idea of community. It was interesting to see how the second life community participated in the political debates. How about a snowman asking about global warming? I suggested my nephew create diversity training in second life.

Glitteractica Cookie asked Jolie:
I would like to know how many other users with disabilities that you know of are using virtual worlds?

Louise commented:
Actually, about 1 out of 5 people in Second LifeÆ have a disability
Jolie answered:
I am very interested seeing more blind people in second life there are 6 that I know of.

Louise also shared a very memorable quote:

“Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained though self- gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Rik Xaris, a member of the audience, stated:

“I would just like to say that i think this is amazing and hope that more blind people will hear about the virtual world and join us thank you for enlightening me about the branch of sl that i knew nothing about.”

You can hear Jolie on her radio program called Access Unlimited by going to LARRS.org . According to Jolie, her program often features accessibility issues and technology for persons with disabilities. You can also email Jolie at jolie1magic[at]gmail[dot]com.

The event was a beautiful preview to today’s Helen Keller Day Events in Second Life, where our very own Brena Benoir will be presenting. You can find more information on the Second Life Helen Keller Day wiki page.

Many thanks to Saxet Uralia, Louise Later, and LoriVonne Lustre for making the presentation possible.

A great big thank you to Jolie for visiting us and doing this fantastic presentation!

11:00AM-12:00PM Co-Occurring Disorders in Adolescents Brenda Bryan aka Brena Benoir with Preferred Family Healthcare
Description: We will be examining the prevalence of substance abuse issues and mental health issues among the adolescent populations. We will look at symptoms of mental health issues among the adolescent population. We will examine the concept of self medication and how this relates directly to substance abuse. We will also be focusing on how to increase long-term stability for both substance abuse and mental health issues.

Image: Louise, Max, Jolie, and LoriVonne

Written by: Layal

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How Does SL Help the Blind?

Interested in accessibility and disability issues? Ever wonder how Second Life can assist people with disabilities?

Join us this Friday, June 11th at 9:30AM SLT for a special presentation by Jolie Mason, the first blind person to ever join Second Life.

She will talk about the personal value she has found in SL, along with Helen Keller’s philosophy on the discussion of ideas to bring about change and awareness. The event is called “Diversity: Why Helen Keller is a Dangerous Hero” and will be held at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life, accessible here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/88/126/26

Written by: sparker2

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Nonprofit Games Brainstorm Bash Revisited

On Sunday, 05.23.2010 the Nonprofit Commons held a brainstorming session in New York City that was streamed into Second Life. This mixed reality event brought interested people from all types of disciplines together to share their ideas and imagine what an NPCGame would look like. Here is my breakdown of the chat transcript, organized for clarity for your viewing pleasure. If I left anything off, feel free to discuss this in the NPCGames Google Group

Our Goals

To launch a community and create a collaborative game for nonprofits focusing on a specific mission/campaign/issue
To discuss platform ideas, On the question about connecting gamers and nonprofits
To develop a game together
We’re talking about methods and practice steps, Create a collaborative game, perhaps coalition of nonprofits working together to create a social issue game that’s fun, engaging and benefits many groups.
We’re thinking about helping communities, locally and globally.
Because we have a lot to learn from one another here
To find a direction to move toward for NPCGames
To bridge the gap between gaming people and virtual world avatars
TechSoup teaches these tools, offers webinars and shares how to do these sorts of development projects,
We aim to create a gateway for all of you to do more with serious and social games
TechSoup provides community resources for nonprofits, 500K users per month

Brainstorming Ideas from the Second Life Chat

Specific Ideas for the point of the game

Teaching about Universal Human Rights
Teaching about Millenium Development Goals
MMOG was where people would pick one or more disabilities instead of superpowers

General Ideas for the point of the game

Reward system for altruism and goodness
Think of this as coalition-based cooperative gaming that can benefit many causes at once
sustainable
engages non-gamers
MMOG – Massive Multiplayer Online Game

Platforms

Most people were for immersive gaming
Some mentioned text-based as a need for countries where mobile phones are available, and the Internet is really not.
Mobile Apps
Augmented Reality
Alternate Reality
Xbox Live
OpenFeint
OpenSim
Google Wave API

Possible Obstacles

accessibility
learning curve
sustainability
digital divide
cost of development
participation levels

Metrics
measurable world change, outcomes,
“yes….The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.” –> if anyone can explain this last one, I’d love to know what this means. —-Update: MDG is short for Millennium Development Goals—-

Questions

Hour Destiny
QUESTION: Do we want it to be graphic or text-based? CoffeeMUD is a great Java-based MUD server, but is text-only.
A: Cross-platform

In Kenzo
QUESTION: METRICS, OUTCOMES? How do you fund this? This is the question from Dan Carli
A: BASELINES, METRICS — > Linked to mission, vision

Jackie Rexen
QUESTION: How can this group include folks from developing countries like Africa?
A: Text-based gaming.

Jackie Rexen
QUESTION: What is the mission and visions of this group? How will this game be different then other good ones out there – like Saving Darfur – Urgent Evoke. What can this group produce that is unique, engaging, user-friendly. How can we get gamers and nonprofits with similar interests to get together?

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Should the group consider development of a table-based game creation tool? This would allow creation of many types of games with much less programming effort per each new game.

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Do we consider poverty a disability? Life in a repressive regime? Or in a badly degraded environment? Or an overpopulated one?

Previously listed as:
Question: Or in a badly degraded environment? Or an overpopulated one? Do we consider poverty a disability? Life in a repressive regime?

(thx to Moundsa for contact me to get this corrected)

Moundsa Mayo
Question: Why not make sustainability as the KEYSTONE of the entire framework?
A: Moundsa — your question on sustainability was also asked here….mentioned as a framework for all we want to do

Zinnia Zauber
Question: Will orgs with like missions work together?
A: On Zinnia’s question about orgs with like missions working together == YES!

As you can see, some of the questions were answered, whereas others were not. To help us answer these questions, please join the NPCGames Google Group

Attendee List and Shared Links
To view the list of links that were shared during the chat, and a list of attendees both in New York City, and in Second Life, visit the NPCGames wiki page and click on the NPCGames Brainstorm Session Attendee and Link List link.

G4C NPSL Photos

Written by: Layal

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We’re a Finalist for the 2010 Linden Prize!

UPDATE:: The winner of the 2010 Linden Prize is the Tech Virtual Museum, set to receive an award of $10,000 USD. Check out the Winner’s Announcement!

Nonprofit Commons in Second Life was recently chosen as one of ten finalists for this year’s Linden Prize, which recognizes outstanding innovation in improving the lives of people both inside and outside the virtual world of SL.

Each Finalist gave a video interview to Treet TV, and we encourage you to view ours here. Watch Our Video Interview with Treet TV for the Linden Prize. TechSoup Online Community Director and Nonprofit Commons Founding Director, Susan Tenby, (avatar name: Glitteractica Cookie) explains the purpose of Nonprofit Commons in Second Life: “We want to lower the barriers of access to this kind of technology, and allow nonprofits to showcase their mission in a way that they can’t do with the 2-D web.”

Thank you to all who have helped to build this community–your hard work has been recognized in a big way! Be sure to check out The Official Second Life Community Blog for coverage of our 2010 Linden Prize nomination. To learn more about the Winner and other Finalists, click here.

Written by: sparker2

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Candlelight Vigil for Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The ALS Association’s SL Candlelight Vigil, held Sunday night in the Plush Amphitheater, was a success! I had approximately 35 visitors throughout the night, and raised 10,000L for ALS. Considering this was my 1st ever Second Life event, I am very pleased with the outcome. During the vigil I displayed a slide show of photos from The Association’s RL vigil held in Washington, DC. The slide show, along with all the virtual candles lit, gave the amphitheater a very peaceful, serene feeling. The highlight of my night was meeting a couple who is currently dealing with ALS. The husband was diagnosed a year ago and they joined SL so they can dance and ride motorcycles…all the types of things they can’t do in RL anymore because of ALS. I am grateful to NPC and SL in general for giving The ALS Association the opportunity to reach out to more people living with ALS. I look forward to working with them on future SL events which will help raise awareness and funds for ALS so we may continue our efforts to develop better treatments while searching for a cure. Thanks to all those who helped me plan the event and/or designed items for auction.

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Written by: emellsmere

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Nonprofits, Gaming & Virtual Worlds Brainstorm Bash

Nonprofits, Gaming & Virtual Worlds Brainstorm Bash

A brainstorm session for nonprofits, gamers and virtual world enthusiasts

A project of TechSoup’s Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Ever combined the Web, World of Warcraft, Real Life, Second Life, Google Earth, Nintendo, Facebook, Moore’s Law and the unfolding human experience into a single thought (which, perhaps, you then Twittered over your iPhone)? Do you dream of saving the world in 8-bit superhero style?

Our goal is to bridge the divide between nonprofit organizations, virtual worlds and game developers and enthusiasts. There are superheroes in each realm, and we plan on bringing them together for a world-class brainstorm bash. Building on the awesome community that Games for Change has created, we’ll be kicking off a long-term community and development project, shaped by the participants of this meetup. We hope to organize a collaborative working group that mashes up serious and social gaming with nonprofits and virtual world producers, and we’re exploring a collaborative game design challenge that would be great to have your input on before the Games for Change Festival in NYC.

Topics we intend to cover:

* Creating frameworks for collaborative game design
* Leveraging the platforms of nonprofits, gaming and virtual worlds to create collaborative community development projects
* Identifying resources, collaboration methods and tools
* Creating content across platforms
* Nonprofit applications of games and integration with virtual worlds

This event is free but tickets are limited so please RSVP soon.
This event will also be available in Second Life at http://bit.ly/NPCBrainstormBash for those who cannot join in person.

Come with your game-changing thoughts and ideas!

RSVP and share the Facebook page with your colleagues!

Join the NPCGames Google group and post your introductions – we want to know who you are!

Click here to join us virtually this Sunday from 12:00pm SLT (Pacific Time) / 3:00pm EST: Nonprofit Commons in Second Life Plush Amphitheater

Tweet: I’m attending Nonprofit Games Brainstorm on nonprofits, gaming & v-worlds 5/23 http://bit.ly/npcbrain #npsl #g4c

See you there, superheroes 🙂

Written by: Layal

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Candlelight Vigil for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)

Candlelight Vigil for ALS
Sunday, May 16
5 – 7 p.m. SLT
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/94/128/26

Please join The ALS Association in a candlelight vigil to mark ALS Awareness Month. This virtual vigil will follow the RL vigil in Washington DC, so that people who are not able to attend in DC can still be involved.

It will provide an opportunity for each person to raise a candle in memory of loved ones who passed away from ALS and to honor those who continue to live with the disease.

Many custom designed items will be for sale to help raise funds and awareness for ALS. All proceeds go directly to The ALS Association.

The ALS Association fights Lou Gehrig’s Disease on every front by leading the way in global research, providing assistance for people with ALS through a nationwide network of chapters, coordinating care through certified clinics, and fostering government partnerships.

The ALS Association is an NPC tenant and has a presence on Health Commons. For more information, please contact:
Em Ellsmere (Tina Walker in RL, tina@alsa-national.org)

Written by: DustyArtaud

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Webinar: Using Second Life to Collaborate and Connect

Date: Thu, May 13, 2010
and the
Time: 11:00 AM PDT

Some of you may have heard of Second Life before, while others may have not. Join us for an upcoming webinar that discusses the 3-D interactive environment of Second Life.

Basically, this webinar will demystify the use of Second Life for social good, and allow you to explore the benefits of using Second Life for nonprofits and libraries.

From the registration page:

Hear from Susan Tenby, Jessica Dally, and Renne Brock-Richmond who will:
• discuss best practices,
• give examples of how nonprofits and libraries are using Second Life,
• help you understand how your organization can utilize this powerful tool,
• create social change while collaborating within this innovative platform,
• and show you how to join our large community in the virtual world.

Go here to register for the Using Second Life to Collaborate and Connect Webinar:
http://bit.ly/SLWeb

You will be using this link to view the webinar, and you will be provided with telephone conference information so that you can hear the audio.

The second option for attending this webinar is the simulcast inside Second Life, so if you have never been inside Second Life, contact us at nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org and we will assist you in setting up an account and installing the software so that you may experience Second Life as you learn about it.

After you have set up your Second Life account and software, attend the webinar by clicking here: http://bit.ly/bq4leY and then allowing the link to launch Second Life for you.

Both options will give you the ability to listen to the speakers, view their slides, and ask questions.

If you have any questions about nonprofits in Second Life, post them for our presenters and they’ll address these: http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/t/30342.aspx .

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Written by: Layal