Facebook Webinar 10am Pacific time Thurs 03/11

I’m excited to tell you about this Facebook Webinar as I love joining the fan pages of NGOs to keep tabs on their news and how I can help them. If you’re a part of the Nonprofit Commons community, we have many upcoming opportunities for you to help us with greeting at one of these webinars, so let me know if you are interested by contacting nonprofitcommons(at)techsoup(dot)org! If you aren’t yet, then feel free to join the Techsoup.org group in Second Life.

If you’ve never been into Second Life, please feel free to sign up at SecondLife.com and then sign into it, and click on the link below to teleport to the correct location, and someone there will help you from there.

From Kami‘s Post:

“Is your nonprofit or library interested in using Facebook to interact with your constituencies and reach new audiences? Are you unsure of the best way to get started on this hugely popular social networking site?

Attend this free webinar next Thursday, March 11 at 10 a.m. Pacific time and hear social media consultant John Haydon walk through the essential steps to establishing and managing a successful Facebook presence for a nonprofit or library. He will provide several examples and be available to answer questions.”

Click here to register or follow the link after the webinar to access the recording. There, you can watch the slideshow and the webinar chat portion, and get phone access information.
and/or
Attend in Second Life at the Plush Nonprofit Commons amphitheater and participate in the SecondLife chat while you hang out with the Nonprofit Commons crowd.

To see who else is using Facebook, read and post to this discussion forum.

Written by: Layal

03/05/10 Meeting – SL Viewer Beta, SL Support Groups, Brain Candy, and Virtual Haiti

FRIDAY March 5th, 2010 8:30 AM SLT AGENDA

8:30-8:40 Introductions ‘Shout-Out’
8:40-8:45 Virtual Haiti Update – In Kenzo
8:45-9:00 Brain Candy Project – Jaywick Forcella
9:00-9:15   Support Groups in SL Project – Niko Linden
9:15-9:30 New SL Viewer Beta – Rik Riel
9:20-10:00 Open Mic

I’m very excited about tomorrow’s meeting! We’re having a lot of wonderful guests.

In Kenzo, will be speaking to us about Virtual Haiti Relief and give us an update about their efforts to raise funds for Haiti throughout Second Life.

Jaywick Forcella is a new tenant at NPC, and he will be speaking about his Brain Candy project, follow him on Twitter at @Braincandyproj I would tell you more about his organization, but I will allow him to speak for himself tomorrow, so be sure to join us!

Niko Linden will be here to speak about the Support Groups in SL project. Personally, I am very excited about the potential for having support groups inside Second Life. Through my work at the Nonprofit Commons, I have met diverse support groups. I think that Second Life is a great medium for support groups for several reasons:
– The protection of anonymity it can provide if one wishes it.
– The ability of those who do not have such a group within their own communities to get connected with the groups they seek.
-The potential for creating interactive support activities within SL, especially with the new viewer.

The mention of the Second Life Beta viewer brings me to our next guest, Rik Riel, with Global Kids, who you can follow at @globalkids .
I am very excited about the Beta Viewer, for many reasons:
-The ability to interact with web pages on a texture is revolutionary for SL.
-The new layout is really nice, love the gray on white graphics
-I’m still getting used to the new interface, although I find it pretty intuitive.
-The graphics pop out really well, I don’t know if they enhanced the graphics, or it is just the shiny new viewer.

I can’t wait for Rik to speak about it and tell us more!

Please join us at the meeting!
Teleport to Nonprofit Commons Plush Amphitheater at 8:30am SLT!

Written by: Layal

Nonprofit Technology Conference – Design a Networking Activity Competition

This is so awesome! TechSoup is having a networking activity competition and will pay part of the way to the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Deadline is March 5th, so put your activity planning skills to work!

Opportunity: Host a networking activity for your nonprofit tech colleagues

Where: NTC–the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, United States

When: April 8-10, 2010

Why: TechSoup is showcasing the skills in our community (your skills!)

What up to 3 people will win: In addition to providing support for your networking activity, TSG will pay the majority of your NTC costs within the U.S: NTC registration, 3 nights hotel, plus up to $700 in travel costs.

Proposals due: Friday, March 5, 2010 by 5:00 PST

Winners announced: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

More information here:
http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/t/30010.aspx

Written by: Layal

Haiti Relief Benefit Ball

Thanks to all the wonderful participants who donated to Virtual Haiti Relief at the benefit ball last night, and particular thanks to all the volunteers and performers who made this such a success! Special shout out to Brena Benoir for putting it all together!

Written by: DustyArtaud

Haiti Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting of 02/26/2010

On Friday, the 26th of February, the crew at the Nonprofit Commons invited several speakers to share their perspectives on providing aid in Haiti.

Partners for Others representative RiverSong Garden said that “Partners for Others is committed to addressing the immediate needs of the poor and needy, and providing the tools which will empower them to meet their future needs.” In discussing their part in the relief efforts, she shared information about the logistical difficulties that her organization overcame in getting the much needed supplies to Haiti.

The port was destroyed as a result of the quake, and this made the delivery of supplies nearly impossible. But in the end, they managed to coordinate with their sister organization, Gleaners, and made arrangements to ship “185 Barrels which is 14,800 2.2 lb bags, that will make 2,250,000 cups of soup!!” She closed her talk by stating: “Many times in the media it’s been talked about that “long-term” assistance is needed even once the news stories stop…Partners for Others is committed to being supportive long term.”

The next speaker was Davey Macbain, who is one of the founders of Ushahidi, and Director of Technology Development. Ushahidi was a 2008 Netsquared winner . “Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is the organization that I co-founded with a number of other Kenyans. It was born out of the turbulence that ripped apart the fabric of society in Kenya in January 2008, in the wake of a botched election. Ushahidi was a way to tell their stories when the media was silent or elsewhere. A means to tell the world what was happening.” He shared his passion for Ushahidi’s existence as an Open Source platform that can be easily utilized by anyone.

When the earthquake hit, Davey went on to say, he received a phone call from Patrick, who is one of Ushahidi’s staff members. They immediately went to work and had the haiti.ushahidi.com website up within half an hour. There have been 2000 reports placed into the system to date. Ushahidi’s network extends worldwide, and includes many developers, including the International Network of Crisis Mappers , which Ushahidi co-founded and launched in October of 2009.
It’s a group of about 200 people who are specialists in technology and humanitarian response. There is also a Crisis Mappers Google Group . On Jan 16th, with the help of dozens of people from multiple organizations, we launched an SMS short code in Haiti (4636). People could report emergency info and location by sending a text message to 4636 in Haiti. There is also an Ushahidi Haiti video

Jistis Southpaw from IJDH was the next speaker to share his organization’s story. “I am a human rights lawyer, based in Oregon, we have an affiliate in Haiti called the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux. We are coordinating a group called the Lawyers Earthquake Response Network, which allows lawyers outside of Haiti to pitch in to defend the legal rights of earthquake victims”
“We have 300 lawyers already, and lots of good projects getting off the ground. We are a small organization- 2 full-time and 2 part-time staff.” He also spoke about how they are seeking technological solutions for coordinating the efforts of all of those involved.

After the speakers were done, the floor was opened for questions:

In Kenzo:
“So how can we help you do your work better? That’s a question for all of our guest speakers today…”

RiverSong Garden:
“I think I would really appreciate knowing of contacts you have in Haiti…people we could assist and network with”

In Kenzo:
“how do each of you collaborate with groups on the ground when communications systems are jeopardized during crisis?”

Jistis Southpaw:
“Skype actually worked for us initially, better than phones. It seemed that the internet connections came up quicker than the mobile phones”

Davey Macbain:
“and yes Skype has worked wonders for us too actually during the crisis itself, we spent 18 hour days in Skype working with multiple teams, I should say ‘peak of the crisis’ because the crisis continues”

Jistis Southpaw:
“As for contacts- I’d be happy to recommend, let me know what type of groups you’d like to get in contact with. Back to communications- texting on mobile networks, and in some cases emailing, also worked faster than voice”

Ava Dougall:
“for each of your organizations, would you say that donations are the most useful form of support from individuals that you can access through virtual means?”

Jistis Southpaw:
“Yes, donations first. But circulating information and advice can be valuable too.”

Davey Macbain:
“for us it might be a little different – personally as director of tech at Ushahidi, volunteer developers would be a great way to help”

In Kenzo:
“Perhaps we can tweet out those volunteer requests with you @ushahidi”

Davey Macbain:
“we have a skype chat room too for devs – Ushahidi Skype

In Kenzo:
“Are there other ways we can help you here today?”

Penguin Kuhn:
“we use the #dyb for Donate Your Brain on Twitter for tech questions that need techies to help with”

Penguin Kuhn:
“and that would be perfect for tweeting volunteer requests #dyb”

In Kenzo:
“I know many of us are thinking ahead to the next crisis….and I’m sure we’ll be able to use tools like Ushahidi in other work in our local communities, as needs arise.”

RiverSong Garden:
“for us..donations are wonderful…but know the direct needs on the ground is very valuable :)”

Rhiannon Chatnoir:
“btw…Virtual Haiti Relief has raised 1,690,468 Lindens so far… so if you are at any of the events over the weekend, and want to donate to this…you can donate at any of the Virtual haiti Relief ribbon donation kiosks. we are pulling the location data from where the kiosks are.. so on the site you can see totals by sims based on where they are”

Information to help everyone connect to these great organizations:

Virtual Haiti Relief Information:
Twitter: @virtualhaiti
Hashtag: #virtualhaiti
VirtiualHaitiRelief.org

Our Guest Speakers:

RiverSong Garden
PartnersForOthers.com
Partnersforothers@gmail.com

Davey Macbain (David Kobia)
Twitter: @ushahidi
Ushahidi Haiti Participatory Map
International Network of Crisis Mappers
Crisis Mappers Google Group
Video: http://vimeo.com/9279815
Skype chatroom for Ushahidi developers

Jistis Southpaw (Brian Concannon)
Twitter: @IJDH
Email: brian@ijdh.org
Website is www.ijdh.org

TechSoup Links:

http://www.netsquared.org
Community Forums at TechSoup
Discussion about mobile efforts to help Haiti
#dyb for Donate Your Brain on Twitter for tech questions that need techies to help with.

As an aside, our very own Penguin Kuhn had this announcement to make:
“In Kenzo, Glitter, Ninlil, and Kali will be handling my duties when I am gone, I will not be answering my emails for the month that I am gone, so please contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org if you need anything while I am gone and they will help you.

Malin Dahlstrom announced that all tenants are required to take this survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3YTDLHF. And our friends are visitors are invited to take it as well to help us improve.

Stay tuned for next week where we will have representatives from Linden Labs discussing the brand new Second Life viewer!

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Written by: Layal

Tech Awards Laureates

Many of us are hard at work day and night applying technological tools to help mankind. Some of us get acknowledged, others are working hard and just have not caught their break yet. If you know someone, and you want to help them get that break, there’s a great competition going on to select Tech Awards Laureates. You can nominate someone by going to their website here: http://www.techawards.org/nominate/

Their website says that you can nominate an organization or an individual, and they would be in the running for a $50,000 cash prize for each category!!

The people you nominate should be who respond to humanity’s most pressing problems by applying a technological solution. They must demonstrate that they have sought to profoundly improve the human condition.

You can nominate people for one the following categories:
-Environment
-Economic Development
-Education
-Equality
-Health

Nominations will be accepted through March, 31st, 2010.

We are a community of people that engage in this very thing on a daily basis, and all of us know a few people who rock at doing these things. So help these incredible people get the recognition they need by nominating them. Spread the word about the competition to all of your friends and let’s find those Tech Awards Laureates that remain undiscovered and bring them out into the spotlight.

Written by: Layal

AVATARS RAISE MONEY FOR HAITI THROUGH VIRTUAL EVENTS, GOODS, CAMPAIGNS

2/26-2/28 THREE DAY EVENT in SECOND LIFE

Virtual Haiti Relief with TechSoup Global’s Nonprofit Commons to help Haiti

Avatars from around the world are coming together to honor the Haitian people with a cultural festival designed to raise money for Haiti relief and rebuilding efforts.

From February 26-28th the virtual world of Second Life will play host to a festival highlighting organizations on the ground in Haiti using emerging technologies for rebuilding and aid efforts. Events will include a live music festival led by Kathey Fatica (Katydid Something in Second Life) along with nonprofit organizers of TechSoup Global’s Nonprofit Commons and Virtual Haiti Relief, an online organization formed by volunteers and nonprofit staff members within the virtual world as a response to the devastation in Haiti.

Nonprofit Commons is a four-island cooperative community with representatives from over 100 charitable organizations in ten countries organized by San Francisco-based technology provider TechSoup Global. Avatars can visit the Nonprofit Commons islands in Second Life to the Help Haiti Hub where they can take action, make a donation and visit a makeshift aid distribution center (SLurl to location in Second Life: www.tinyurl.com/teleporttoNPC). Events on Friday February 26th at the Nonprofit Commons will include speakers from real-world organizations giving aid and a virtual goods auction to raise funds for Haitian relief.

”The Music & Arts Festival for Virtual Haiti Relief will be an example of the rich environment that Second Life® offers. Featured throughout the area will be a number of exhibits and artwork, a sculpture garden, and stage. Users can walk their avatars through a 3-dimensional exhibit depicting interpretations of the devastation of Haiti with a map, examples of broken landscape, and a field hospital with only rudimentary equipment. In addition, the event includes informational exhibits and speakers from organizations working to restore a balance to Haitian life, along with a general art exhibit and 40 consecutive hours of Live Music for our world audience to experience,” explains Kathey Fatica, Virtual Haiti Organizer and Creative Director at Needham Fatica Advertising Agency. “It’s our goal to create not only an environment of entertainment but also of education and empathy.”

A charity ball for avatars in Second Life will be hosted by Brenda Bryan (Brena Benoir) of the national nonprofit organization, Preferred Family Healthcare, from 7-10 PM PST/SLT on Saturday February 27th. This virtual Second Life® event will feature live music and dancing on the water while raising money for the Virtual Haiti Relief campaign.

Live music will be featured around the clock beginning at 5AM PST/Second Life Time (SLT), Saturday February 27th, and continuing through to 10PM PST/SLT on Sunday February 28th. Performances celebrating the diversity of music in Second Life® include folk, rock, jazz, and classical music from international performers based in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America.

The Music & Arts Festival for Virtual Haiti Relief is being produced with the support of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life and TechSoup Global. Visit the web for more information on TechSoupGlobal’s activities to help Haiti.

Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, have lent support to organizing and fundraising efforts within the Second Life community, providing space for memorials and outreach support. To date, dozens of events to help Haiti have been hosted within Second Life and throughout other virtual worlds.

Virtual Haiti Relief’s campaign in Second Life sends 100% of donations toward seven charities on the ground in Haiti:
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund: www.clintonbushhaitifund.org
United Nations World Food Programme: www.wfp.org
Oxfam America: www.oxfamamerica.org
Partners in Health: www.pih.org or www.standwithhaiti.org
Red Cross: www.redcross.org
UNICEF: www.unicef.org
Yele Haiti Foundation: www.yele.org

Virtual Fundraising Success
Volunteers have already raised over $6,000 U.S. dollars in the short time the campaign has been live. The Virtual Haiti Relief Donation Package includes information on the charity, a Donation Kiosk to raise funds, a Donation Vendor to raise funds by selling items, a informational notecard explaining more details, and a Virtual Haiti Relief t-shirt for avatars to wear. Avatars share fundraising tools with others through gift bags or group gifts created by Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir of Global Kids).

To learn more about Virtual Haiti Relief events at the Nonprofit Commons contact Kathey Fatica, festival event producer (katydidsomething@virtualhaitirelief.org) or Evonne Heyning, Nonprofit Commons Interactive Producer (evoamo@gmail.com).

Social Actions for Virtual Haiti Relief

You Can Help by Fundraising
Pick up a Virtual Haiti Relief Donation Package in Second Life:
Put out a kiosk found in any blue Haiti gift bag to help collect donations or drop some Linden dollars in a kiosk near you.
Kiosks and Virtual Hait Relief Donation packages may be found in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vesuvius/100/164/25
If you are a content creator, use the vendors to sell items where proceeds go toward fundraising
You can pass along the Donation Package to others that might be interested in raising funds for Haiti relief

Other Ways to Get Involved:
Blog, tweet/retweet, post on Facebook to help share with others outside of SL, follow @VirtualHaiti on twitter and join the VirtualHaiti Facebook group
Distribute the Donation Package through your Second Life groups
Beyond the events planned here by Nonprofit Commons and others involved with the larger Virtual Haiti Relief group, you can plan your own events towards Haitian relief and awareness. Events ideas include talks on Haitian culture/history, dances, candle lightings, music or DJ performances, art exhibits and shows
For Second Life event listings, photos, blog posts, or social media posting beyond Second Life, tag with: VirtualHaiti
For more information visit http://VirtualHaitiRelief.org; IM or email us contact@virtualhaitirelief.org

Written by: InKenzo

Free Online Event and Webinar with SL broadcast Feb. 18 : Straight Talk About Telecommunications for Your Organization

telecom equipment imageDon’t know your VoIP from your POTS or even what these acronyms mean? Scratching your head on all the phone system options out there? Then this event is for you.

Join us Thursday February 18 at 11 a.m. Pacific for an informative webinar and forums event to help you avoid the buzz-word marketing and get the real picture on telecommunications.

We’ll be joined by telecommunications expert and longtime TechSoup star and forums moderator, Chris Shipley of Nutmeg IT and Kevin Lo, Lead Technology Analyst for TechSoup Global. Our hosts will address the various voice communication options (VoIP, PBX hardware, voicemail, etc.) available and how these differ. We’ll explore the pros and cons of different solutions, cost considerations, and examine what kinds of organizations would best benefit from different systems.

This live webinar kicks off the official launch of TechSoup’s new Telecommunications discussion forum.  After the webinar, our hosts will continue the conversation in the asynchronous (not live) forums event. We’ve gotten the conversation rolling with topics like how telecommunications is changing nonprofit work, Google Voice, and what VoIP services organizations are using. Head on over and post your questions and get expert advice on your telecommunications needs!

Here are all the ways you can participate in the event! Feel free to take part on any and all of these channels:

If you have any questions, please email community@techsoup.org.

Spread the word via Twitter and other social media sites by copying and pasting the following:

Join in free #techsoup forums event & webinar: Straight Talk about Telecommunications, 2/18:http://bit.ly/d0QfsP 

Image credit: Peter Kamaninski via Flickr

Written by: penguin kuhn