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At the Nonprofit Commons, we are devastated by the loss of life and destructive impact of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last week.  There is a vibrant and active Japanese community in Second Life, some of whom have come to our NPC meetings to update us on the relief efforts there.

Meanwhile, we are heartened to see that Second Life residents and organizations have responded to the tragedy through various fundraisers and virtual goods to help the people of Japan recover from this disaster. Here are a few that we know about.

Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, are encouraging residents to contribute to Japan relief through the purchase of virtual teddy bears.  So called “Linden Bears” have long been a prized item in the Second Life community, typically only available directly from staff members of Linden who give them out.  These Japan-branded bears are available on their online marketplace here.  Each bear costs between L$300 and 3,000, which is the equivalent of about US $1 to $10.

In the Kowloon sim of Second Life you can purchase a number of nice items, the proceeds of which go to aid the Japan recovery effort.  Head to this teleport link to check it out.  New World Notes has info about other fashionable items you can purchase for your avatar that assist in Japan relief.

There are several other fundraiser and support events in Second Life happening over the next few days:

• Pacific Crisis Center: More than 400 brands come together to offer products, with proceeds going to disaster aid relief. Participating designers have created new and exclusive items with 100 percent or 50 percent of profits going to the AmeriCares charity to help in Japan and the Pacific. Shop, donate, enjoy.
• Japan Resort: Gather and discuss the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
• Radar Magazine Fundraiser: From March 16 to April 16, Radar Magazine will be hosting and sponsoring a series of events to help raise funds to benefit victims of the Japan earthquake and pacific tsunami relief fund in conjunction with Red Cross. Events include a market with items from some the of top creators in Second Life, a special runway show featuring one-of-a-kind items, and an auction of items featured on the runway.

If you hear about others happening, please send them our way!

Written by: rikomatic

As the death toll rises in Japan from the devastating earthquake and tsunami last week, and the cost of recovery approaches astronomical figures, one small ray of light is seeing how various communities around the world have rallied to help this embattled country and its people. Even in the virtual world , people are opening up their hearts and wallets to help out.

Gamasutra reports that gaming company Zynga has released a several virtual items that players of their seven online games can purchase, the proceeds going directly to Save the Children Japan to help with relief efforts.  Zynga has an admirable history of using their social games as a means of collecting donations for various worthwhile causes, from Haiti earthquake relief, a children’s hospital and the SPCA. Check their zynga.org site for more info.

Meanwhile, Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, are encouraging residents of their world to contribute to Japan relief through the purchase of virtual teddy bears.  So called “Linden Bears” have long been a prized item in the Second Life community, typically only available directly from staff members of Linden who give them out.  These Japan-branded bears are available on their online marketplace here.  Each bear costs between L$300 and 3,000, which is the equivalent of about US $1 to $10.

Radar Magazine in Second Life is also planning a monthlong fundraiser from March 16 to April 16, according to Examiner.com.  Head here for details on how you can help.

Other fundraisers and benefits look like they are in the works as we go to press.  For Second Life, search their calendar for upcoming events.  

Written by: rikomatic

As part of my duties as Community Manager at the Nonprofit Commons, I have the fun responsibility of bringing in new nonprofits into our virtual world space.  While we are always welcome to have visitors — which we have hundreds of each week — we really want groups to explore the full spectrum of what virtual worlds can do for them.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to set up a virtual office space in-world.  The Nonprofit Commons is fortunate enough to have four sims in our archipelago, within which we offer free office space for qualifying nonprofit / social benefit organizations. Check out our directory of the 145 groups that call the Nonprofit Commons their virtual home.

If you are affiliated with an organization interested in receiving free virtual space to develop your digital presence, head to our website to learn about the whole process.  It’s easy to get started, and we have several mentors and volunteers who can get you off on the right foot. 

While we welcome groups from a variety of sectors and causes, we have immediate openings in our Health and Eco Commons sims. So if you are a group that is concerned with health, wellness, disability, the environment, sustainable development and other related areas, you are especially invited to apply.  Others of course can register for a space, which we will provide on a first-come-first-serve basis.

If you have questions, please see our website, email nonprofitcommons@ techsoup.org or IM Rik Riel for details.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Written by: rikomatic

We got news that some researchers helping set up a new non-profit called “Travel for Change” are looking for participants for a “co-creation” workshop they are holding on March 9 in Second Life.  The purpose of the workshop is to conduct research in how workshops can be held in a virtual world, versus in a real life setting.

The workshop is on March 9, at 8am PST.  See their website for more information and click here for the teleport location in Second Life.

Written by: rikomatic

For the past two days I’ve been at the TechSoup Global Contributors’ Summit at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, California.  It’s a really interesting gathering of a select couple hundred TechSoup partners, NGOs, tech industry folks and funders talking about how to connect the best technology tools to support the most worthwhile social causes.  For me the gathering was a great opportunity to meet a bunch of smart and inspiring individuals leading projects that use cutting edge tech for the common good.

Unlike a lot of other conferences I’ve attended, the Contributors’ Summit was organized around a series of roundtable, open-ended conversations among people on a variety of topics of relevance to the participants.  The few keynotes were short, punchy and inspiring.  The breaks were long and frequent to allow time for informal chats and networking.  The coffee was strong and on tap all day, the alcohol was free-flowing at night.  In other words, everything was designed around getting people sharing and connected with each other.

As the community manager for the Nonprofit Commons, I had the opportunity to speak several times with people about Second Life as a tool for nonprofits.  While I encountered a lot of initial skepticism from some, many were impressed with what Second Life and other virtual worlds can offer nonprofits in terms of a space for collaboration, community-building, support, education, networking, and event hosting / broadcasting.  In fact, the more I spoke with people about what digital tools are out there, the more convinced I became that virtual worlds really do provide a unique “third space” for people across distances to connect with each other in ways that are powerful, evocative, engaging and even life-changing. 

There was way too much going on at the Summit for me to try and summarize in this brief blog post.  But I wanted to shout-out a few of the awesome people and projects I learned about:

I got to meet Ruxandra Popa of TechSoup Romania and the Odorheiu Secuiesc Community Foundation, who described how her very small staff has been facilitating partnerships between local IT specialists and local NGOs, particularly Cisco and Microsoft.  In fact, they have been so successful with so many volunteers that they had to design a matchmaking platform to coordinate the hundreds of interested people. 

Techsoup Romania also facilitated the submission of about 30 stories for the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge, a huge number considering there were 105 total submissions internationally!  They did this through a combination of marketing and prize incentives for the best submissions.  Really great work.

Tambe Harry of Amis-Cameroun is also doing incredible work to connect local farmers in Cameroun with market data so they can get their goods to market and earn a better livelihood for their families. Their system uses web and mobile technology to push out relevant information to farmers via text message.  Clearly Amis-Cameroun is making an impact because it was one of 45 finalist projects chosen for the “Unreasonable Institute” challenge. If you would like to learn more or to support them, head to this link.

Juan Negrillo is one of the leads at the international Campus Party , an oddly-named but impressive organization that holds geekfests at universities and other large venues around the world to bring together programmers and other technologists to work together to support various nonprofit causes and issues.  He told us about a recent gathering in Sao Paolo, Brazil that gathered 6,800 techies to tackle various social concerns using their skills.  Now they are looking to expand to the US with a top-tier level of supporters including Al Gore, Vince Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee.  Keep an eye out for those folks in the next year or so!

Finally I have to shout-out the awesome Noel Dickover of the State Department, who leads the eDiplomacy Civil Society 2.0 program that links civil society with IT firms around the world.  In Noel’s “spare time” he heads up Crisiscommons.org and CrisisCamps , an offline and online gathering place for people to share technology resources needed in crisis situations.  Such a cool guy and very open to sharing his knowledge and resources with everyone at the conference. 

These are just a few of the cool people who I got to meet with at the TechSoup Global Contributors’ Summit this week.  You can read a lot more about the conference on the official site, check out the tweet stream on the #tsg2011 tag, read other blog posts about the event on the TechSoup blog (day one and day two) and see some pics from the event on Flickr.

And for those of you interested in follow ups from the conference, there will be continued brainstorming about knowledge sharing and civil society going on various places online. Follow along by searching for the tag #kngow.

Written by: rikomatic