NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life

Wondering about how your nonprofit's work in the virtual world can make real-world impact? Then be sure to check out the regular Avatar on Duty Sessions at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership office on Aloft Nonprofit Commons.

The next session, Mon. July 28th, at 10 AM PDT/SLT will focus in particular on how nonprofits can find long-term sustainability in Second Life and how to better translate this into real-world action towards achieving their missions. Join in the conversation with philanthropic advisers and community builders in Second Life.

Please send a message (IM) to 2020Vision Obviate (Real Name - Ashima Saigal) or email her at saigalas@gvsu.edu if you have any questions. Come ask your questions and they will do their best to help you to grow your organization's mission.

You can teleport directly to come join the session.

On Monday, July 21, at 12PM SLT, the GK International Justice Center will be streaming a conversation on the situation in Darfur with Dr. Francis Deng, the UN Secretary Generals’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. Dr. Deng is a Sudanese national and has served as a human rights officer at the United Nations since the 1960s as well as his own country as Minister of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to several countries.

After Dr. Deng's short speech, Global Kids will facilitate a Q&A with a group of Global Kids teens present with the advisor, teens on the teen grid, and adults in the Justice Center.

Please go here to RSVP.

Avatars representing survivors, caregivers, their families and the millions of passionate supporters engaged in fighting cancer worldwide will take center stage virtually, July 19-20, when the American Cancer Society conducts its fourth annual Relay For Life® event in the Second Life virtual world. The 2008 Relay in Second Life will celebrate the “heroes” who epitomize the Society’s global mission and who represent this summer’s virtual world event theme.

The recent extraordinary death of a mentally ill person in a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital emergency room is quite ordinary in some ways. Many of the mentally ill on the streets of major cities are ignored. Things are slowly changing however. The public wants to protect Medicaid, care for veterans and give parity to mental healthcare and is taking notice and action.

Perhaps for the first time, thanks in part to electronic communication, we have true democracy. So use your power - the power and potential of "citizen government" - to make comments, write letters and engage with others on the Internet.

On a brighter note (really, you gotta laugh) look at this new machinima video. It's a reminder that regardless of of age or ability or disability, we once were little, laughing and loving children.

Little Pink Hearts from Gale Beckwith on Vimeo.

We just announced in-world the five finalists in the USC Network Culture Project's "Second Life and Public Good Community Challenge". They are:

• Ability Commons: Proposers Gentle Heron and Carolina Yeats
• Mauerkrankheit:  Proposers Ping Rau and Nonny Writer
• Native Lands Cultural Project: Proposer Boondoggle Gruppman
• Texas Obesity Research Center:  Proposer Sirena Felisimo
• Interactive Accessible Home:  Proposer Kathee Gibbs

Congrats to all the finalists, and all those that participated!

You may have noticed that there is now an event calendar on the site.  There is a tab at the top of the site that will lead you to the calendar.  The idea is to provide a place where we can all see what events are happening in the sims and when.  With any luck, it will help the NPC managers book events in an intelligent way.

If you want to make use of one of the public spaces or are going to have an event in your own space--please contact Penguin (Megan) to make arrangements for booking/listing.

Thanks!
Creech (Matthew)

Gene Koo of the Berkman Center at Harvard wanted me to pass around these job notices for an innovative project called "Hub2":

"Hub2 seeks to enable local neighborhoods to participate more meaningfully in the design and development of their own public spaces. Residents engage in a process that employs 3D tools and  problem-solving techniques to articulate a common vision reflecting the participants’  values. Over the next 3 months, Hub2 will work with Allston residents and stakeholders, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and Harvard’s Allston Development Group to design Library Park. Hub2 seeks enthusiastic and community-minded staff to pioneer this cutting-edge program. "

Hub2 is looking for a "Youth Coordinator" and "Project Coordinator." Check the two job descriptions for more info or visit http://hub2.org/.

UPDATE: SL is back up. I was able to get in about 9:10. If you missed the NPC meeting, never fear, you can catch transcript to be posted here

As I'm sure some of you have encountered already today, Second Life is currently down for emergency maintenance. It's currently not allowing anyone to log in. Per their grid status page:

"We have to close logins for a while to enable the database to process the overflow from earlier. The landstore is not accessible for the moment as well."

As many of you know SL is about to turn 5 years old... Yup, a whole handful! This is a great opportunity to bring some attention to the work your nonprofit is doing in SL and RL.

As Linden Labs announced yesterday the party will be a two week event with the second week featuring exhibits from “business, education, health care and nonprofits”. Not only that but as they stated in their blog on Tuesday, June 3rd,

“We’ll close with a ceremony including a special guest speaker
with a very important announcement. “

The suspense is killing me!

Hi. Penguin asked me to cross-post my blog entry "Get a (Second) Life" about the Netsquared event from my newbie perspective. For your reading enjoyment ...

I attended TechSoup’s NetSquared Conference today in Second Life about the launch of the Nonprofit Commons 2. If that sentence doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry. I’ll explain. Up until now, I have been avoiding Second Life - an online virtual world where you can meet people, shop, fly, do lots of fun stuff. It took me years to get over my computer game addiction and I don’t need another distraction from my job search. But now I find that nonprofits are using Second Life to spread their message, fundraise, and even fulfill their missions “in world.” I had to check that out.