Betterverse: Nonprofits in the Virtual World

Attend the Tech Museum's "Tech Test Zone" on November 15 in San Jose or Virtually

We are excited to announce that the Tech Museum is organizing a conference on the latest interactive technologies on November 15 called "The Tech Test Zone: Interfaces for the New Decade." The event will bring together "the most innovative developers of new interactive technologies" in The Tech Museum's newest gallery. Learn about and demo cutting-edge interfaces such as:

• Augmented Reality
• Deformable Surfaces
• Eye Tracking
• Gestural Interfaces
• Gigapixel Images
• Motion Sensing
• Multi-touch
• Natural User Interfaces
• RFID
• Smart Museum Systems
• Tablet Computers
• Ubiquitous Media

Looks like a really neat event for anyone trying to keep up with the latest in interactive tech. You can attend in person at their San Jose, California location or virtually via a number of different web-based and virtual platforms (TBA.)

To register head to their registration portal soon, since space is limited.  In person registration is $125 and virtual participation is free!

Virtual Festival Promotes PTSD Awareness from November 4-13

Just a quick reminder that the "Be Fearless 2011" festival is running from November 4-13 in Second Life.  Sponsored by the group Fearless Nation, "Be Fearless" seeks to support those who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. The goal of the event is to "raise awareness and promote education about PTSD and to help banish stigma and misinformation about the condition."

It is taking place on the Oak Beach sim at this teleport link. Some featured events:

• A Sims-Wide Art Exhibit: Some of the Virtual World’s finest artists, notably Eliza Wierwight of Patron Gallery and Emporium, will be exhibiting, bringing to our sims breathtaking art installations to walk through and experience.

• World Class DJs: Spinning original mixes live from every corner of the globe each day of the event! with SL's top Hosts getting the crowd dancing and cheering. Genres such as Trance, House, HardHouse, Techno, TripHop, and everything in-between will be represented with original mixing from the most dynamic DJs inworld.
  

• International Musicians-Singers-Songwriters: Concerts by some of today’s most gifted musician, performing originals and their own take on covers, representing a wide range of genres from folk, blues, rock, country, funk, rap, hiphop, soul and more. 
  

• The Fearless Sims-Wide Hunt: Starting at our virtual PTSD Library and Gallery, hunt enthusiasts will search for hunt items filled with free gifts and clues to the location of the next treasure. Taking hunters across our beautiful sims to each area of our PTSD retreat (normally closed to the public) to see our educational hubs and healing environments.

See the official website for more information.

Imagine Peace in the Virtual and Real Worlds from November 11-13

 

The "Imagine Peace Festival", a festival to celebrate the work of small organizations promoting peace around the world, will be taking place in Second Life and the real world from November 11-13.  There will be talks, concerts, shows and exhibitions. Among the notable events are concerts by Avantegarde Frequency, Cylidrian Rutabaga, Mankind Tracer, and Ga Go Gigamon! a 7 Member Japanese band; tours of the virtual museum of Afghanistan; and various virtual art exhibits.

Proceeds from the events will go to support three organizations:

• The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Aghanistan
• Rural Economic and Agricultural Development Agency of Cambodia
• and the One Laptop Per Child Project 

Head to the official website for updated schedule information.

Fashion Institute Awards Virtual Land to Nine Science Groups.... wait, what?

The Abyss ocean science museum in Second Life

The Fashion Research Institute announced on November 1 that they have awarded "regions" of virtual land in the virtual world to nine nonprofit, research and educational institutions.  The land will be hosted on the Science Sim virtual world, built on the OpenSimulator platform, an open-source version of Second Life.

The nine awardees are:

• The Abyss Observatory
• The Cyprus University of Technology
• The EdLab Group Foundation
• The Honor Engine
• The Oregon L5 Society
• Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics
• Preferred Family Healthcare
• Science Circle
• BIO-SE project (Biological Interactive Objects for Science Education)

Looks like quite a variety of science-focused institutions represented, including scientist networks, health care services, and a virtual ocean science museum.  

The "virtual land grant" is comprised of four regions, which can support 100,000 primitive units, a substantial amount of space for these groups to prototype new projects, hold meetings, and allow their staff and members to build.  The grant will last for nine months from September 2011 to June 2012.

Sounds like a great opportunity for the institutions receiving the "land grants."

But it's unclear why the Fashion Research Institute is involved, since their aim from their website is to develop "innovative design & merchandising solutions for the apparel industry."  Perhaps they are taking a very wide-reaching approach to their research on the applications of virtual worlds for different sectors?  Or perhaps there is some other science and technology connection that is not so apparent?  We'll approach them for comment later.

See the full announcement and more info about each of these organizations on the official release.

Seeking Psychological Counseling and Therapeutic Services in Virtual Worlds

Last friday at the Nonprofit Commons, RJ Muni, licensed psychotherapist, spoke with the community about psychological counseling services he and his volunteers provide for Second Life residents at NewWays Counseling / Sunshine Garden.  We discussed other groups and individuals who were providing counseling and therapeutic services in-world, and I realized that it might be helpful to have a listing of those resources for others.

So I created a page on the Nonprofit Commons wiki here .If you know of therapists, mental health centers and others providing psychological counseling in virtual worlds, please provide that information to nonprofitcommons@ techsoup.org so those can be represented.  And if there are already listings of these services somewhere online, we'd appreciate the link.

I think that psychological counseling using virtual worlds is one of the strongest use cases in showing the real value of virtual worlds in people's real lives.

Smithsonian Celebrates "Dia de Los Muertos" in Second Life October 31-November 2

Today through Wednesday (October 31 to November 2), come celebrate the "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) at the Smithsonian's Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life.  According to the website:

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a day of celebration for the people of Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Central America, and more recently for Mexican Americans. Rather than grieve over the loss of a beloved family or friend, they choose to commemorate the lives of the dearly departed and welcome the return of their spirits. The history of Day of the Dead is embedded with Pre-Hispanic and Spanish customs. These customs shaped the common elements of traditional Mexican Dia de los Muertos. 

Here's the schedule of events as of press time:

Monday October 31

5:30pm PDT Opening Procession

Participate in this opening procession starting in the placita area (town square) of Latino Virtual Museum’s Music Island and weaving through the path of marigolds. The procession includes performances by Elena Díaz Bjorkquist as Teresita Urrea, Nancy Lorenza Green ( percussion), Maria Miranda Maloney and Griselda Muñoz (poetry), and a blessing by Francisco X. Alarcón. After the procession, help build an altar dedicated to Lalo Guerrero, Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Selena, Tito Puente, Gilbert ‘Magu’ (Sanchez) Lujan, and La Lupe.

Tuesday November 1

5:30pm PDT Dead Poets Reading

6:30pm PDT Performance and Interview with Radio La Chusma

Wednesday November 2

12pm PDT Traditional Ball Game Tournament

6pm PDT Costume Contest

6:30pm PDT Race Car Sculptures by Chicano artist Magu

Looks like they have really beefed up their program from last year's event and the year before.

For more information, see the official website or head to the Latino Virtual Museum at this teleport link. 

Teens Talk about Factory Farming on "Let's Talk Sustainability"

Today at 1:30pm, Global Kids teen leaders in New York City, along with an audience of about 25 avatars from all over , gathered in Second Life to talk about factory farming and other food justice issues during the first episode of the "Let's Talk Sustainability" talk show.  The talk show featured a neat clip from "The Meatrix" a short animated film on the food industry , a slideshow describing how MacDonald's mcnuggets are produced (ewww), and a game where participants got to express their opinions on different food issues.

The featured guest on this show was Cicero Kit, aka Jennifer Dolan in the physical world, an adjunct instructor for communications for Rasmussen College, talking about how to eat healthily, organically and sustainably on a tight budget.  We learned about the difficult decisions that people have to make with their food dollar, how to find out about different food options in your community, and what you can do to improve your access to healthy fruits and vegetables.

Cicero shared a number of facts and insights with the audience.  Many of the students had never heard of Community Supported Agriculture programs, or that tap water was typically cleaner and cheaper than bottled water.  She answered questions about the sustainability of a vegetarian or vegan diet compared to a meat diet, and websites where we can find more food information.

It was a successful first episode of this innovative talk show series that should be publicly released as a video in the near future.  Stay tuned to the Global Kids website for information on the next one and how you can participate.

eXtension Virtual State Fair October 26-29 in Second Life

Virtual State Fair

The Virtual State Fair is home of the Cooperative Extension System, a large, informal education organization in Second Life. Games, rides, exhibits, and learning tools are offered to the public, while meeting and conferencing facilities are available to educators.

Visit in Second Life

 

Come to the 4th annual eXtension Virtual State Fair in Second Life from October 26-29.  At the Fair you can enjoy rides, games and concerts and learn about what educators are doing in virtual worlds. New this year is the Land Grant University Expo, highlighting virtual world projects by educators around the country, with group tours departing for their regions each day.

Looks like a fun and light way to find out about virtual education, and all the rides are free!  And I hear that the virtual funnel cake contains zero calories too.

Click the image above to teleport there.

Virtual Counseling at Nonprofit Commons on Friday October 28

NewWays Counseling and Mental Support

Your SL experience may raise questions related to your RL/SL relations, identity or other personal issues. Maybe you find that your SL is less ideal than you expected, or you discover SL is an escape from RL more than you would like it to be. Perhaps some aspects of your personality confuse you. Join the session for non-judgmental listening. From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Pacific) Tuesdays.

Visit in Second Life

If your therapist's couch is just pixels, is the healing still real?  

On Friday October 28, at 8:30am PDT, we will be joined at the Nonprofit Commons by RJ Muni, a licensed psychotherapist who has been practicing in both the real world and in Second Life. We will talk with him about the New Ways Counseling in Second Life, and how it helps people with various psychological issues in both their "real" and "virtual" lives, and where those intersect. It should be a very interesting discussion on the therapeutic uses of virtual worlds. Read this 2009 interview with RJ in the Alphaville Herald for some background.

Here's how RJ describes his practice:

In Second Life I'm known as RJ Muni, owner of the Sunshine Therapy Garden. In Real Life I'm a licensed psycho/hypnotherapist in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. When I first learned about SL, about 5 year ago, I was immediately interested from a professional perspective. How does a virtual world affect people? What tells the representation in SL about the RL person? How can a virtual world help to make people feel better? The Sunshine Therapy Garden offers an environment to make people feel better. It has personal activies, group activities and one on one counselling. The garden is my personal initiative. No fees are asked for garden activities or counselling. The cost of operation is partly covered by donations.

That's this Friday, from 8:30am PDT, at the Plush Nonprofit Commons amphitheater (teleport link). See you then!

SF Mayoral Candidate David Chiu at Online Community Meetup this Wednesday in Second Life

The SF Online Community MeetUp is the free monthly gathering of online community managers, enthusiasts, and innovators to meet and discuss tools and strategies for building and managing effective communities. 

Our guest speaker this month are President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and San Francisco Mayoral Candidate, David Chiu, and his Mayoral Campaign's New Media Director, Candice Dayoan. Join us to learn how the David Chiu for Mayor campaign is using new media to educate the citizens of San Francisco on pressing local issues and create civic engagement and learn about the online community challenges unique to political campaigns. The meetup will be on October 26, beginning at 7pm PT and last about one hour.

Here are all the ways you can take part in the event: 

• Participate virtually in the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life (slurl to location in Second Life) . You can see a step-by-step guide for how to participate in Second Life.
• Come in person to 525 Brannan Street, Suite 300 San Francisco, CA.
• Follow the action on Twitter via hashtag: #octribe.

Join the San Francisco Online Community Report MeetUp group on Facebook. The Online Community Meetup is sponsored by TechSoup.org.