Virtual world philanthropy

(photo from http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/ondrejka_fanton_macarthur_island/) Newspapers are getting hammered. With the possible exceptions of neighborhood and ethnic papers their business model has been unable to keep up with the Internet. This is common knowledge and the quest to find new business models for quality journalism and investigative reporting is of such import that the U.S. Senate has [...]

Virtual worlds meet prizes meet public good

Three of the topics I write about frequently – philanthropy and prizes, philanthropy and technology, and philanthropy as a single part of the revenue stream for public good – have all come together in Second Life. Procrastinating from writing, I was perusing my blog reader when I noticed Cory Ondrejka‘s post about the launch of [...]

Second Life Foundations Discussion

Foundations in Second Life: Monday, March 17th at 5 pm PDT , in Second Life as part of the Life 2.0 Summit – get there here And here is an 8 minute tour of virtual worlds that Sharon Burns of the MacArthur Foundation put together. And here is her tour on WhyVille – a virtual [...]

Live and (not) in person…

I am moderating a panel of funders* at the third annual Second Life Community Convention, which starts on Saturday in Chicago. On Saturday, however, I will be home eating Dim Sum in San Francisco, having finished a week long trip to New York, Boston, and San Antonio. Odd. You can participate in the panel and [...]

Back to virtuality

Here’s a story on corporate philanthropy experiments in SecondLife. Philips, the consumer company which specializes in “simplicity”** used the platform to lead a cross company discussion on the production of a “smokeless stove.” Philips is using the SecondLife platform to get feedback on their designs, co-create new products, engage potential users in shaping the tools, [...]

MacArthur Foundation breaks bonds of real world!

On June 22, 2007 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will become the first foundation to leave behind the limitations of physical space and fly into virtual worlds. The Foundation will take the bold step of exploring philanthropy in ‘worlds’ without government, where money grows on trees, and where all participation is voluntary. [...]

Kids get heard…virtually

Three months of comments and discussions by teens, first organized through GlobalKids and then spread through blogs, etc…led to changes by LindenLab in how it runs Teen SecondLife. If only young people were listened to and could make change happen that quickly in real life. Tags: youthadvocacy, secondlife

Random digital news related to philanthropy

Here are a couple of random posts regarding Internet access and use in San Francisco and beyond. 1. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed and is pursuing city-wide wifi. The San Francisco Foundation and Community Technology Foundation of California are hosting a funders briefing to meet with representatives of the city, Google, and Earthlink. Information [...]

Online social networks and Second Life philanthropy

Thanks to Allison Fine and Beth Kanter – you can add these examples of networked philanthropy to the list that is growing here. More examples of SL fundraising. Homeless Avatar – Raising money for homeless teens in Span http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/01/more_about_that.html Summary of Early Efforts to Fundraise in Second Life (6 months ago, includes ACS) http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/06/nonprofits_in_s.html Relay [...]

Video Games, Virtual Worlds

Blogging the NCG workshop: Video Games and Virtual Worlds Ellen LaPointe, HopeLabReMission – a game for teens with cancer. Available on game download sites and at HopeLab. Its free for those with cancer. There are 50,000 copies out there. How to work with oncologists and game designers? Ask the kids – what do they need [...]