Nonprofits Celebrate New Home in Second Life

WHAT

Nonprofits explore the virtual world: This mixed-reality launch party celebrates the opening of Nonprofit Commons; a nonprofit space and community in the virtual world of Second Life. The Nonprofit Commons provides donated office space to qualifying groups to foster collaboration, outreach, education, and fundraising, all in a virtual space. The Nonprofit Commons was designed as a pilot project to let community organizations explore Second Life. Its Second Life location was donated by Anshe Chung Studios, whose owner became the world’s first virtual millionaire through her Second Life real estate transactions.

WHO

The gala event features keynote speaker Anshe Chung in Second Life, as well as Jeska Dzwigalski of Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, and Susan Tenby of TechSoup at the live event. Additional attendees include the 32 nonprofit organizations of Nonprofit Commons and their supporters.

WHEN and WHERE

• Tuesday, August 14, 2007
• Second Life event at 5:30 pm SLT at Nonprofit Commons in Second Life
• Parallel San Francisco live event at 5:30 pm PT at TechSoup, 525 Brannan Street, third floor (between Fourth and Fifth Street), San Francisco, CA
• Agenda: 5:30 pm: Meet and greet; 6:00 pm: speakers; 7:00 pm: Tours of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

VISUALS

Unique mixed reality party: audio and video content streamed live between the two worlds. Second Life avatars and Nonprofit Commons virtual space; in San Francisco location, attendees dressed as their favorite avatar.

BACKGROUND:

Managed by San Francisco-based nonprofit TechSoup, The Nonprofit Commons is an entirely volunteer-run community, hosting organizations from across the globe. To date, they have created a community blog and a resource-rich wiki, and have held mixed-reality events, workshops, and weekly Second Life town hall meetings.

On 8/14/07, nonprofit organizations in the Commons will be hosting their own events in conjunction with this Grand Opening Gala. To find the Nonprofit Commons search the “places” tab in Second Life for “Nonprofit Commons.”

More on Second Life and its relevance to nonprofits can be found at www.techsoup.org/community/secondlife.

The event is free of charge, but space is limited, so please RSVP via email to Susan Tenby (susan@techsoup.org) for in-world attendance to this event or IM Glitteractica Cookie in SL.