T S Community And S L Nr Oct24

Slide 1: TechSoup Community & The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Slide 2: TechSoup.org-The technology place for nonprofits TechSoup is a popular, comprehensive online content and community destination for nonprofits that provides unbiased information and technical know-how to ensure that nonprofits make the best possible use of technology.

Slide 3: TechSoup.org/community

Slide 4: The TechSoup Community Network • 17 Forums • Events Calendar • Member Spotlight • Community Blog • Second Life • Surveys • Soup Recipes • Managed by Me, Community Manager and volunteer hosts and stars • Profiles and Groups on Facebook (250 members in -2 wks), Meetup,Myspace, Tribe.net, Upcoming, Yelp etc.

Slide 5: Play Pause Stop

Slide 6: Nonprofit Commons in Second Life Through the Nonprofit Commons project, TechSoup is assembling a community of nonprofits in Second Life to help lower the barriers of access to this emerging virtual world

Slide 7: Nonprofit Commons in Second Life • Our goal is to create a learning community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the virtual world, and to investigate the many ways in which nonprofits can utilize this unique environment. • Through this community, we provide free office space to qualifying groups, hold meetings, create a cooperative supportive learning environment and foster outreach, education, fundraising, all in a virtual space.

Slide 8: Key Performance Metrics REACH • 300+ Total Members • Over 60 Countries represented among NPC participants • 1300 people attended 40 meetings in world • 144 unique avatars attended since Mar 2006 • 32 NPC Tenant Organizations • 2208 unique visitors to the NPC Blog • 100 avatars in world and 70 people in the RL room at the Mixed Reality Event • Volunteers have donated an estimated 470 hours to this project in the last year.

Slide 9: 22% of Nonprofits in NPC are non-US Organization Country • RoSa Library Belgium • Humanbe France • White Ribbon Campign, Yorkshire UK • Disability Info Resource Center Australia • Toronto Philharmonica Canada • Bridges for Others Canada • Sri Lanka Foundation Sri Lanka • Alzheimer’s Society if Ontario Canada • PC Donation Project Japan

Slide 10: Leadership and assistance through virtual community organizing • In-world Meetings • Wiki • Website/community blog • NPSL tag • Management steering committee group • Directory of Nonprofits in SL • Branding as NPO experts and advisors to all new orgs in-world

Slide 11: Community Blog: NPSL

Slide 12: Community Wiki

Slide 13: Best Practices: What we have learned • Holding events is a great way to bring avatars to our offices, and builds friendships and connections among our members. • In-world fundraising was our initial goal, but it hasn't worked out for most. • It’s important to maintain a presence on the mainland, for foot-traffic, versus being on our own private island • Freebies/branded tools are a great way to draw traffic, and can spread your message far and wide.

Slide 14: Raising public awareness of Nonprofits in Second Life through the media . . . • New York Times • Contribute Magazine –Sept/Oct Issue • New Scientist –September Issue • Launch Squad • KQED Radio - California Report • Nonprofit Times- 2 September Issues

Slide 15: . . . and at Conferences across the country • SuperNova, San Francisco 2007 • Games4Change, New York 2007 • SLCC, San Francisco 2006 & Chicago 2007 • BlogHerSL Conference, 2007 • Online Community UnConference, Silicon Valley 2007 • Northern California Grantmakers Briefing, San Francisco, 2006 • California Association of Nonprofits Conference, Upcoming Fall 2007 • Council on Social Work Education's annual convention, Fall 2007

Slide 16: Real wealth, virtual philanthropy, and the birth of the Nonprofit Commons • The Commons was generously donated by Anshe Chung, the first person to become a millionaire in RL, by selling virtual goods and services. • Guntram Graef, Anshe's partner, attended the SLCC last year and saw my talk on NPOs and SL. • Following the talk, he offered me the management and ownership of the Nonprofit Commons, provided we select the groups and keep the space active. • Launched in August 2007, • 32 organizations currently building out their free office spaces. • $40,000 in-kind Donation of sim and designers • We have a plan to grow and expand!

Slide 17: NPC provides virtual offices to 32 organizations in a community setting

Slide 18: A Valuable tool for Nonprofits • It costs virtually nothing to build a location in Second Life. • Nonprofits can use the tool to raise funds (for example, the American Cancer Society's virtual Relay 4 Life just raised $115,000 • Second Life offers a safe and anonymous means of self- expression. • Second Life provides a space for the impossible to happen (for example, Simon Stevens, Community liaison and SL group Wheelies (disability nightclub) [June issue of newsweek] a group of adults with disabilities use SL interact in an environment without the physical constraints they experience in the real world). • By meeting people in world you are reducing emissions and your carbon footprint

Slide 19: NPC tenants in Action: Information, Communication, and Inspiration • Support Groups (for ex.AA,NA,Transgender Resource ctr.) • Awareness-building • Fundraising • Teaching/Learning new graphics/building skills • Demonstrating the impossible (A human heart sim built as a proof of concept experiment by Jeremy Kemp the host of SimTeach, a comm. for educators using virtual environments ) • Creating Community far and wide w/International orgs

Slide 20: Opportunities for Partnership 2. Increase NPC capacity 3. Build Branded Reusable Tools 4. Conduct 2 Awareness and Action Campaigns 5. Organize Events both Virtual and Mixed Reality 6. Foster a SL Developer Network for Nonprofits 7. Evaluate Impact of Virtual Community in NPC

Slide 21: Goal 1: Increase NPC Capacity • Develop additional sims • Build office space for 100- 300 organizations. • Recruit new members • Already got second sim • Continue to refine weekly meetings and how-to workshops (as currently)

Slide 22: Goal 2: Build Repeatable tools • Virtual Volunteer Tour HUD and Kiosks • Further Develop Nonprofit Starter-Kit “Office in a Box” • Provide Resource Lists, How-tos, and Best practice Guides

Slide 23: Goal 3: Organize Action & Awareness Campaigns • Organize at least 2 Campaigns with Nonprofit Commons Participants • Campaigns should raise awareness of important issues • Campaigns should provide means for immediate action – Example: Virtual Gitmo, – Bali conference, on climate change in December, working with OneWorld.net and One Climate island

Slide 24: Goal 4: Host Virtual and Mixed Reality Events • Hold Virtual Events in-world • Help Nonprofits produce events • Hold Mixed Reality Events at RL conferences such as Netsquared or Council on Foundations

Slide 25: Goal 5: Foster a SL Developer Network for Nonprofits • Spur innovation by providing honorariums to volunteer SL Developers • Support special scripting and SL development

Slide 26: Goal 6: Evaluate Impact of virtual community in NPC • Mine existing data such as extensive meeting transcripts, usage data, interviews. • Conduct discourse analysis to determine how people are communicating, what strategies work well in which situations • Conduct Open ended interviews • Conduct Random surveys • Sandy Anderson of ASU conduct discourse analysis to document impact of virtual community in NPC

Slide 27: Contact Susan Tenby Senior Manager -Online Community Development, TechSoup Network susan@techsoup.org (415) 633-9333 SL avatar: Glitteractica Cookie http://www.nonprofitcommons.org http://npsl.wikispaces.com/ http://www.techsoup.org/community