Wow, there is like a ton of in-world activity going on around cancer lately. Here’s yet another cancer-related benefit coming up in October. Yogi Huldschinsky, the organizer of an upcoming charity event entitled "Pink for Life," contacted me regarding some changes to their mixed-reality event, which I have blogged about previously. "Pink for Life" is…
Category: Civil Society
Is the new Newt the great uniter? (Thoughts on Gingrich’s first foray into Second Life)
This afternoon, former Speaker of the House and head of the group American Solutions for Winning the Future, Newt Gingrich spoke briefly and answered questions from an audience of 50-some avatars in Second Life. Located appropriately enough on the steps of the virtual Capitol Hill (teleport SLURL), Gingrich spoke about a number of issues, including…
1 million Flip video cameras to be given to non-profits around the world
Pure Digital Technologies has announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting today that they plan on giving away 1 million of their ultracompact Flip videocameras to non-profits and NGOs around the world to assist their work. “We believe video can help change the world,” said Jonathan Kaplan, Chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies in…
Conference at Univ. of London on Indian Media and Social Change October 13
Just got the info about this fascinating conference on "Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change" happening on October 13 at the University of London. Co-sponsored by the awesomely-named "Sacred Media Cow" postgrad student collective and the Center for Film and Media Studies at UoL, it sounds like a great event for people interested…
Shava Nerad: “My purpose is to educate, evangelize, and occasionally blow someone’s mind”
Shava Nerad, Development Director of the TOR Project, is my new hero. Shava posted a couple of cogent and eloquent email responses in the midst of a debate on the SL non-profits listserv. Listserv members were arguing about whether or not activist groups were being co-opted by investing time and energy in a world dominated…
UK cancer support group Macmillan launches Second Life fundraiser campaign on Friday
This Friday, September 28, the UK-based Macmillan Cancer Support charity will be launching a Second Life version of their "World’s Biggest Coffee Morning" fundraiser, that has to date raised more than $13.5 million to support people affected by cancer. The newly opened Macmillan cancer information centre (teleport SLURL) will be equally about fundraising and awareness-raising. …
Global Aid Foundation seeks NGO partners to manage shared island in Second Life
I received this appeal from the Global Aid Foundation for help in keeping their sim Castella (teleport SLURL) alive: Global Aid Foundation has diligently been trying to establish a base of operations for our organization and to serve as well as a platform for other NGO’s. After almost a year of presence in SL and…
MTV launches beta version of “think” youth activism site
I got an invite to join the beta version of MTV’s new youth activism site "think" yesterday. Looks like an another way to facilitate activist social networking, group blogging, calls for action, volunteer matchmaking, and awareness-raising about various issues. Non-profit organizations can use "think" to try and reach out to a younger demographic for their…
Free Press Action Network seeks media activist bloggers
The media reform group Free Press announces the launch of a new "Action Network" community blog service. They invite bloggers and citizen journalists to join them in chronicling how people in their communities are working toward more democratic, just media. Registered users can post to their own blog, comment on other posts, rate, and share…
“Ruckus Nation” offering $300K to get kids off their fat asses
Remember all those news stories about how schools were installing "Dance Dance Revolution" machines in their rec rooms because it got their students exercising? Or blog entries about a guy who lost a bunch of weight playing WII sports? Here’s a new competition to come up with the next DDR that gets kids butts in…