A crowd of non-profit folks at an NPC regular friday gathering For the past few days, I’ve been compiling information and consulting others to find out where all of the main pockets of non-profit groups and networks can be found in Second Life. Follow the teleport links to see the amazing diversity of social benefit…
Fun times at the Coney Island USA Spring Gala
Lindy hoppers Akemi and Patrick performing tonight at a benefit for Coney Island. Had a really awesome time tonight at the Spring Gala Fundraiser party for Coney Island USA, which took place tonight in the Lower Eastside of Manhattan. I was there with a group of a dozen of so lindy hoppers to liven up…
Seeking Expert on Education in Tibet and Brazil
Barry Joseph, the director of the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids, passed on to me this request for experts on education in Tibet and Brazil: Global Kids’ youth are producing a year-end video, using Second Life, to talk about racism as an obstacle to education within the U.S., Brazil and Tibet. We are looking…
Spring Gala tomorrow (May21) for Coney Island USA and the Mermaid Parade!
Those that know me know that my all time favorite New York event of the entire year is the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, which I have been participating in for many years as part of the Brooklyn Bombshell’s group. The Mermaid Parade is run by the non-profit group Coney Island USA, which does a bang…
Teaching teens about Darfur in Second Life
Last night I helped out my colleague Shawna with the "Deconstructing Darfur" workshops that she has been facilitating this month in Teen Second Life. The goal of the workshops series is to help a small group of young people to learn about Sudan, the conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis there, what the international response has…
Video: Swingin in the 2008 Dance Parade!
My friend Jerry posts some cool video of the lindy hop group dancing down the streets of Manhattan at the 2008 Dance Parade. Again we had the lovely Swankmobile leading the way, blasting swing music for us to dance to and the crowd to enjoy. We had a nice group of a dozen lindy hoppers,…
Dance Parade 2008 is Today!
I’m off in a few minutes to meet up with some lindy hop friends to dance in the 2nd annual New York Dance Parade. We’ll be joining nearly 4,000 other dancers from 100+ dance groups representing 31 different styles of dance, for the sheer joy of moving our bodies to music. You can catch us…
The NOAA needs your input on their Second Life presence
The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has done some amazingly cool builds in Second Life on their two islands Meteora and Okeanos. This US government agency has commissioned lots of innovative, interactive displays that really show the potential for virtual world education and awareness-raising — from a hurricane simulator to a live map of…
WSJ article on teen summer jobs in virtual worlds: perfect counterpoint to Fox FUD
Lots of you have probably seen this bit of Fox’s sensationalist "news" about the "dangers" of the "Second Life website" on teens. Don’t get me started on how nonsensical the idea of "consensual rape rooms" is, or of virtual depictions of drug labs somehow corrupting minors. Anyway, there is a lot of hemming and…
NMC announces $100K (yes, real US dollars) for innovative learning & virtual world projects
Just got this off the SL educators list. The amazing New Media Consortium is offering US$100,000 in prizes to 20 projects that use virtual worlds in innovative ways for learning. Projects must be conducted in Second Life or Sun Microsystem’s new Project Wonderland virtual world platform: The New Media Consortium (NMC) today announced the call…