Opening of Wishes Granted: Nonprofit Commons Stories of Postitive Impact

Huge thank you to my teammates, Par, Brena, and Buffy for our lovely Opening of “Wishes Granted: Stories of Positive Impact” at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. The amazing Avantgarde Frequency performed as we skated among true fairy tales including Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Preferred Family Healthcare, Bridges for Women, Project Jason, The Love Foundation, Giving Circle Network, Protect Yourself 1, Inc, Elder Voices, Virtual Ability, Inc. and TechSoup. Thank you everyone for attending and your excellent support! More events to come! http://nonprofitcommons.org/content/wishes-granted-winter-festival-nonprofit-commons-december-11-17

Rockcliffe University Consortium celebrates 5 years in Second Life

Congratulations to Rockcliffe University Consortium celebrating their 5 years in Second Life with an Open House of “Past, Present & Futures of Virtual Worlds” panels and workshops full of educational and encouraging thoughts from the people who engage us all to be innovative advocates. We to hope to inspire community, connections, and collaboration with comrades from all over the world! I hosted the panel on “Can Virtual Health lead to Real Life Wellness?” with guests Gentle Heron, Brena Benoir, and Thinkerer Melville. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this amazing day!

Login2Life Press Conference

Surrounded by talented stars and admirable angels whom I call friends, I participated in the LOGIN2LIFE documentary press conference in Munich and Second Life at Virtual Ability, Inc. this morning. The film maker with contributors showed a new trailer and had a thoughtful Q and A. I am so proud of my friends and Nonprofit Commons in Second Life peeps! http://www.login2life.net/

Linden Prize goes to Virtual Ability

Virtual Ability won the Linden Prize of $10,000 USD to further their mission of providing resources to help people with real-world disabilities start using Second Life for them to enjoy the medical and psychological benefits offered by virtual environments. Virtual Ability Island is an amazing place with orientation resources and they have an office at Nonprofit Commons as well. Nonprofit Commons was a Finalist for the Linden Prize, something we are all honored about. Congrats to Virtual Ability!

Seeing in Second LIfe

Ethelred, Ozma, and I myself spoke at the Nonprofit Commons Friday Meeting to encourage different orgs to sponsor Common Ground each week. It is a great setting for groups to share their mission and what real world impact they have outside of Second Life.
Then we had an amazing guest, the first blind avatar in SL! The folks from Virtual Ability were there to explain the tech to assist the blind in Second Life with a seeing eye dog. It was inspiring and thrilling!

Golden at Common Ground

With a Gold color theme, Common Ground @ NPC Plush was sponsored by Virtual Ability. Ricken Flow shared their mission ito enable people with a wide range of disabilities to enter into virtual worlds like Second Life®, and provide them with a supporting environment once there. He provided wheelchairs and dances for the “wheelies”. It was a great night full of angels, supporters, and snow!

Real World Impacts from the Virtual World

The MacArthur Foundation, the USC Network Culture Project and Global Kids sponsored “Real World Impacts from the Virtual World” in Second Life. I attended the event that happened on three important sims: Foundations Sim, Justice Commons, and Aloft Nonprofit Commons.
Lots of my friends from the Nonprofit Commons were on inspirational panels. We heard from the USC Network Culture Project awardees on Real World Impact from the Public Good Community Challenge. Enjoyed a panel on Alliance Building in Virtual Worlds. Listened to a discussion on Using Virtual Worlds for Learning. Which inspired the “Birds-of-a-feather” Breakout Sessions; I attended one about online learning in Second Life. And, then we had a social mixer and dance.
Rik Panganiban of Global Kids, that’s the cute dragon, did a fantastic job of promoting this event and making everyone feel like they were part of a bigger picture. http://spotlight.macfound.org

Virtual Ability Island

After the NPC Friday meeting, we got a tour of the new Virtual Ability Island. Their mission is to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to enter into virtual worlds like Second Life, and provide them with a supporting environment once there. It is an amazing build and very impressive instructions for those new to Second Life. It was a delight and inspiring!