Techsoup - A Global Initiative

Date/year

TechSoup &

The Nonprofit Commons

in Second Life

Overview

1 About TechSoup2 Introduction to Nonprofit Commons3 The Future of Nonprofit Commons4 Nonprofit Commons Tour

1. About TechSoup

We are working toward a time when every nonprofit and NGO on the planet has the technology resources

and knowledge they need to operate at their full potential.

Confidential – For Discussion Purposes Only

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TechSoup builds NPO capacity by connecting corporate giving to nonprofit needs.

Creating Connections, Delivering Resultsand Advancing the Field

Partnerships with Corporate & PhilanthropicSources

Vision &Leadership

Operational Excellence

Infrastructure forProduct & Knowledge Distribution

Presence in & Understandingof theNonprofit / NGO Sector

Leveraging Our Experience for Greater Reach and Impact

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TechSoup projects emphasize community involvement.

MaintainIT: a project to sustain public access computing in libraries

NetSquared:promoting Web 2.0 in the NPO sector

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Techsoup initiatives combine knowledge and community with our donation services.

Healthy & Secure Computing

Networked Organizations

Clean and Green IT

A Comprehensive Technology Resource for Nonprofits

• Software donation program (TechSoup Stock)• Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) Program• Learning Center articles• TechSoup Community• Nonprofit Commons• NetSquared (Net2)• Public Computing & Libraries (MaintainIT

Project)• Free Downloads• TechSoup Global

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Today, we operate in 14 countries on 6 continents.

Currently operating in 14 Countries on 6 Continents

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We leverage the broad mix of relationships…

• $251 million retail value of technology product donations distributed

• $239 million potential savings for NGOs

• 846,000 technology products distributed

• 28 TechSoup product donor partners

• 150,000 documents downloaded

• 40,000 organizations received product donations

• 500,000 unique monthly visitors

• 190 countries of origin of visitors

• 23.4% of overall traffic to TechSoup from outside U.S

• 100,000 monthly TechSoup online forum visitor sessions

IMPACT REACH

… to make deep change across the social benefit sector.

Confidential – For Discussion Purposes Only

TechSoup Community Network

• Extending community beyond TechSoup site• Reach out to constituents on other online

community platforms that they already frequent• Expand our community to wider range of

nonprofits• Provide community members with further

networking and collaboration opportunities• Leverage social media tools towards social

change

Where in the World is TechSoup?

NetSquared (Net2)

• TechSoup’s Web 2.0 arm

• Spur responsible use of social media tools for social change

• Annual conference

• Monthly Net Tuesday events

• Community blog

• International reach with local groups and events

2. Introduction to The Nonprofit Commons

• 400+ Total Members• Demonstrated interest from 60 countries • 1300 people attended 40 meetings in world• 235 unique avatars attended since Mar 2006• 70 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 6000

hours(5000 for meetings and 1000 for maintenance) to this project in the last year.

Glitter testifies: Video responses

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=165604

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9nyJCYrP6w&eurl=http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/node/217

Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Bernhard Drax: Second Coming of Second Life

http://blip.tv/file/850344

Nonprofit Commons in Second Lifecreates a Learning Community

•Providing Free Office Space

•Creating a Cooperative Learning Environment

•Exploring new ways for Nonprofits to use virtual world environments

Organizing, Displaying, and Documenting Work

• No group, just “npsl” tag

• Easy way to communicate a visual concept that might be unfamiliar

• Outstanding promotional vehicle

• Record of activities to demonstrate impact to board members and constituents

Creative Potential and Implications for Nonprofits in SL

Encourage Volunteering and Leadership

Contests and Competitions

Combine Second Life with Other Outreach Channels

Go Beyond the Classroom Model: An immersive, interactive, open content environment presenting many opportunities for moving beyond the classroom lecture model of teaching with successful experiments involving peer-to-peer interaction Sandbox Learning: Team building activities by organizing small teams of avatars to build something with minimal guidance, Rich, long-lasting lessons for students through activities that challenge them to create something on their own, using the various tools available to them in Second Life

Use Avatars to Explore Identity Issues: Create opportunities for identity play and self expression through avatar creation and manipulation. Generate empathy: by putting people literally in the shoes of others and explore existing avatar choices to bring up issues of gender and racial representation or use nonhuman avatars to address issues of discrimination.

Potential and Implications for Nonprofits in SL

A Valuable tool for Nonprofits

• Free• Safe• Anonymous• Reducing Carbon Footprint• Broadening Audiences• Extending Reach• Engaging International Community

Real wealth, virtual philanthropy, and the birth of the Nonprofit Commons

• Anshe Chung is the first Virtual Philanthropist

• Second Sim donated by TakingITGlobal

Nonprofit Commons 2: ALOFT, our second sim

• A seedbed for innovation

• Tremendous Volunteer spirit

• Expanded to 70 organizations

Community meetings and guest speakers

• Continued weekly meetings have grown to over 45 avatars a week

• Hold Virtual Events in-world

• Help Nonprofits produce events

• Hold Mixed Reality Events at RL conferences such as NetSquared

• Streaming live audio and video between RL and SL

Mixed reality events

Virtual sandbox for experimentation

• Experiment with different ways to bring support and awareness to a cause

• Example: Lower Eastside Girls Club of NY developed Second Life presence as pilot project for new program

• Second Life another possible way to help organizations achieve their mission

Leadership role for your organization

• Opportunity to become thought leaders and innovators in your area of expertise

• Global Kids runs virtual workshops on global issues and leadership to teens

• Best Practices for bringing this type of education to Second Life

Reduces Your Carbon Footprint

• Carbon (and cost) savings of participating in event from own computer screen

• OneClimate’s Virtual Bali Conference this past Dec.

• In-world speeches, press conferences

• Alternative for people who cannot attend in person to participate without carbon cost of flying

What works?

• Activities that take advantage of 3-dimensional interactivity of virtual world that the web can’t match

• Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)’s Gone Gitmo installation

• Virtual representation of Guantanamo Bay gives avatars temporary simulated experience of being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay

• Teaching tool about issues of habeaus corpus

Best Practices: What we have learned

• Holding events is a great way to bring avatars to our offices, and builds alliances amongst members.

• 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

• In-world fundraising was our initial goal, but it hasn't worked out for most.

• You can’t please everyone– the biggest lesson!

• Belligerent Learning Curve, challenge scares many newbies away. (need mentor)

Multiple Entry points to community: Connecting RL and SL

Impact

This is a great community, on both professional and experiential levels. We have been donated free office space as well as significant building and scripting services from community technical experts and volunteers to establish our virtual office (viewed as an extension of our internet site at www.givingcircles.org), in which we have already had 124 visitors (even before the launch of NPC 2), several from throughout the world (Japan, Australia and other countries). We are also conducting a survey of the impact of NPs in SL and from SL on RL, the results of which we will publish for the benefit of the Nonprofits in SL community.

- Giving Circles Network (Anika Pastorelli):

But isn’t Second Life just a game?

• Often a matter of convincing board members and funders of its value

• Finding more ways of obtaining statistics and measuring impact

• Medium fosters innovation and creativity through combination of audio, text, and visual technologies

• Nonprofits continuing to develop new ways to build awareness and reach people

The Future of the Nonprofit Commons

The only way that Virtual Worlds will survive

• Must be simple• Must be mobile• Must be interoperable with other tech/web• Must be globally integrated/accessible• Must leverage 3-D, not just 2-D in 3-D

environment• Must highlight the niche communities that it

hosts by enabling connections• Must traverse multiple virtual worlds, not just SL

Areas of Exploration

1. Diversity

2. adaptable teaching environment

3. research

4. field training

5. awareness-building

6. community building

7. recruitment

8. distance education

9. Reducing of carbon footprint

Goals and Metrics

1. Learning community of practice

2. Repeatable branded free tools

3. International representation

4. Publicity

5. Excerpts from white paper

6. Support from Linden Lab

Going Forward 1. SLCC panel

2. Other conferences

3. SL developer network for nonprofits

4. Webinars

5. Virtual volunteer audio tour

6. Academic research on discourse analysis

7. Campaigns for actions

8. Applying for grants and awards to get support for program

9. Spur innovation by providing honorariums to volunteer SL Developers

10. Support special scripting and SL development

Techsoup’s Goal in this Project

• To be the Convener

• To create a seedbed for experimentation

• To connect volunteers and nonprofits

Tour of Nonprofit Commons and other locations in Second Life

Newly launched second location

Contact

Susan TenbySenior Manager –Online Community Development,

TechSoup Network susan@techsoup.org(415) 633-9333SL avatar: Glitteractica Cookie

http://www.nonprofitcommons.orghttp://npsl.wikispaces.com/http://www.techsoup.org/community