Virtual Worlds for Nonprofits

Virtual Worlds for Nonprofit Use

In 2012, we read about Second Life and most of the class joined me for a few Second Life sessions.  Most found the benefit not worth the effort, and virtual worlds, while still going strong particulary on the gaming front, do not seem to be playing a very important role for most non-profit organizations.  That said, the Nonprofit Commons is still available as a resource for the orgs that make use of virtual worlds, and I will always have a soft-spot in my heart for the potential of virtual worlds.  If you want to venture down this path,

 

• Visit Nonprofits Common. An informational website that will give you a sense of how a few non-profits use SL and virtual worlds more generally.

• Get a Second Life account, set up your Avatar, and spend some time (30-60 minutes) on orientation island.  http://secondlife.com
• Attend a TechSoup meeting in Second Life. I’ll get their calendar and share it with you.
• Watch videos, Mechinima, that have been created in Second Life, Minecraft or other virtual worlds, and see what kind of conversation and community they are building on YouTube. Consider the possibility that the virtual worlds are not the social media environments, but they provide a platform for creating content shared via social media.  Here are a couple of examples appropriate for this class.

1. Virtual Videos for Social Good: A short history of Machinima and interesting critique of old media.
2. Anti-SOPA Public Service Announcement, done in Minecraft.

Finally, if you want a less social, more educational example of a 3D virtual environment, check out “Rome Reborn.”

 

Related articles

• Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds (hrjunkieblog.wordpress.com)