April 15, 2008
Jon Stewart's Education About Charities and Second Life
Nonprofit fans of Second Life, an Internet game, are seeking to educate Jon Stewart about their online activism after the comedian made fun of one of them.
Susan Tenby, senior manager of TechSoup, a nonprofit technology group, appeared before a Congressional panel this month to discuss how Second Life and other virtual worlds can lead to real-world social improvement.
However, on The Daily Show, Mr. Stewart couldn’t help but be amused with the proceedings, noting that Ms. Tenby told the lawmakers the name of her online avatar: Glitteractica Cookie.
“All this time I’ve had to wonder why I had to settled for Glitteractica Cookie 2,” he joked. “Damn you, Tenby!”
Not to be outdone, Ms. Tenby responded with an online video aimed at the talk-show host about how activists are using Second Life to support charitable causes.
The light-hearted video ends with Ms. Tenby, fist in the air, making a
familiar refrain. “Damn you, Stewart!”
Read The Chronicle’s article about how charities are using Second Life.
What do you think? Are games like Second Life making strides in the
nonprofit world? Can anyone identify who Glitteratica Cookie 3 might be? Click
on the “comment” link below to share your thoughts.
— Ian Wilhelm
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“What do you think? Are games like Second Life making strides in the
nonprofit world?”
Errr…hello! First, Second Life is not a game – it was created without any specific game-playing features. It was made to be a world and provides tools so residents can build their own islands and spaces.
Second Life has become an alternative platform to the 2-D Web and can be used for communications, networking, meetings, live events, branding, marketing, sales and yes, fundraising.
There are dozens of high profile and even more small nonprofit organizations building a presence in Second Life to expand their missions.
For example, I’m working with Rasmuson Foundation to build a Second Life gallery to promote their Individual Artist Awards and the awardees – all artists based in Alaska. Any nonprofit should know about American Cancer Society’s highly successful Second Life version of Relay for Life raising over $100,000 (yes, real US dollars).
Second Life is a communications and interactive platform. They provide the tools – what you do with it is limited to your imagination.
— Aliza Sherman aka Cybergrrl Oh Apr 15, 12:28 PM #
The best part is – the cars in Second Life will still run when the First Life planet runs out of oil!
— Chris Casquilho Apr 15, 04:07 PM #
The Daily Show specializes in pointing out the absurdities of life. And to a viewer who has no emotional or financial investment in the premise of Second Life, there is something highly absurd to the idea of testifying before a Congressional committee about an avatar named “Glitteratica Cookie”.
— Sprezzatura Apr 16, 03:19 PM #
Sprezzatura, I did not testify about my avatar, Glitteractica Cookie, i testified about the use of Second Life for nonprofits, as I run the Nonprofit Commons, a Nonprofit community in SL. My avatar is named Glitteractica Cookie, and enjoying the whimsy and fun of SL through an avatar (account) name does not seem any more absurd than picking any handle (for any internet account) that is not a direct connection to your own name. In Second Life, you are not able to choose your own last name, as there is a list of about 50 per week.Frankly, in a world where you can be anything you want to be, it seems ridiculous to choose a name as ordinary as Susan. Hope that clarifies it a bit for you.
Best,
Susan “Glitteractica Cookie” Tenby
— Susan Tenby Apr 16, 07:03 PM #
First a disclaimer. I am involved in Second Life, and involved with NonProfit Commons, the group that Susan (aka Glitteractica) represented extremely well in her description to the Congressional panel on at least one legitimate use of the Second Life platform.
My experience has been that many of us who are focused in our purpose for SL are perfectly happy with disclosing our real names and identities to others in SL. My function as the exec. in charge of development for Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. is well known to my fellows “in-world”.
Others choose to disclose only the avatar name they created when they signed into SL, and there is nothing wrong with that either. A certain level of anonimity lets one try new things or explore facets of their personality that they may feel they cannot do in real life.
My organization, which provides substance abuse and mental health prevention and treatment, hopes in fact that the relative anonymity of the avatar might cause SL participants to engage with our agency in-world in ways that real life might inhibit, learning more about addiction and other mental health issues through both passive education and active dialogue. Unfortunately, real world discrimination often keeps people from seeking help for these all too common problems until they have become seriously life-threatening.
If the ability to cloak oneself in an assumed name and/or alternative identity allows anyone to explore, examine or implement intervention in their real life earlier than they might through more mainstream means, SL will have proved to be extremely valuable!
— Dick "Coughran Mayo" Dillon May 4, 12:46 PM #