WHAT A JOYOUS DAY 4 ELKO PEACE PARK

A heart warming story about 40+ foster children and parents coming together to plant the park's first garden.

Wow, art and peace, a great beginning!

The past week has been exhilirating, exhausting, deeply integrative. NetSquared's gathering was full of surprises and it was great to meet John and Lars! John Berger's product line has me hooked; taking the catalog back home to my community next week.

We have some tough decisions waiting for us; projects that would love our time and attention that probably would keep us from our passion work....tough calls. The passion work is growing great interest and will be featured soon; for now it's one day at a time as we grow the AMOGame, the wiki and the campaign around the new installation.

We've been building quite a bit in Second Life, opening up space for Global Lives and next for NextAid as we bring together interesting groups in the social venture world to dance and make media together. AMO has grown exponentially and the map is now drawn and growing. We have five great interns joining us for the summer along with two new projects coming up.

Always an adventure.

great painting

Here's some funky for you -

finally..... please take a peek at http://lifeinafrica.com

not yet finished, but well on the way. As always, interested in this group's thoughts.

Christina, the LiA site is looking cleaner and clearer every time I view it. Thanks for pointing us back again!

I'm eager to find out more about Mark's Chomper and how we can test out some new ideas for the AMOgame by tracking tags across networks. I'm checking out a dozen new sites this week along with a new PledgeBank system to integrate into the AMOgame (launching the end of this month in Second Life and on the web). For the past few months in the studio we've been creating hints that create moves toward challenges; at N2Y2 last week a new advisor encouraged us to dig deeper into the love inquiry as a vital part of the Amoration story, so we're weaving the essentials of connection into a complex real-life strategy game where the goal is to create action-oriented bonds that ripple through existing social networks by making the game players into participants that shape the story.

We're in a unique point in our bridgebuilding work here; we continue to develop the Second Life and virtual world work while designing intentional campaigns that feed back to our real world activism and innovation development work. Next week I'll be in NYC speaking at the Games4Change conference with Beth Kanter and Susan Tenby of TechSoup, speaking on activism and the potential for nonprofit outreach in gameworlds and virtual spaces. Yesterday sitting around a table with new friends and potential collaborators we found common friendships amongst many Omidyar Network oldtimers, Sue Braiden and Tom Munnecke among them.

It's amazing to me how small the world becomes as it widens. I'm eager to explore new interactive spaces, the nexus of immersion and experience as transformational process. There are many fundamental changes happening in the way we share information that we are shaping IN THIS SPACE....how can we aggregate and multiply the whole of this work through simple cooperative means? I know <Ned> already has this in mind, but I hope we can keep the dialogue around cooperative growth alive.

Right now I have something simple I can offer....a small amount of free server space to promote your cause in Second Life. AMO Island is still in development and there are a handful of flexible spaces that can be purposed to reach out if that's a useful tool for your work. PeaceTiles has a small presence created by the Better World Scouts that has raised interest without too much cultivation; creating useful products and development models seem to be more popular. If your organization can use simple outreach tools in the virtual world for any reason (R&D, design, awareness, community-building, fundraising) you have our space available for events or small semi-permanent displays. I'm not sure it's the most efficient gift to offer but it is what we have readily available.

As we finish design and start implementing the AMOgame there will be a handful of links embedded to organizations here on ONet and beyond. If you see an easy way to mix and align here let me know.

Evonnne, could you go into more details on how that would work? I can think of several things TEN could do, but I dont have the skills to implement any of them.

The spaces are flexible and can be used in a number of simple ways:

• A .jpg poster with a link to your website
• A treasure chest of your products with a link to your online store
• A short video showcasing your work (if available as a quicktime .mov online or upload to Blip.tv to get a URL)
• An audio introduction to your work (if available as streaming .mp3 audio URL)
• One of your bags created with a link to fill the bag for someone else (could give away free bags inworld)
• Space for a donation tip jar for your avatar to receive financial gifts in Lindens
• An RSS feeder to keep your news reports available (costs under $1, this is a tool I purchase, not my scripts)
• A detailed immersion room, a learning hut or skysphere lab (bring your talent to build and we'll facilitate and help you grow)
• A book created of your work uploaded as .jpg images

I can personally donate an hour or two of time to help anyone who wants to join us; that time will be used finding the right space and bringing in a placeholder logo and link to get you started. I sometimes teach building classes for other nonprofit leaders that you'd be welcome to sit in on if you'd like to do something more elaborate or we have interns and builders available low-cost if that's of value to you. Video and audio is very easy in some locations, almost impossible in others; placement would be the key to success and it's helpful if you've got a good idea what you'd like to see happen inworld.

There are other more traditional nonprofit offices available for free through TechSoup/CompuMentor at their Nonprofit Commons; I'll be speaking from there at Games4Change on Monday morning (both in NYC and in Second Life). The Nonprofit Commons is a community of 30 NGOs and social ventures (501(c)3 is not a requirement) who were given free space and have provided offices for groups as diverse as Merlin and International Humanities Center, the Alzheimer Society of Ontario and Idealist.

There are many fundamental changes happening in the way we share information that we are shaping IN THIS SPACE....how can we aggregate and multiply the whole of this work through simple cooperative means? I know <Ned> already has this in mind, but I hope we can keep the dialogue around cooperative growth alive.

I'm with you, Evonne. All of the initiatives at http://lifeinafrica.com are running through paypal via ned... which means that anybody else here who has products to sell can theoretically set up shopping cart buttons through that account and be a part of a single Onet shopping cart experience for this community.

When I suggested this to Lars, he wondered about transaction fees - yes, we will have to pay the paypal fee plus (Mark your input here please) a 2.5 fee to ned but only on items you run through the ned/onet-wide shopping cart. I believe the additional audience would be worth the extra fee, you can build it into your price, and the increase goes to ned which goes into better world building anyway.

If we had items from/ways to support TEN, Kaboom!, PeaceTiles, Seeing Beyond sight, etc then a workspace to pull those together in one place would be easy enough to promote to the Onet community at large.

At lifeinafrica.com I'm also promoting all the projects here I've been able to find graphics on - partners of substance are in the top right spot, allies in the bottom spot, and there's a LiA Recommends spot on the right sidebar where I've got Made by Survivors, PeaceTiles and Michele's charity giving boxes rotating.

Would love to include live shopping cart buttons at lifeinafrica.com on any items where a lia support mechanism has been worked in (thinking particularly of Michele's giving boxes - she's talked of including $1 for lia on sales). If we can set up a space for parsing through the paypal transactions then mark disburses to the different projects monthly - maybe by check to those of you in the USA?

I do think we can change the face of this place, Evonne. And thanks for the feedback on the new site. I am pleased the reception's been good so far. BTW dear, keep an eye on this thread: http://www.omidyar.net/group/lia /news/99/

Nice story Julie, congratulations. Thnx Ashis. Evonne, good luck on the tough decisions, glad Net2 worked out so well...excited to see what you have working out in Second Life...and a coop is a coop, and there are many...and even they all tend to cooperate :-). Christina, the collective ned/item shopping cart probably works best for those outside the US. Though if there becomes an aggregate effect...everyone wins with 1-2 items in the mix. I dig the new LiA site.

Evonne, Christina and all - I am excited by the possibilities and absolutely want to collaborate.

This weekend I had my first introduction to Webkinz - the real life stuffed animals are sold for $15. After entering the animal's personal ID # online, one is introduced to its online "avitar" and the elaborate alternate-reality world of Webkinz - my goodness!!

Anyone else seen it? It would be so great to have a "humanitarian" aspect to this world, it's pretty much all about consumption, from the 15 minutes I spent with my 5 yr old (whom I think is too young for it actually since she can't read yet).

m

FYI - I am going to be traveling a lot in the next 2 months so there will be long periods when I will probably be dropping out of onet.

My first trip starts at the end of next week. We are going to Thailand to visit 2 of our partners and meet a few more partners. We are also going to be bringing a group of volunteers who will be working at DEPDC.

I get back in early July, then go to Vegas to fundraise for TEN.

Well - not really;) I won a seat into the main event at the World Series of Poker, so it is really a free trip with a 1-5000 lottery ticket attached. But it has become an inside joke at TEN that those odds are the best chance we have seen yet at getting any funding.

Meanwhile, the retail store is doing very well. We were barely open in May and almost covered our costs. June is even stronger and the real tourist season has not even started yet.

Evonnne, I would love to take you up on your offer, but I dont begin to have the time or the resources at this point to take advandage of it - perhaps we can put it on hold?

FYI

Just added The Limits of Social Enterprise to the FC Resources page.

John, we can find room to integrate some sort of Emancipation jewelry box or something when you are ready.

I'm at Games4Change in NYC now; the last speaker Allison Fine just spoke of Omidyar.net as a good attempt but mentioned that this will always be an imperfect and untrue system because there's an unlevel playing field at the foundation. She made interesting points on the freedom of speech here given that there's money on the other side of this network somewhere; she's now speaking on being a recovered "proprietary thinker" and encourages all of us to think about leadership differently by empowering our networks to pick up their own campaigns, versus trying to enlist people in our own projects.

I think most of us here have gotten beyond seeking funding from Omidyar Network but I'd love to hear whether you feel that our conversations here are stilted. There's more on funding, games and interactivity at http://inkenzo.blip.tv -- there was a great panel earlier with funders from foundations, corporations and government.

Could you expand more on Allison's view. I would like to hear more.

Anyone who wants funding needs to be careful what they say in any public forum. I absolutely make some adjustments in what I say on this site, but I would make those same adjustments elsewhere. While you all know TEN is seeking funding, I dont publicly post where we are looking or who we have been turned down by. Thats not a restriction on my speech being imposed by any possible funding relationship, its just about being polite.

That makes perfect sense John.

To paraphrase (can't quote her now), Allison mentioned that no matter how amazing the structure may be here there's always the Omidyar presence and its billions watching over the little people and their projects. There's a fundamental gulf that cannot be bridged; it will never be a level playing field nor a fully transparent and open space for dialogue. I'm not sure that's a fair assessment of this space, but your comments on politeness and prudence in funding are very wise.

Man I hope she really didn't use the phrase "watching over the little people"...or anything about "little people" for that matter, I hope that was just a segment of bad paraphrasing.

Busy putting out fires, checking back in soon.

Keep on keepin' on everyone.

Peter Rees said:

FYI Just added The Limits of Social Enterprise to the FC Resources page.

There are a few posts you might find interesting on the SEblog about the SEEDCO report and the WSJ article based on its findings. I encourage your comments.

Hey Tom, will check it out, thnx. Great to see you poking your head in here.

Hey John I think WSOP is televised. How about getting some TEN baseball caps in the hands of the big names most likely to get some face time on the tube? Have a blast, play the players not the card ;-)

Michele -> kids+art+charity said:

This weekend I had my first introduction to Webkinz - the real life stuffed animals are sold for $15. After entering the animal's personal ID # online, one is introduced to its online "avitar" and the elaborate alternate-reality world of Webkinz - my goodness!!

Anyone else seen it? It would be so great to have a "humanitarian" aspect to this world, it's pretty much all about consumption, from the 15 minutes I spent with my 5 yr old (whom I think is too young for it actually since she can't read yet).

m

I am very much with you on this. My cousin had like 8 of them? I didn't look online. But I have noticed when we buy anything, my sons wants to go online and see the site for that thing. This is something that would not occur to me. I wouldn't go to the corporate website. I think there are at least 2 takeaways--what can we do to be sure any products or marketing pieces includes the web addy. May seem obvious, but double check. Everything. Then, what can we do to take advantage of patterns like webkins to make the world better?

Anybody familiar with GPL licences ?

I know a very funky man who played the national concert hall flat 3 weeks ago.

A legend that is and a legend to come.

Ps. Christina: Are you seeing Lia as a project or as an ongoing concern?

Christina Jordan said:

Here's some funky for you -

finally..... please take a peek at http://lifeinafrica.com

not yet finished, but well on the way. As always, interested in this group's thoughts.

Please join us in helping Mickki Langston meet her pledge.

"I will donate $40 to the SourceTree Commons fund, to grow the gift economy for geeks, but only if 40 other people passionate about open source development will do the same."

— Mickki Langston

http://www.pledgebank.com/source tree

http://www.pledgebank.com/source tree

Just added these four "better world" magazines to the FOOD CHAIN resource library

Here's the complete list of mags...anything interesting missing?

• Aware Magazine
• Business Ethics
• Good Magazine
• Greater Good Magazine
• In Business, The Magazine For Sustainable Enterprises & Communities
• Innovations
• Inspire Your World
• Motto Magazine
• Need Magazine
• ODE Magazine
• Stanford Social Innovation Review
• UTNE
• What is Enlightenment?
• World Pulse
• Worthwhile Magazine
• Yes! Magazine