What are you doing for peace today?

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One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to send messages like this to thousands of people on a regular basis. (E-mail version, blog version). Join the FOR e-mail list and you could get these e-mails from me too! 😉

Today, September 21st, is known as the International Day of Peace, and with Congress and the U.N. back in session the nation’s attention is turning toward ending the war. In this e-mail we highlight some of many opportunities in the next month for nonviolent action to raise social and political pressure to call for an end to the violence and destruction in Iraq.

* Events officially sponsored or endorsed by FOR.

Please bookmark our dynamic calendar of peace and justice events. (You can even subscribe to it using any of these services: xml/rss, iCal, or Google. )

Read the rest in the e-mail archive or our blog, and do something to help stop the war today.

Keepon = very cute robot

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Here is some gratuitous cuteness for your Friday. Have a good weekend.

“We are currently developing and studying dance-oriented nonverbal play with between children and the robot Keepon, built by Hideki Kozima. Keepon is a small creature-like robot with a soft rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose.” – http://beatbots.org

Thanks to Brian for sending me a video of just the Keepon dancing which led me to the even better video above.

Depressing widgets

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MAPlight.org does great things with using the Internet to shine daylight into issues of money and politics. Their latest offering are widgets that track the fundraising of presidential candidates (which is a little too horserace-oriented for my taste). You can customize them with the candidates of your choosing. I made one (below) showing all of the candidates, sorted by the amount raised. The main lesson I take from it is that billions of dollars are being wasted on TV ads and manipulative consultants. And that Edwards is at the top of the second tier instead of at the bottom of the top tier where I would like him to be.

Make your own at: http://www.maplight.org/widgets

Big NPtech news

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Seven months ago, I lamented about Convio buying GetActive, now Convio’s going public. I call this more bad news for nonprofits.

However, our day is also brightened by the news that the lovely and (extremely) talented Holly Ross is taking the helm at NTEN. She has ably and patiently run their Nonprofit Technology Conferences for many years and is a great choice to continue to lead NTEN. Congrats, Holly.

It must be noted that I bitched about the fact that the last time they hired a new ED (14 months ago) I only got an e-mail from NTEN and had no blog entry to link to. This time, that is certainly not the case. Well done, all.

Also, good luck to my friend and outgoing ED Katrin Verclas, who will surely find success in whatever she does. I hope it’s kicking butt with MobileActive.

Geeks for Good

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So at BarCampRDU a few weeks ago, I facilitated a session on how geeks can use their powers for the forces of good. It was mostly a brainstorming session for all of us. I was very pleased to see how much interest there is in community engagement on the part of these guys (I was the only woman in the room). I was pleased to see that one person I met at DCampSouth a few months ago has since started a new local politics blog in Raleigh.

We came up a with a good list of resources for techies who want to help make the world a better place. Please add more at the wiki page: http://www.barcamp.org/geeks4good

– BarCamp / geeks4good

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Virtual registration of real voters

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Since you read my blog religiously (what? you don’t???) you know that I have been facilitating weekly meetings of the SL Netroots group that emerged from RootsCamp in Second Life back in November. In January, this group put on Avatars Against the War, bringing over 100 people to a peace protest held at Second Life’s Capitol Hill. Since then our participation has ebbed and flowed. I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to put into it, and many of our leaders were also engaged with other important activities like organizing against fascism in SL and putting on Yearly Kos in Second Life (YKSL).

At last week’s meeting we had a lively group with some regulars and some newcomers and folks came up with a great idea: a voter registration drive to make SL residents aware of the need to register and vote and to make it easier for them to do so. Being the voice of reason (a.k.a. seasoned cynic), I recommend that our volunteers bring us a plan to be discussed at our next meeting. (We’ve had issues with folks bringing good ideas but not following-through.)

Sure enough Jamming Independent (a.k.a. John Breyault in RL) has come up with a plan, and we will be discussing it at our weekly SL Netroots meeting tomorrow (Thursday) at noon PDT/3pm EDT. We will also be talking about the Netroots Nation group that emerged from YKSL and how to work together with them in the future.

This is great stuff going on and I am very excited! If you’ve been meaning to come or if you used to and haven’t been in a while, this one is the meetup to attend. Hope to see you there.

Happy birthday, G

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Today is the birthday of my good friend and talented video artist Giles Hendrix! Five years ago today he and his future wife and I were in England checking out some very old stuff like the Avebury Ring, Stonehenge, and the Tower of London.

I’m giving him a blog shout out and posting a recent work of his:

If you like that, there’s tons more at http://GESTUREMEDIA.tv

NPC opening now!

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I’m settling in at the Nonprofit Commons (NPC) opening in Second Life. I will be liveblogging by adding stuff to THIS POST rather than posting a new blog entry each time, so please come back and scroll down…

8:40 pm EDT
The sim is already full and folks can’t get in. There is an overflow space at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Lake%20West/127/1/26

8:47
My first pictures are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyji/sets/72157601449952247/
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8:50
We are currently listening to a woman doing a nice solo guitar-and-singing thing. Enjoyable, but I always find it funny to hear folk music in virtual worlds…

Here are the ladies of the hour, from left to right: Glitteractica Cookie (Susan Tenby of TechSoup, organizer of this event and this community), Jeska Linden (NP liaison for Linden Labs, not sure if LL did anything in particular for this besides create Second Life), and Anshe Chung (SL real estate baron and donor of the island and buildings that house the NPC)
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9:05
SL crashed my computer, as it does about once per visit on average.

I am back in-world, amazingly was able to get back to NPC, and the live video from San Fransisco is now starting. Susan Tenby is telling the crowd about TechSoup’s work in Second Life. 300 group members, thousands of avatars have come to their weekly meetings.

9:09
I’m told the video is also available at http://dss7.streamhoster.com/lv_slcompumentor/sltest.sdp

9:13
And crash #2.

9:22
I was in for about a second and then crash #3. Restarting SL now…

9:25

OK, I’m back in and I’ve got more pictures up. Here’s Susan Tenby appearing by video (behind the stage where her avatar is sitting).
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Anshe Chung’s avatar is on the video and she is speaking from China. Susan is pointing out the avatars to people in the audience.

9:33
Susan reports that there about 100 avatars in attendance including the overflow area.
Next up: Coughran Mayo from Preferred Family Healthcare speaking via Skype.

9:40
Here’s Evonne Heyning on screen while her avatar In Kenzo is on stage.
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Oh no! Evonne says that Vivienne Cassavetes was not able to get in to the event! She has been doing great nonprofit stuff in SL! Also we are being reminded of the URL: nonprofitcommons.org

Now there will be a Q & A with questions from SL.

9:46
Question: what predictions do you have for the future of non-profit activity in Second Life in the coming year?
Susan: Don’t know but has ideas about how to grow NPC.

me: I predict: it will grow.

9:58
Some discussion of volunteer efforts in SL and funding. Rik shared this link about Macarthur’s announcement today: http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/08/macarthur-found.html

Here are some folks hanging out:
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10:02
There was a question from the SF audience about how a nonprofit employee could justify SL to their organization. I think they meant how to do you get your org to support using SL. Here’s what I and others said:

Ruby Glitter: Do you also have to “justify” using the web?
Ruby Glitter: Let’s not use this word “justify!”
Ruby Glitter: My org trusts me and I do it during 9-5.
Spirals Sol: we told our org. that it’s a new fancy way to reach out to the world
Master Quatro: if you volunteer then you don’t have to justify .. use your volunteers to do this
Fletcher Dovgal: I think results speak, so someone has to do the legwork, but then more get on board when it works
Huckleberry Fargis: justify is appropriate as an eval of effectiveness
Ping Rau: thanks
Ruby Glitter: This is just as important as doing online outreach in any other medium. True we don’t reach everyone, but there is an important constituency here and it’s growing.
Carmen Gray: I think it is a a great idea
Fletcher Dovgal: sometimes I just say ‘it’s email/chat with pictures’
Rik Riel: pepole with aspergers and autism use Seoncd Life
Carmen Gray: that is needed
Rhiannon Chatnoir: This space has allowed the extension of real life programs for non profit organizations I work with like Global Kids who are able to do outreach programs … just in a different way
Ozma Malibu: my org gives input into what we want
Dru Rossini: /deaf people can read

10:27
Now folks are visiting the 32 nonprofits who have offices here at NPC. I am mostly visiting one that is Yehoodi, the swing dance society run by the fabulous Rik Riel. Rik is DJing for us a real time, the swing music is great! Here we are getting down:
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10:32
It’s about bedtime for me so I think that’s end of my updates. All my pics are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyji/sets/72157601449952247/

Go visit nonprofitcommons.org on the web and http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/130/125/22/ in Second Life. Good night!