More and more nonprofits are showing up in Second Life. Are you? UK fundraising guy (and my former colleague) Bryan Miller in his Giving in a digital world blog takes a realistic look at Second Life in A busy week for nonprofit brands in Second Life:
... [Second Life] really doesn't live up to the type of PR-spin which has people expecting a truly lifelike virtual world -- but that's no reason to write it off as completely pointless.... What we have here is still a fascinating experiment in online social networking, enabling people from all around the world to communicate and interact with each other in a new and potentially highly creative way.
Personally, I find Second Life hard to navigate, confusing, and, well, boring. But that's only half the story. A few nonprofits are doing some amazing things there, most notable the American Cancer Society's Second Life Relay For Life. More importantly, those who are getting involved in this strange new medium are going to be a hundred times smarter about it as it improves. They'll be happily raising money and connecting with donors while everyone else scrambles to figure out what's going on.
There are a lot of good reasons not to get involved in Second Life. There are many excellent reasons you shouldn't bother having a blog. Or a presence in MySpace.
Not too many years ago, there were good reasons not to have a website, or not to accept online donations. Not anymore. These things have a way of zipping suddenly from the geek fringe to the mainstream. I'd get moving if I were you.
See also Second life: first things first for nonprofits.
Technorati Tags: Second Life, nptech, fundraising
When was it ever a bad idea to have a website or accept online donations?? Back in the good old days, nonprofits and companies that had websites stood out far and away from everyone else (because so few had them) and got quite a head start on things, but there weren't any negative repercussions from that as there could be for getting involved in Second Life.
Posted by: Gloria | 02 October 2007 at 21:50
I just read an interesting article yesterday on wired.com (written in July) about how millions of dollars are being wasted on Second Life by corporations. It's a little long but extremely eye-opening. Enjoy!
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep?currentPage=1
Posted by: Joseph | 04 September 2007 at 21:05
One of the more difficult things to consider with Second Life is - how much time should staff spend in Second Life? On one hand, the more time one spends in Second Life for a cause, the better it does - simply talking with people, etc.
On the other hand, how much do you want to pay a staff member to hang out in Second Life? Suddenly, you end up with a presence which isn't engaging. I posted something on this at Your2ndPlace.com (I'm Nobody Fugazi in world); you can take a quick read here:
http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/500
Posted by: Taran Rampersad | 04 September 2007 at 14:44