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Wednesday 14th May 2008 9:00 am

Cory Ondrejka:  A Challenge for Public Good

Second Life’s co-founder and visiting professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication describes an invitation to the residents of Second Life to imagine new ways that virtual worlds can be used to make a contribution to the public good. 

Last week I joined professor Doug Thomas and other members of USC Annenberg’s Network Culture Project in Second Life to announce “Second Life and the Public Good: A Community Challenge.” It was a great kick-off meeting, with over 100 avatars in attendance on Annenberg Island and many interesting questions, but this was only the start.  Over the next month, participants will have in-world meetings to brainstorm with the judges and to submit their proposals.

Why a Challenge?

Second Life residents have a long history of mixing the real and the virtual, from the earliest fundraising to the myriad discussions around the current US Presidential campaign, so the timing was right to challenge them to think more broadly.  By challenging the community to generate public good for the world around them, the Network Culture Project has the chance both to generate new approaches to public good and to help philanthropic institutions better understand opportunities in virtual worlds.  User generation combined with broad participation, when focused, can lead to innovative and impactful solutions to real-world issues.

Creation and Advocacy

A panel of judges brings broad expertise to public good and collaborative activities within virtual worlds, however another goal of the challenge is that it will be the Second Life community that ultimately decides which projects become finalists and receive a L$100,000 monthly stipend to develop their projects prior to being showcased at the State of Play conference in October.  After the June 1st deadline for submissions, the panel of judges will select up to 5 semi-finalists.  Those semi-finalists will have two weeks to advocate for their projects within Second Life during an open, community voting process.  The challenge allows the Second Life community to both create the public initiatives and to decide on those most worthy of additional funding.

Only the Beginning

Ultimately, the challenge, stipends, and showcases are all intended to seed further action.  Based on the turnout and energy at the kick-off meeting, the next several months leading up to State of Play should prove to be an exciting chapter in user-generated ideas, projects, and advocacy.  Visit the project site and join the process in-world!

Next Event

• May 15th Noon PST. Information Session for Europe/Americas (Annenberg Island)

Proposals Due

• June 1st 5PM PST. Send proposals to

Category: Civic-Engagement, Credibility, Ecology-of-Games, Identity, Race-Ethnicity, Unexpected

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