Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

News, Discussion, and Updates from Better World Island in Second Life

www.betterworldisland.com

Current Better World Projects:

Camp Darfur

Peace Tiles

Center for Water Studies

Peace and Justice Center

Gardens of Hope (SOLID)

care.org

rabble.ca

Better World Island is a project of Partners for Others

Last comment added: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:55:55 PST

Comment 1 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

PRIM PERFECT features Better World Island as SIM of the month

Prim Perfect is Second Life's first home and garden magazine. Creator and editor Saffia Widdershins has been strong supporter of Ubuntu, BWI, and SOLID projects. A big thanks to her :)

A BETTER WORLD

This month's chosen sim, the location of our prize competition,is rather different to many places in Second Life. Indeed, although it's a very busy sim, with plenty of traffic, I suspect that this will be the first private residence constructed there.

The sim is Better World Island, and it was founded, as Riversong Garden, its current owner and curator says, "to network, nurture, and build awareness about groups, individuals and issues that affect our world."

She explains, "We concentrate on those who are taking action to make the world a better place. It’s about empowering the individual, because each person can truly make a difference. Our motto is 'discover your own power to make good things happen'. We welcome several thousand visitors each year. We also provide spaces and assistance to non-profit groups and individual projects whose vision complements our own."

Better World Island grew out of the global on-line community omidyar.net where the philosophy for the community was “We believe every individual has the power to make a difference. We exist for one single purpose: So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen.” Within that community people collaborated, supported and helped one another further our individual projects and areas of interest. Presently Omidyar.net (O’net) is in transition with a number of those involved moving to the newly created on-line community ned.com.

One of the members, Sue Stonebender, who was already involved in Second Life, saw in it the potential to further the reach of the work that was being done on O’net. Zeke Poutine, another of the moving spirits behind Better World Island says, "She was our 1st Better World Scout pioneer in to Second Life. After a number of months she came back to O’net and presented the community with the gift of Better World Island."

The first major project that those involved with Better World Island was Camp Darfur. As Zeke Poutine explains: "Another one of our members on O’net, Gabriel Stauring, has been a long time champion of the genocide situation in the Darfur region of Sudan. At the time of the BWI gift he was about to launch his Camp Darfur campaign - an awareness-raising campaign featuring a travelling recreated refugee camp. It was designed to be an interactive awareness and education event that brings attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and gives individuals the opportunity to discover their own power to make a difference. You can read more about it on the website www.stopgenocidenow.org. (In fact, one of our earliest community wide collaborations on O’net was to create the http://www.stopgenocidenow.org website.)

"In the couple of months prior to the inaugural Camp Darfur off the end of the LAX runway in LA, CA in April of 2005," says Zeke, "we used Better World Island to plan out what that would look like and what we would need. A half a dozen or so members from O’net signed in to Second Life and we started building that 1st camp. We used SL and BWI as our ‘Camp Darfur’ lab for the real life event."

The earliest thinking that went in to the creation of the rest of Better World Island beyond Camp Darfur was to feature the projects that some members were working on O’net. Like the Peace Tiles Project, the Gardens of Hope (Zeke Poutine's own project), the Centre for Water Studies (which is the project of Delia Lake, who gave me a guided tour of parts of Better World Island), Peaceful Tomorrows and ManorMeta which had its beginnings on BWI but has since moved on to its own island. Since its creation Better World Island has come to the attention of other ‘like minds’ in Second Life. Organizations such as CARE and rabble.ca have been welcomed and invited to set up a presence on BWI. So it has come to include others beyond the original founders.

Better World Island is loosely divided into two parts. The first is the Social Justice side, which uses interactive and three dimensional media to highlight areas of social injustice, the two most notable examples being Camp Darfur, which highlights the situation in the Sudan, and the Streets of Baghdad, which focuses on the situation in Iraq. Both are tremendously powerful, immersive experiences - which can be quite shattering.

It's hard to represent either of these exhibitions in words of pictures. With Camp Darfur, you begin on the sand while all around you a village burns. Voices call out their stories urgently - clicking on the screens you see will draw more information - a clamour of dazed horror, loss and betrayal. You walk on ... led along a narrow, winding path ... and encounter the refugee camps. Above, a list of catastrophes reminds you that this is not the first humanitarian disaster ... and suddenly you fear it won't be the last.

Not the least impressive thing about Camp Darfur is how early in Second Life's existence it was devised. A few changes have been made since (especially since other organisations wished to become involved, but essentially it remains the original interactive awareness and education exhibition, created by Jamie Neutra, Zeke Poutine, In Kenzo, Sue Stonebender, and Riversong Garden, and designed to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

But to my mind., one of the best things about it is that at the end of your journey, you are given suggestions as to what you can do, practically, to help. This lifts the whole exhibition onto a new plane and demonstrates how Second Life can truly play a part not just in raising awareness but in really working towards a better world.

From there, it's just a short walk to a newer exhibition, the Streets of Baghdad. Standing on the hill and overlooking it, you can see something of its intent. It looks like a maze, and Delia Lake, another member of Better World Island, told me that was quite deliberate, as was the fact that the passages you walk are close, giving the sense of the closeness of the city, and of helplessness.

As you walk through the narrow streets, you hear not just city noises, but screams, and explosions. Random bombs explode; you come face to face with men with guns. At the same time you have opportunities to take notecards, to listen to and read the stories that ordinary men and women are telling. I found it an extraordinarily moving and powerful experience.

But not all the experiences in Better World Island are so searing. The other exhibitions on the island raise awareness of issues too, but in different ways.

Thus, after the Streets of Baghdad, we moved on to the fascinating area hosted by the charity Care.org. CARE is a humanitarian organization that operates worldwide and works to fight global poverty by helping people, especially women who are the heart of those communities, get the equipment and resources they need to improve living standards, such as sanitation, water, basic housing, education and healthcare. There are notecards given out that tell you more about the organisation - and also the ways in which you can help. The exhibition itself centres around a model of an actual IDP Camps mirroring those that it operates around the world. (Note: "IDP" stands for "Internally Displaced Person" and is simply the technical term for a refugee that is still inside their own country), demonstrating the vital areas one would find such as the latrines, the emergency accommodation tents, the lorries bringing vitally needed supplies: food, clothing and medicines. It's fascinating to see how all this is organised.

The point to all this is to bring awareness to the plight of people in conflict and disaster zones, to raise awareness and in doing so, hopefully bring more much needed support to CARE and others working 24/7 to help those in need around the world every day. For now you can see a few pieces we've created to start, and the photographs from which they are derived. Some pieces were generously given to CARE for use on this project (for example the tents) while others were created by Xin Revolution (CARE's Webmaster and main point of contact within Second Life). These photos span the world. The photo of the tent encampment comes from Sri Lanka, the barracks are in Pakistan, the latrine from Darfur, Sudan. CARE works in all of these, and other places, to bring much needed relief and recovery from disasters of all kinds, human-made and natural.

Another inspiring area is the Gardens of Hope, which is Zeke Poutine's particular area. Zeke volunteers with the SaltSpring Organization for Life Improvement and Development (SOLID www.solidsaltspring.com) on SaltSpring Island in BC, Canada. SOLID is a non-profit society dedicated to support communities in sub-Saharan Africa facing the devastation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. SOLID identifies and supports sustainable, community led projects that address health, education, food security and promote economic self-reliance.

They are currently working with five communities creating permaculture gardens, greenhouses and tree nurseries, collectively the Gardens of Hope, in Lesotho, southern Africa. The projects are located at two high schools, a community school, a disabled centre and a clinic. Also, at The Phelisanong Disabled HIV-AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children Community Project they are helping to build an integrated school. This primary school will meet the educational needs of 300 orphans and vulnerable children. Integration of special needs students into the classroom affords disabled and mentally handicapped children the opportunity to learn, and fosters a culture of tolerance and compassion. 40 of the students at Mamello English Medium have special needs, from physical to mental handicaps.

On Better World Island, the Gardens are beautiful - a representation of the development of permaculture that the projects are striving for, complete with animals such as cows and pigs. Delia Lake, who was showing me around, commented that she was surprised to learn that the climate of Southern Africa is actually temperate, enabling them to grow much of what can be grown in the US or the UK. That ked us to a discussion of drought - and Delia pointed out to me that is hard to discover whether the droughts that have afflicted Southern Africa are are part of a natural cycle or caused inadvertently by human practices as there are very few scientific monitoring stations there so the information is remote and general rather than specific.

With the problems of water supply thus uppermost in our minds, we passed on to the Centre for Water Studies - another beautiful area that offers a multi-media experience.

The start of it was marked by the presence of a humpbacked whale, and Delia suggested that we should approach the Center by walking under the sea.

At any one time, she told me, there are at least six different water microhabitat builds at the centre (which is a lot squeezed in to a very small area). The builds at the water centre have plants and animals that could live together in real life, but which may not necessarily do so. The idea is to simulate natural environments, and also the way that species migration has happened in real life - which might sometimes have been because the plant or animal was carried by a migratory human.

We started in a warm water ocean area with coral reefs and fishes that like warm water. It was, I'll admit, a little startling to come face to face with a shark!

Delia explained that people can scuba dive on the reef here and, indeed, there is equipment available for this at the centre. However, all of the habitat builds here at the water centre are ones that are under stress due to human activities. It is resilient, but often the tipping point into disaster isn't recognized until after the fact.

My interest at this point as we continued our undersea stroll was somewhat diverted by catching sight of some jellyfish - which Delia identified as moon jellies and lion mane jellies - and a stingray (the Centre has a couple, and some batwing rays too.

By now we were walking out of the waves and up the warm water beach, as Delia explained that this was the warm water beach and that as well as scuba-ing, people could take out the surfboard that works with those waves. I popped back into the water for a moment and to my great delight found myself swimming with dolphins. Indeed, I actually seemed to be riding one particularly amiable dolphin for some considerable distance ...

Once I had made my slightly sheepish way back up the beach, Delia explained to me how the Centre for Water Studies makes use of their Second Life resource. "We have events here where we present on various important environmental issues and then have discussions," she told me. "We have notecards about the environment in most habitat areas, so we have been raising awareness and educating. But we want also to inspire new research."

On the far side of the island she showed me the north temperate zone beach and a temperate rainforest, for temperate rainforests are areas that are really under studied. In this are, the Centre has a pond that Delia is currently remodelling to add a beaver dam and house. With a smile, she told me that her grandchildren like it here as they watch over her shoulder, and wish they could come to Second Life to the water centre, or at least bring their school classes on a field trip.

Like each area in the Centre, this has both prey and predators in it. The heron eats the fish and frogs, while the frogs eat the bugs. There's even a Canada goose flying above. I remarked on how peaceful it was - it was hard to believe there could be so much so close to where we were sitting.

As it is a temperate climate, the pond area changes with the four seasons. It is a good spot for small group conversations, or to just sit and rest. Two groups have meetings regularly at the water centre: All About Water, and Planet Thoughts Environmental. They hosted a Live Earth event here on July 7, just as was done in real life but, as Delia told me wickedly. "BWI is a sim that has purchased solar and wind offset credits, so ours may have been the only environmentally friendly Live Earth event anywhere!"

There are other areas of A Better World still to be explored. I asked Zeke Poutine about future plans and had this response: " O’net is currently in transition, as the founders of the original site have made the decision to close it down and some of us are moving on to different internet platforms. Quite a number of us (me, RiverSong and the other cast of characters at BWI included) are moving to the newly created community ned.com. <ned> is a concept that was dreamt up by another one of our very active members on O’net, Mark Grimes, while on O’net. But it's a concept, an idea that is not easily explained. In a nutshell the vision is to have real life global centers in the developed and developing world that are interconnected and internet connected. Kind of like a mashup of better world retail/local marketplace/coffee shop/internet café/community centre/ngo melting pot/social enterprise/hangout. One of our ideas for BWI is to create a <ned> space on the island. A physical think tank mapping out what the real world <ned>s could be. Kinda’ like what we did with ‘Camp Darfur’.

And as Delia Lake says, "The power of Better World Island is that it is not just 1 group of people, but many social justice and environmental groups working together with likeminded people from around the world to make a difference in real life using the medium of Second Life."

On other words, a great place to be our Sim of the Month.

Comment 2 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Wow! That was just a great article (and extra thumbs up for the ned.com mention to boot).

Well written and really outlines the great things BWI has done, and is doing.

Congrats. Very well deserved.

Comment 3 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

What is a sim??

Comment 4 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Simulator?

Comment 5 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

it is a 2nd Life term that I hope Jackie can clarify so I can make sense of the Prim article..

:-)

Comment 6 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

A sim is the basic unit of land measurement - 16 acres or 65536 sq meters - that is powered by one server. It cost more than $1000 to "buy" one plus $200 or more a month for land fees afterwards. Used to support 30 avatars at a time but now its up to two or three times that much I think. A sim can only hold 15,000 objects at a time.

Comment 7 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

edited: (see post below)

Now where is Haney when ya need him! <grins>

I consulted Delia and here is what we came up with :)

(corrections please if necessary Haney)

"a graphical sim-ulation of land that is stored in a particular address on a kind of computer designated as a server"

Michael, a sim in laymens terms is a chunk of real estate in Second Life. Imagine a grid, each square in the grid is known as a sim. A sim is the largest denomination of land available in Second Life.

Better World is a private island in Second Life which takes up one complete sim

I've added a pic of what Better World looks like on the SL grid map. that will give you a visual idea of what I'm referring to. There are thousands of private island sims in Second Life as well as several "mainland" continents made up of many many sims.

Hope that helped a bit :)

Comment 8 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

OOOPS Cross posted with Haney...he was here when I needed! LOL LOL LOL

Comment 9 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Your pictures are better than my words. How many sims in SL life now? I remember when there were nine.

Comment 10 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Wow, thanks Haney and Jackie, I would NOT have figured that out for myself, it being a very internal 2nd Life term.

Very helpful, yes, thanks!

:-))

Comment 11 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

~Mark said:

Wow! That was just a great article (and extra thumbs up for the ned.com mention to boot).

Well written and really outlines the great things BWI has done, and is doing.

Congrats. Very well deserved.~

Thanks Mark. I think she did a wonderful job knitting our stories and answers together. Happy I was able to connect with you and get the thumbs up on the <ned>/Mark Grimes mention before I submitted my bit.

Comment 12 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

I was so happy to see this! awesome coverage. I downloaded the pdf. BWI is a covergirl!

wonderful:)

Comment 13 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

CASTLE AUCTION in SECOND LIFE to benefit GARDENS OF HOPE

Hey all,

great news from the Second Life front :)

The following is an announcement from Saffia Widdershins, editor of Prim Perfect Magazine

you can read it in it's entirety here :

http://primperfectblog.wordpress .com/2007/09/26/charity-auction- your-chance-to-own-a-castle-in-t uscany/

I can't be inworld for this tomorrow, I've got a big potluck to be at... but hopefully Meron can.

Cross your fingers for some big bids

CASTLE AUCTION in SECOND LIFE to benefit GARDENS OF HOPE

"A beautiful new Castle on Tuscany Island, furnished by four of SL’s top designers, is going to be auctioned for charity.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tusc any%20Island/103/83/35

The auction will be taking place this Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 1pm SLT.

But which are the charities? There are two that will benefit from the proceeds of the sale.

The first is Gardens of Hope.

This project is designed to link five communities in Lesotho, southern Africa, into a network of projects that share ideas, skills, resources and common purpose while supporting the educational needs of orphaned and vulnerable children.

The project began in 2004 with the completion of the first tree nursery and has progressed to four tree nurseries and one greenhouse at five sites. The vision is one nursery and greenhouse at each of the five sites. Aside from the economies of scale realized by working with a number of different groups simultaneously, each group in the network will benefit from sharing resources, supplies, experience, supervision and expertise while being able to barter between themselves decreasing their cash dependency.

One project associated with Gardens of Hope that has really caught people’s imaginations, and which we would really like to help is the Ha Makhata Phelisanong Group. You can see more about this on a You Tube video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u VRcwW8L54U

The other charity that we hope will benefit from the auction is the Marburg Toy Run in Germany - where motorcyclists gather to have a fun run to raise money for a local children’s charity. In addition to raising overall funds, each motorcycle entered donates a toy or an item of sports equipment. You can read more about this at http://www.toyrunmarburg.de/

So come along, bid to buy yourself a fabulous castle, beautifully furnished, and help some very worthy causes at the same time!"

Saffia Widdershins

Editor of Prim Perfect Magazine

www.primperfect.net

Comment 14 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Thanks for posting this Jackie. I'll see what I can do about being in-world. I have to meet Sonja from Victoria at the ferry terminal tomorrow about noonish. She is going to Lesotho next week to work in an orphanage quite close to HaMakhata and is bringing over some stuff she has collected to put in the container.

Hope your pot luck goes well.

Comment 15 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Hello All :)

just thought I'd share that the winner of the Prim Perfect contest Peter Morgridge is posting a wonderful blog of his explorations of Better World during his 1 month stay. I have found it facinating seeing at all again through his eyes :) He has visited Camp Darfur, Baghdad Streets, Center for Water Studies and Gardens of Hope so far.

Please read and enjoy

http://secondview.wordpress.com/

and P.S. we have space for some new projects on BWI this winter so if you have something that you'd like to add to the virtual world, a cause or project that you'd like to raise awareness for etc. :) please let me know :)

jackie

Comment 16 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Great to see the articles, jackie!

I was wondering about the Gardens of Hope schoolhouse project.... I clicked a few times and got the notecards about purchasing but wasn't sure if I 'purchased'? would be so great to figure out how to have a dropcash-like measurement tool so people can see how close to funded something is and how their contribution helps...hmmm

I have an idea for keeping a Build A School option ongoing on BWI...but we'd need a good scriptor/builder...

and lastly I can't seem to get on to SL for more than a few minutes before my system crashes each time.I gave up for a long while. will try to figure this out.

Comment 17 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Hey Darlene :)

great ideas...we did have a build a school/building project that was mid completion before we lost our master scriptor..

would love to hear your ideas as well...sounds like you need a graphics card upgrade...drivers at least...just my guess :)

hugs to you!!

Comment 18 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Some amazing things have been happening in SL over the holiday season. Firstly Sue Stonebender, better known as Sue Braiden to some of you, held an auction of some of the more significant pieces that survived the tear down of her Opera House in Second Life. 50% of the proceeds from the auction were donated to SOLID which amounted to just over $1,000.00!!! I was shocked, amazed and very, very grateful. In the spirit of Christmas I made a list and spread the joy around. These are some of the things I bought and gifted with the money.

20 Apple Trees for Orphans, a campaign run by our friend Sam for the orphans in Lesotho
a solar oven from the SaltSpring Ragging Grannies which will be delivered to a granny in Lesotho
Christmas dinner for the residents at HaMakhata
Christmas dinner for the residents of a new group we just discovered up the road from HaMakhata, the Anonymous Group
a $100.00 donation to the Anonymous Group to start their gardening project
stocked a classroom with school supplies, purchased through The G.R.O. Foundation
A Home-Based Care Medical Kit, The G.R.O. Foundation
Put Books in a Student’s Hands, The G.R.O. Foundation

This has to have been the most fun and rewarding Christmas list I've ever got to write and fulfill. Thank you Sue!!!

Then for New Years Eve our friends at Prim Perfect held a 'Gardens of Hope' benefit. I wasn't able to attend but River (Jackie) was there and said it went very, very well! I haven't heard what the final tally is but expect to know real soon. Here are some links to the online promotion for the benefit.

http://englishobserver.blogspot. com/2008/01/welcoming-in-new-yea r.html

http://victorianaesthetic.blogsp ot.com/2007/12/new-years-eve-bal l.html

http://www.massively.com/2007/12 /30/second-lifes-caledon-celebra tes-new-years-eve-across-the-glo be/

http://zoeconnolly.blogspot.com/ 2007/12/new-years-eve-in-indepen dent-state-of.html

http://primperfectblog.wordpress .com/2007/12/30/celebrate-new-ye ars-eve-at-the-many-midnights-ma squerade-ball/

http://razorblade-cookies.blogsp ot.com/2007/12/what-are-you-doin g-new-years-eve.html

Thank you Saffia!!!

Looks like I missed a really good party. Would have been way better than what I was doin'.

Comment 19 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

And Saffia and Prim Perfect are still at it. She is doing her best to help us push our FaceBook Razoo Speed Grant Proposal.

If you haven't voted yet please vote!. Thank you for your support.

Comment 20 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

if we could only map the ripples of smiles and tears of gratitude that $1,000 gift created......happy new year to all and BWI - Soon I will reinstall Second Life to jump back into my Scout suit. have the hug scripts improved in SL?

HUGS

Comment 21 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

I am finally on and trying to find all the differant threads to try and catch up.

Great work on the SL fund raiser for Lesotho:)

Ray

Comment 22 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

~anne marie said: if we could only map the ripples of smiles and tears of gratitude that $1,000 gift created......happy new year to all and BWI - Soon I will reinstall Second Life to jump back into my Scout suit. have the hug scripts improved in SL?~

Hopefully soon we will be able to see some of those smiles, when we get the video of the Christmas dinner. You got a Scout suit? I didn't get a Scout suit :( hmmm, musta' been in the lingerie department when they were passing those out ; ) A much improved <hug> is waiting for you in-world!!!

Comment 23 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Kall, River, Zeke, Gabriel, Saffia, Jeff

Today the Gardens of Hope was presented with a cheque for the funds raised during the "Many Midnights New Years Eve" benefit sponsored by the Second Life residents of Caledon. They raised $105,633.00L which is equivalent to approximately $370.00US. At the cheque presentation ceremony the Green Lantern Core of Second Life added $12,500.00L (approximately $45.00US) to the pot bringing the grand total raised to $415.00US! Saffia of Prim Perfect was on hand for the photo shoot.

This is absolutely amazing!!! I'm excited about being able to pass this money along to our new gardening project. I have NO clue how we are going to explain to those in Africa where the funds came from!!!

Comment 24 on Better World Island Fall/Winter 2007

Prim Perfect blogs about Many Midnights bring Hope to the Gardens.