Cajsa Lilliehook

Our world, our imagination. SL is what its residents create. That men do not spend as much money on clothing factors into what people create to sell. That is not unfriendly to men, that is maximizing sales.

As someone whose professional career was in social and economic justice organizing, I am always frustrated by the nonsense promulgated by folks who judge nonprofits by how they spend rather than what they accomplish. People say nonprofits need to be run like a business, but nonprofits could never be so profligate. For-profits are praised for spending on marketing while nonprofits are castigated, but without marketing, they cannot grow and they will fail. Dan Pallotta has a tremendous Ted Talk on Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. Here's the thing. People are taught shame about money. No one talks about money. Asking for money is embarrassing and covered in shame. No one wants to be a beggar, right? But what is an IPO, it's asking for money. Politicians and wealthy corporate leaders have no problems asking for money. They are not taught shame about asking for money, so that's where the money goes. The same works for marketing. Businesses market, but nonprofits that market are attacked for misspending money. This means that nonprofits can never challenge real power. These ideas about what nonprofits can do are all designed to make sure that nonprofits never challenge real power.

Fabulous!!

Congrats, Berry!

Thank you!

Congrats, Alicia!

Absolutely, and a few charities already do that and they could continue to do that. For example, Relay for Life and Doctors Without Borders have charity avatars and include information on the Second Life fundraiser on their organizational web site. However, some charities don't understand the potential of SL or how easy it would be for them to have a charity avatar. That's the more common occurence and one that I think would be addressed by having a LL Charity Avatar Program. As to the fees for LL, since they are the Lab, they don't need to pay themselves Lindex fees. However, they wlll have some bookkeeping and IRS reporting compliance costs - which the 3% would cover since they would not get Lindex fees.

Charities in Second Life do so much good, raising thousands for cancer research, relief work, animal protection and dozens if not hundreds of worthy causes. In spite of all the good work that is done by many successful fundraising events, a few unworthy people have exploited the charitable impulse to raise money under false pretenses and pocket the funds, even going so far as to forge false receipts When this happens, even the legitimate efforts are damaged as people become suspicious and ware of participating. Linden Lab could easily address this ongoing problem with a Charity Avatar Program admistered by them. Although there may be details that need ironing out, I see the process working something like this. Fundraising committee identifies a charitable organization they wish to support. The gather contact info for the charity, including name, address, phone number and national charity registration number or national business number. For example, in the United States, the Federal Employer Identification Number. Fundraising Committee identifies any anticipated expenses they will request be compensated after the event. Linden Lab reviews the organization to ensure it is a charitable organization that they are allowed to fund (not a prohibited organization). Linden Lab also reviews the organization to ensure it does not violate their own standards as defined in TOS (promoting hate, racism, homophobia, violence, etc) If the charity is one meets their criteria, Linden Lab creates a charitable avatar that has a Linden or Charity last name to set them apart and make the easily recognizable to all residents. Names could be as generic as Charity001.Linden or more specific with names like HumanSociety.Charity. Vendors and donation boxes pay all or portion of all funds sto the charity avatar directly. There is no need for charity avatar to be active in the world, but merely function as a bank. When the event is over, the Fundraising Committee informs Linden Lab and provides receipts from transaction history of any event-related expenses that were included in the event application. If the event does not raise enough to cover expenses, the Fundraising Committee will not be fully reimbursed. Linden Lab deducts a sponsorship fee that defrays the cost of the Charity Avatar Program - about 3% or so. Linden Lab writes a check directly to the charity and posts a notice to the fundraising committee chair. For ongoing fundraising via donation box, the Lab could simply write a quarterly or annual check. There are special reporting requirements for LL when it donates to charities outside the United States, but so long as they do not donate to any organization on the list of prohibited organizations, the reporting is not onerous. The information needed to fill out their reports would all be provided in the initial application by the Fundraising Committee. This seems a fairly simple way for Linden Lab to support the charitable work in Second Life. It will help foster community aand charitable giving by removing any suspiciion about its legitimacy. With a program for approval that is simple and automatic so long as requirements are met, there will be no implicationt hat LL endorses one particular charity over another. Are there other steps that should be part of the process? Any anticipated difficulties? Would this solve the problem? I am hoping a bit of community consideration and debate could massage this into a solid proposal for the Lab's cosideration. I think it would work and could make charity fundraising so much easier.

Please do not adopt face lights. They are annoying and unnecessary if you use windlight properly. There are several tutorials that cna help you. Strawberry Singh has a tutorial linking you to several WL settings you can download and install. Here's a directory of tutorials that can help. When windlight came in 2008, that was the end of the need for face lights. Few people use them anymore and they are generally perceived as rude and impolite to wear in public.

I am no purist. I think that there are good things made with templates and good designers who learned the ropes with templates. The only thing I am not enthused about is the unimaginative and boring use of templates to simply add a recolor or a flat texture without bringing some inspiration and imagination to it. But you know, they don't hurt me because they look flat and uninteresting and don't tempt away my lindens.

I am sure I saw you at the public library last Friday. Was that you?

Love the water effect on the top photo! Really fabulous!

Great photos, as always, Berry!

My pet peeve is when designers do not have their store landmark in their picks. I want to be able to teleport from there. What are other things that store owners should put in their profiles?

I always think that there are stores out there in the vast regions of Second Life where great imagination and incredible talent are married and producing little darlings what we would all love, if we only knew where they were. Do you know of any new and/or small stores that you think would get more attention, if only people knew they existed? Do you have some favorites that you seldom, if ever, see blogged or highlighted? Why not share them and help them get some of the attention you think they should have.