I am behind one of the several projects entered utilizing virtual reality, and I'm feeling compelled to draw some attention to those that are using virtual worlds to engage in creative nonprofit efforts. With the arrival of Second Life a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) has finally gotten a foothold as a technology for not only social networking and gaming, but also training, meetings, marketing, and yes, even nonprofit activities like education, outreach, activism, and fundraising. Second Life's user account numbers now top 5.3 million, and even if you consider that maybe only half of those are unique accounts, that's still a significant population to engage on any subject, and one that is fast growing.

Below is a list of the project entries involving VR, some of which also employ companion web sites, utilizing Web 2.0 tools to fill in the gaps in collaboration utilities in Second Life and supplement their reach to real world partnerships. These creative mash-ups of technologies are laying the foundation for Web 5.0 (well, 3.0 and 4.0 are already taken!), in which avatars are transportable between what will become a standard way to interface with applications and operating systems in the future. OK, let me rub the sand out of my eyes there. I recognize that VR is young, but let's at least consider the good possibility that this will be a very important medium in the near future and acknowledge the innovative approaches to social change these projects have undertaken:

Avatar Action Center*

Games for Change

Info Island Brings the Renaissance Era to Its Second Life!

ManorMeta

Second Life Relay For Life 07

Walden III: Digital Utopianism and the Virtual World

*Maintaining the spirit of full disclosure, this is my project.