Last year Avatar Action Center (AAC) was a fairly new project based in Second Life and dedicated to raising awareness about global sustainability issues when we entered the Netsquared competition, and I'm very pleased to say that we are still at it! In fact, we even recently received fiscal sponsorship from the Tides Center and have become the first group to form in Second Life that has gained 501(c)3 status (at least nobody has disputed this claim in the few months I've been asking around)>

We recently received a Tweet from @coolcatteacher asking,

"@NetSquared - Do you have a method for rural nonprofits to get involved using elluminate or other tools -- many of us aren't in cities" (She lives in Camilla, Georgia).

Although Net Tuesdays, monthly gatherings for social changemakers and web innovators, are meant to provide an opportunity for face-to-face socializing and networking, some folks might not have enough interested people in their area to get a group together.

What tools do you think would be useful for creating virtual Net Tuesdays? Second Life comes to mind, but not everyone's computer and Internet connection can handle Second Life.

The Cool Cat Teacher mentioned elluminate. What are other ideas do you have for virtual meeting tools and/or examples of successful monthly virtual meetups?

Flickr Photo Credit: Rural Wisconsin by Pedro Salinas.

CentsCity, an online virtual city that strengthens young people's ability to become financially savvy adults, was recently funded by Echoing Green, an angel investor in early-stage social entreneurship:

A moment of personal exoterica before we launch into the N2Y2 events in San Jose; tonight I'm packing and now all of you are privy to my sundries:

* Laptop w/bag (liveblogging from San Jose)
* Camera (to remember what you beautiful people look like)
* Shoes (never forget the good shoes for dancing)
* Clothes (magenta and red, a fiery feeling)
* Books (any suggestions?)
* AMO Game (always connecting the dots)
* Chocolate (the raw cacao powder this time)
* Hand Cream (see Beth Kanter's tips for liveblogging post)
* I heard I love you! card (ask Jean Russell for more info)
* Virtually Delicious (our Second Life design team cards)
* Saving Grace (a gift for a friend)
* Go Green Guide (playa planning 101)
* Delight (for manifesting good cheer)

Hello Friends of ManorMeta!
It's true...we're moving! Our Better World Island location became too small for our crystalline sanctuary and we wish our friends at Care.org and the Better World Scouts the best wishes as they build amazing aid and activism efforts inworld. We will continue to be active scouts and offer you AMO Island as a resort alternative for visionary communities in development around the world.

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.

Since the cyberpunk writings of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson painted immersive digital landscapes into their stories of virtual adventure, and following the dawn of VRML and QuicktimeVR some dozen years, I have been hoping to see virtual world technology really take a foothold in the ever-evolving set of Internet-based social networking tools.

To add to Britt's earlier post about Joi Ito joining the board of WITNESS, he's also embarking on a cool project to loan out plots of land (on his island) to nonprofits and their related events in Secondlife, a 3-D online world with more than 160,000 "residents" from all over the globe. To get involved, you'll likely need a Secondlife account, which is free (it's the virtual real estate that costs).