onPhilanthropy: Second Life Fundraising: Philanthropy Dips its Toe Into Virtual Worlds

onPhilanthropy: Second Life Fundraising: Philanthropy Dips its Toe Into Virtual Worlds: "Second Life Fundraising: Philanthropy Dips its Toe Into Virtual Worlds
By: Tom Watson, 07/26/06


Soaring mountains, shimmering seas, futuristic buildings, strange vehicles flying in the air. And throughout the fantastic landscape, three-dimensional avatars walk and fly and talk - and spend a new and very real form of currency. Welcome to Second Life, a fast-growing virtual reality community where users from around the world gather to live out their fantasies and assume personas they never could in the terrestrial world. The virtual world was created by a real-world company, Linden Labs, in 2003 and now numbers some 200,000 members who spend hundreds of thousands a day in 'Linden dollars,' the game's currency. They buy land and buildings (all virtual of course), clothing and accessories, movies, vehicles, and music.

And more and more, they give money away. Real money to real charities."