University of Southern California

In his remarks Ondrejka said, “What an opportunity for all of us to be in the midst of this chance to help drive really disruptive innovation, to drive the kind of change that we’ll all look back on, you know, a decade from now and say, ok, that’s when virtual worlds really started changing the real world. That’s when virtual worlds really started impacting the real world.”

 

The event filled the sim with over 100 avatars in attendance and more listening to the event via the broadcast stream. The project will launch in two tiers. The first will involve a panel of judges including, Howard Reingold, Rik Panagabain, Lori Bell, Craig Walker and Randy Moss narrowing submissions to reflect the very best entries. The community is invited to join the panellists on Monday, May 12 at 9:00 PM PST and again on Thursday, May 15 at 12:00 Noon PST to talk about what these ideas could be and opportunities to improve on ideas.

 

Principle Investigator Doug Thomas summed up the reasons for naming it a challenge. “First off, this is a challenge to you all, and I want to make very clear that we have almost no or at least very few preconceived notions about what this event should be about. […] Hopefully we can find something special about Second Life and virtual worlds in general and that will challenge us a little bit to re-think what the space can actually do to further the goals of philanthropy. Finally, […] we actually see this as our opportunity between the panel and the community together to challenge the grant making world to see the potential of virtual worlds. What can be done, and to give them reasons why they need to start paying attention to these special technologies and to the residents and the people that are using them in new, and we hope, interesting ways.”

 

All proposals are due Sunday, June 1 by 5:00 PM. The top projects will then be released to the community for a second tier of judging where community members will be asked to vote for their preferred project.

 

The top winners will be funded for three months at a monthly stipend of up to 100,000 Linden per month and land to complete their proposed project and be featured at this year’s State of Play Conference in October.

 

 

For more information visit the Network Culture Project page.

 

 

So far the challenge has been featured in the following blogs:

 

New World Notes: http://nwn.blogs.com/

The Click Heard Round the World: http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2008/05/usc-network-cul.html

Global Kids: http://www.holymeatballs.org/

Lori Bell: http://infoisland.org/2008/05/10/second-life-and-the-public-good-a-community-challenge-gives-real-rewards/

Howard Rheingold on the Smartmobs blog as well: http://www.smartmobs.com/2008/05/11/public-goods-in-virtual-worlds/