Although I was intrigued by the Peace and Justice Center, a Second Life Build that focuses on both memorials for those who have passed because of war and/or tragedies (a nephew died on 9/11/2001) and information on the situation in Iraq (including emails from Iraqi civilians on daily life in Iraq and Baghdad), I was struck by how few people seemed to be there, and how little real information was available for another person visiting the center to get involved back in their real world.
None of the projects in the video really grabbed me as far as being interesting enough for me to want to know more. My husband and I continued our conversation while I re-watched the videos, and we came up with an idea based off of the style of the Peace and Justice Center.
My passion is breast cancer awareness. It runs in the family (grandmother, aunt, mother) and my mother-in-law has also had breast cancer. Too many others that I know have had it. A woman I work with lost a cousin to the disease this year because she didn't get diagnosed early enough.
What if I could build something in Second Life that would allow others to post pictures, videos, audio and emails from those they know who have gone through or are going through treatments for breast cancer? What if I could link into other places on the web that give places to donate real time and money in people's own real life communities to breast cancer awareness? There could be video on "how to check for breast cancer"; there could be links to cancer centers in various locations so that people could get more medical information. There could be links to real world gatherings like the "Run for Awareness" that happens in Central Park in the spring.
If you can take the virtual world and link it back to real world doing, then you have real activisism. What is happening in Second Life now is a start, but it isn't translating into real world change just yet. Perhaps, as people begin to link sites together, and more people around the world get both access and web-savvy, there can be real changes made to the world we have to live in.
I totally agree for the use of "Second Life" for such things like spreading awareness of causes such as Breast Cancer. I think using the program for these things rather then for socializing would help everyone those affected or not. The internet is a powerful tool, it should be used for such things.
ReplyDeleteI agree also, "second life" should be about spreading awareness. Almost everyone use the internet and this would be a good tool to get awareness about things such as breast cancer to those who may not pay it any mind in the real life.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I like your idea because it capitalizes on the social potential of second life for a cause. I'm sure you'll find there are many great examples outside second life of harnessing the energy people have for socializing to support causes.
ReplyDelete