CMP_KaliIdziak



Kali Idziak/SL Jessica Dally/RL I work for TechSoup Global as the project manager for the Online Community and Social Media team. www.techsoup.org I also work part time for Community Voice Mail which is how I came into the Nonprofit Commons to begin with. www.cvm.org

Why did you decide to come into Second Life? I had been in SL just on my own for about 9 months before I came in for my other employer, Community Voice Mail (CVM). CVM learned that SL was having more and more opportunity for non profits and then the MacArthur foundation event passed thru my ED's hands and, knowing I'd been in here, we began to check things out for our Community Voice Mail.

How will your nonprofit use second life? CVM’s main focus for SL is using it as a social networking tool for our nonprofit. CVM is based on a federation model, so we partner with other organizations all over the us, and hopefully the world to provide voicemail. CVM expands our contacts with other non profits thru our use of SL and also simply to get the word out about what we do to anyone who will listen. So many folks forget that it's quite hard, if not impossible, to get a job, an apartment, whatever, without a phone number... easily overlooked and yet so vital. That would be our primary objective here... but we're also trying to stay open to other possibilities as we all learn what can be done in SL For TechSoup I help run the Nonprofit Commons which is a project of TechSoup so the networking that happens in Second Life is very much a part of my job. We regularly connect with nonprofits, volunteers, funders and government through the virtual world.

How will you realize your objective? What is your strategy? what are some nuts and bolts things you plan to do in here? At TechSoup we’re constantly making connections to nonprofits through Second Life as mentioned above. At the time I’m writing this I’m in DC having just met with funding partners, volunteers, government workers and some of our Nonprofit Commons Tenants, all connections made through Second Life.

Does your ED allow you to spend work time here? It’s a requirement for both jobs!

What is your advice for other nonprofits about doing a project or having a presence in here? My biggest piece of advice is to come in and just play for a bit (if you can). I can't tell you how much my experience of "playing" has helped me with the non profit part... knowing how to interact in sl, how to do some very basic building and having some amazing friends that were able to help me immensely with set up and scripting all of these things I got from being in here a bit, seeing how things work, before just trying to jump in... I guess, in the corporate world, it'd be called "knowing your market" and in this case knowing your reality too... what can and can't be done... what works and what doesn't.