I am finally starting to figure out what is going on in Second Life. Its been hard to organize, 'cause people keep asking me questions like am I in charge. I think org charts are an issue with volunteer groups. Anyhow, I got reliable word that the KIVA virtual office will NOT be going up on DNA island, and there is no land to put it on. I was offered the actual office building, but it won't fit on my land. But, in the future, if we want to put it somewhere (and we pay) we can. I think what we should do is try to find some big company with a nice island that will be willing to put it up for us. Something to discuss.
So, the only KIVA place in SL is the Kiva Friends place. We are going to see if we can move Fiona's weekly meeting there. She was originally logging on at Mondays at noon SL time (which is also Pacific or California time). We are going to try to change it to a time that is better for people, some people can't log on at work. (what's the point of a job if you can't play second life at work?) If you have times and suggestions that work for you/don't work for you, please let me know. Trying to coordinate a meeting is a bit like herding cats. I am thinking we may not be able to all meet at the same time (did I mention one of the Kiva people I met is a president of a NGO (non-government organization) in South Africa? I don't know what time zone she is on.
I'm also thinking we may want to have informal meetings, perhaps we can set up a daily time for people who want to just meet and hang out and talk KIVA. We can also plan KIVA outings, where we all put on our KIVA clothes and visit a place together. I'm sure we would get noticed and it would be good publicity. And there is so much going on. I even caught a live fireworks display.
There is currently a KIVA SL group that was started by Elron (his SL name). IN RL (real life) he is from Winnipeg and started the group on his own. Him and his son have raised most of the money in SL for the group (though others have donated to him) and he has taken money out of SL and used them directly for loans at KIVA. (I'll post the lender link here when I find it). So far he has raised enough for 6 loans. They are technically his loans, but he plans to re-lend all monies and he is working on systems to make sure it real transparent where the money is coming from and going. Instead of setting up another kivafriends group, I suggest we all join Elron's group for announcements amongst ourselves. Elron is a very nice guy who has been quite helpful in teaching us newbies about SL (and how to make money) and he's been around Kiva Friends a lot. And money donated to him goes directly to loans.
We will also be collecting donations to go directly to KIVA. There will be a donation box at the site for this, and when you buy the crafts (or tomatoes) that money will go to KIVA. The boxes will be either set up to go to Kiva (Fiona) directly, or to someone like Joe (webmaster of kivafriends.org) who will transfer the money. I don't want to collect any because I am going to be dealing with other business SL.
For the record, the kivafriends hang out is at the lower lever, the upper level has a store for my internet business (Garb the World). This is my first storefront, and its funny its virtual. This does mean that my SL land is a business expense. The store is actually in 1099 Welsh Village. I bought land beside the village, and they incorporated me and gave me a house. Its very nice.
The middle layer of my land is a teleporter room, with a bunch of locations you can visit in Second Life. Its hard to find all the places to go, and it can be overwhelming to just fly around. (5 million people have registered for this, so there is a lot to see and do). So in my transporter room are 'landmarks' and you click and go there. Places include Ancient Roma, Venice (ride a canal), eco-land (buy fair trade coffee), Notre Dame, genome center, libraries, and role playing places ('sims') like Dune, Star Wars, star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Cyperpunk, Mad Max and more.
I know this all sounds very confusing to people who have never role-played or done any sim games. Its very strange to those of us who have too. Second Life is just different. But it sure is fun. And it will be great for us, as a way to hang out together and also to raise money and awareness for Kiva.
If you want to join - go to
www.secondlife.com and download the game. Make sure you have the computer requirements. After the game is installed you run it and then create a new account. You don't have to pay anything or give a credit card. NOTE - you can't change your name afterwards, so choose well. When you first enter second life you will be on orientation island. spend time there, visit all the buildings and rooms. They will show you how to walk and chat and you choose your body and face and clothes. You can change all this later so don't worry to much about it. You can even turn into a dragon later if you want.
I never figured out if there was an official way off orientation island. I teleported out when I thought I was ready. But watch it, there is no going back. You can't return, its for newbies only. But don't feel you have to know too much either. We'll teach you the basics. And you'll stumble around and run into things, everyone still does.
To find Kiva friends click on the SLurl, it will open a webpage with a program to launch that puts something in your teleporter. it should open your map page, and click on teleport. You can teleport anywhere with the map page. Oh, the places you can go.
You can also do a search (click on search tab) on people (people tab) and search for Julles Boucher and send IM. This will send me a message. You can say something like 'help, i'm a kiva friend new to sl and i don't know where i am'. I will send you a teleport to our kivafriends hang out. if i'm not online the message will get to me later. If you don't want to wait you can send IM to the other SL kiva friends and see if they are about.
I will be around at noon today at Kiva Friends in SL to see if Fiona is around. I'll update any more info as I find out.
