SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/26/09 -- The Nonprofit Commons, a project of TechSoup Global (TSG), today announced an all-day, innovative online event in Second Life to showcase recent developments in health care research, and to connect efforts in fighting disease and creating a cooperative and supportive environment for patients and their providers. The Health Panel Expo, an international online conference sponsored by FasterCures.org, will be held on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PDT (also called Second Life Time, SLT) in the virtual world of Second Life and simultaneously in the real world, being broadcast live at the fourth annual NetSquared Conference at Cisco in San Jose, CA. The Second Life online event is free to attend and open to all interested participants. It will be accessible through Second Life, and all information will be available at http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/healthpanel.

The Health Panel Expo panelists will include speakers from AIDS.gov and Community Voicemail discussing mobile health initiatives; Virtual Ability, Inc., a nonprofit that brings people with disabilities and chronic health conditions into virtual worlds; and Susan Tenby, Online Community Director for TSG and the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. Other panelists include experts from the disability, recovery services, nutrition, cancer, and AIDS communities.

The Health Panel Expo marks the official launch of the Health Commons in Second Life. As part of TSG's Nonprofit Commons project, Health Commons seeks to bring together real-world health-related nonprofits, academics, educators, thought-leaders, foundations, and volunteer-supporters to showcase recent developments in health care.

The Health Panel Expo: Event Details

--  The Health Panel Expo is a day-long event with several hour-long
    expert panels in the virtual world of Second Life at Health Commons AMO
    island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/AMO/125/59/22.

--  The Mobile Health Initiatives panel is a mixed-reality session on
    Wednesday, May 27, from 11:15 am-12:15 pm PDT (SLT). The live portion will
    take place in the real-world of San Jose, California as part of the
    NetSquared Conference, and simultaneously within the virtual world of
    Second Life. The panel will also feature interactivity between the two
    worlds.

--  Panels and tours of Nonprofit Commons' four virtual locations will
    take place throughout the day. The complete agenda can be found on the
    www.NonprofitCommons.org/healthpanel Web site.

--  The event will be recorded via live video and audio and will be
    archived on the www.Nonprofitcommons.org Web site.

--  Twitter hashtag of the event: #npslexpo.

--  Twitter account for Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is @npsl.
    

Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Founded in late 2005, Nonprofit Commons consists of four virtual locations, including the EcoCommons, designed for environmental nonprofits; and the Health Commons, designed for health-related nonprofits. With membership spanning 62 countries and with more than 400 members from social benefit organizations, the Nonprofit Commons is managed by a community of volunteers under the leadership of TSG. This virtual community of four nonprofit islands was designed as a virtual office park of sorts. It attempts to lower the barriers of access to Second Life and to create a community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the virtual world. The Nonprofit Commons provides an accessible entry-point to Second Life and creates a community where nonprofit and social benefit organizations can effectively collaborate with one another via an experiential learning environment, which allows for interactivity that could not happen on the traditional Web and in the real world.

Members of Nonprofit Commons meet every Friday in the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life at 8:30 PT/SLT (also known as Second Life Time) at Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater. Visitors are welcome to join. For more information, please visit the Nonprofit Commons blog http://www.nonprofitcommons.org and the wiki at http://npsl.wikispaces.com.

About TechSoup Global

San Francisco-based TechSoup Global (www.techsoupglobal.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides technology information to individuals and organizations in more than 190 countries, has provided consulting services in more than fifty countries and, through its global network of capacity-building NGOs, manages product donations to more than 96,000 organizations in 23 countries. The product donations program has enabled organizations to save over $1.3 billion in expenses as of March 2009. TechSoup Global continues to innovate with a goal of bringing increased resources and capacity to organizations working diligently on their social missions. TechSoup Global has a network of more than 35 corporate donor partners including Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec. For more information about technology donations and resources, visit www.techsoup.org.

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