A few weeks ago I got a call from Marc Schiller of Electric Artists about brainstorming on a project for the website ivillage.com. I know Marc from the aloft project which EA was also involved in, and he’s an awfully righteous dude - he groks what SL is about and is genuinely enthused about the potential of the platform beyond making a build for a client, so I’m always interested in what he has in the pipeline.

The project is one that immediately interested me for a few reasons - ivillage wanted to do something women-centric in SL, addressing the fact that SL has more than its share of female residents compared to other online MMOs. The end result is best put by the official release statement on the project:

“Beginning December 14th, every two weeks the iVillage Girls Night Out events in Second Life will celebrate and showcase great locations, personalities, and content already existing inside of Second Life. Each Girls Night Out evening will be curated by a different Second Life resident and who will lead a tour of interesting local and indigenous locations already established inside Second Life. Tours will range from things like music events, discussions, tutorials, and more. The first curator will be Cory Edo.

To participate in the Girls Night Out events, beginning on Monday residents of Second Life will be able obtain an iVillage branded tour application (called a “HUD”) which will be automatically updated after each tour to provide residents with the latest information on the next event and set of locations. Residents can obtain the iVillage HUD for free at the new iVillage Loft which will launch on Monday inside Second Life on Sheep Island.

For iVillage, the goal of the project is to showcase and highlight the amazing community of women who are doing amazing things each and every day inside various sub communities in Second Life. It is also to extend their commitment to communities of women beyond the iVillage website into new immersive environments.

The goal of the project is to showcase and highlight the amazing community of women who are doing amazing things each and every day inside various sub communities in Second Life

It is interesting to note that almost half of the residents of Second Life are women. In addition to this, women spend more time inside Second Life then men. The iVillage project is to celebrate and showcase this incredibly vibrant community. Rather than to create a branded island and bring in new content into Second Life, iVillage is doing something unique and innovative by not developing a branded space, but rather by assisting new residents in discovering the amazing things that are already being done inside Second Life but are hard to find.

You can follow the progress of the iVillage Girls Night Out project on the official blog for the project at: www.ivillage.com/gno.”

So that’s the boilerplate. Here’s what my input was, and what I really like about this project:

  • Anyone that’s been in Second Life knows gender appearance is as fickle as clicking a checkbox. So how do you market an event for women, when you have no idea if the people showing up are women or not? My advice was don’t push the issue - there will be men attending, either in male av form or female, and there’s no way to stop it. Embrace it. Don’t make gender a prerequisite to attend and certainly don’t try to enforce a female-only policy. Personally, I’m a feminist (thanks Mom for marching with NOW in the 70’s), in the sense that its ridiculous to hold one gender up over another. We all have ideas to bring to the table for discussion, and our opinions are colored by far more than our gender. You can’t have discussions with only one side. Besides that, there are many men in SL that have female avatars because they identify as women, and SL gives them a way to do that that RL doesn’t allow for. So, if you’re a guy and want to be involved with the ivillage project, you’re invited! We will try, however, to make the tours and events as non-threatening and positive to women as possible, and we’re encouraging tour guides to consider gender in all its forms when brainstorming on where to go and what to do.
  • What I like about this project is that its open for anyone to jump in and participate. Do you want to make a tour showcasing the best of vampire culture? Host a scripting class? Explore sex and gender in the escort industry? Talk to women that run their own SL business from their homes because it allows them to be full-time moms for their kids? Have a makeover session? Run a gender experiment where we all run around the grid in male avs (or female, if you use a male av normally) and talk about our experiences? Lets do it! We’ll have a sign-up box at the Ivillage loft where you can drop a notecard with your name and what kind of tour you’d like to host, and we’ll get you scheduled and help you with what you need to make it a success. Take this in whatever direction you’d like - keep it fun, interesting, and smart, and the sky’s the limit.
  • The other really cool thing about this is: Ivillage foots the bill for the things you’d normally need to invest in to organize a great discussion/tour group. They take care of the land, the loft, the tour HUD, and the promotion - you just come up with some great ideas and organize a tour. You’re free to concentrate on the stuff that really matters - the tour you organize, and being host to a wide variety of people from across the globe.

That’s about it for right now - I’m really excited about the kickoff event! Our loft is your loft - if you’ve ever wanted to get a great discussion going, or just tour some awesome spots in SL, Ivillage is here to help. See you there!

P.S. here’s another writeup about the project on 3pointd.com.