The Contest

2008-12-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm Sophrosyne Stenvaag, your contest host, here to explain what this is about!

I've staked $USD 250 as prize money for a contest to run for three weeks, from December 1, 2007 to December 21, 2007. At the end of that time, on December 22, 2007, I'll award all the prize money that's been won at a party in Second Life.

How The Contest Works

Play FreeRice: go to the FreeRice website, and play their vocabulary game! For each English word whose meaning you guess right, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Build your vocabulary and fight world hunger!

Post Your Best Score Here: save the page with your best score as HTML, or take a screencap. Post it here as a comment.

Win! For every person who posts a top score of 50 (one score per player - if you post 10 screencaps of 50, we'll still only pay out once!), we'll pay you $L250, and donate $L1000 to Second Life Africa. For every person who posts a score of 49, we'll pay you $L250 and donate $L750 to Second Life Africa. For every person who posts a score of 48, we'll pay you $L250 and donate $L500 to Second Life Africa. We will *not* pay out more than $USD250, unless we receive other sponsors. Once we have $USD250 in winners, the contest will be over.

Collect! Come to the Solstice Party in Extropia Core in Second Life on December 22, to collect your winnings (which you're welcome to donate to Second Life Africa!) and join us as we pay out what you've earned for Second Life Africa!

About Second Life Africa

The contest is designed to raise awareness for the activities of the Second Life Africa group, in addition to making a small charitable donation to the efforts of the first-life South African company behind the initiative, Uthango Social Investments.

Uthango means ‘kraal’ or hedge in an indigenous African language and refers the sacred and functional place where livestock is kept safe in rural Africa. It is also where networking happens and deals are struck between families. In Second Life, Uthango takes collaboration to a new level of ingenuity, and embraces initiatives and people who are innovative and want to make a small, but meaningful contribution to development.

The company is uniquely placed with one foot directly in poor, marginalized communities with limited resources and another, in the immersive 3D virtual environments rich with resources and opportunities. In this, the FreeRice contest is simply a fun way to raise awareness for two projects – one related to the important issue of food security and another that sets out with enthusiasm to create greater access to ICT and virtual worlds so that content from Africa finds its rightful place in 3D format.

Disclaimer: There is no formal affiliation between Uthango Social Investments and the FreeRice Campaign, other than Uthango supporting this specific Second Life initiative.

About the Sponsors

Sophrosyne Stenvaag: I'm a resident of Second Life. I'm Director/Marketing & External Relations for Extropia, a community in Second Life, and host of a weekly discussion event, Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon. I've contributed $USD250 as contest prize money.

Extropia: Extropia is a community in Second Life dedicated to creating a positive future through high technology, social networking and personal liberty. Extropia has contributed The Technohenge At Extropia Core for the party at which we'll celebrate the contest winners and donate the prize money the winners have earned to Second Life Africa's official representative. Extropia is also donating Soph's time as contest organizer.

The Contest Is Closed

2007-12-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who participated!

This contest raised $L13,000 for Uthango/Virtual Africa, part of Extropia's donation of $90, 610 raised here and at the Extropia Solstice Party on December 22, 2007.

The FreeRice Contest

The Contest

The Contest Is Closed