As I've been reporting on, there have been a number of virtual worlds that have supported actions to support Haiti in the past two weeks. Another interesting example is the youth-oriented world of SmallWorlds, both from a company-level and grassroots action by its residents.
Soon after the Haitian earthquake struck, SmallWorlds the company created a very cute virtual tee-shirt that you could purchase for US $5, which was then contributed toward Haitian relief efforts. Residents were also invited to vote in a poll for which charity should get the funds, and to talk about Haiti in their forums.
Beyond what the company has been doing, I've also been noticing a number of new spaces and missions being created about the Haiti crisis. For those that don't know, SmallWorlds is unique as one of the only youth-oriented virtual worlds that supports limited forms of user-generated content. This takes the form of creating different spaces, decorating them with furniture, objects, artwork, photos, and videos. In addition, users can create "missions" for each other -- basically mini-games and quizzes that earn you a small amount of virtual currency.
Since the crisis, I see that 37 different spaces have been created with the word "Haiti" in the title. Several are explicitly about the emergency and the disaster response. Many have their own missions embedded in them that teach you about the earthquake, Haiti and how you can help.
As a youth-populated world, it's great seeing young people using these somewhat crude tools to communicate their concern about the crisis and their desire to help. Okay, it's not the same as donating money or doing relief work in Haiti. But this is arguably a step in the right direction for a young person to be engaged with the world, using the tools and technologies that they know.
