Eons ago, a group of SL residents got together and launched a crazy idea. Since LL was not so keen in funding resident-run ideas and projects, RyeDin Meiji launched the Foundation for Rich Content (FFRC) which had a most interesting charter:
RyeDin Meiji wrote:We are united in a common goal, which is to foster diversity and richness in content and events in Second Life. It will be our duty to provide the tools and funding necessary to support anyone wishing to host such events or create such content. It will further be our duty to aid in marketing, promotion, public relations and other activities to garner general awareness of such content and events.
Details on their launch can be found on this ancient SL forum thread.
The FFRC actually had a rather good reputation. In the distant past, some of us CDS citizens even applied for funds from them — and got them approved to do events in the CDS.
Now I have no idea if these guys are still "alive and kicking" (Google shows no references to their activities in the past year). If yes, I think it would be interesting to "join forces" somehow. After all, the CDS Government already acts as a source of funds for citizens to run their events in the CDS. In the spirit of "showing off" to the rest of the grid what we can do, why not expand that concept further? (There are lots of ways to get a benefit from funding people's concepts and events). If the FFRC is still around, but moribund, we might be able to offer them at least some space — a public building or something like that. If they're highly active, we should somehow catch their attention as well — but if they're so active, why don't they have a website?
I was just browsing through some historical posts here and there and remembered how the FFRC, in the ancient days before SL's Golden Age, were the hub of culture and the arts in SL, as they had a rather good review panel for approving funding applications, and tended to sponsor high-quality events and exhibitions here and there. This is the sort of thing that made the difference. Of course, SL was really small back then, so they got good press very easily...
It's just a wild idea, anyway.
*goes back to hibernation*
