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Oculus VR announces 'VR for Good' initiative

VR for good aimed at helping organisations and communities to find an audience

Oculus VR announces 'VR for Good' initiative
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Oculus VR has today has announced the launch of VR for Good, an intiative which the Facebook-owned Oculus claim will help non-profit organisations and communities to use virtual reality as a tool for sharing messages with wider audiences.

Oculus VR's latest project is going to be split across two different programs that are complimentary in design: the 360 Filmmakers Challenge for Students sees nine San Francisco Bay Area high schools pairing off with professional filmmakers to produce short 360-degree VR videos about their local community, with all hardware and software provided.
The 360 bootcamp for nonprofits does the same thing but brings 10 filmmakers into Facebook's headquarters to work with 10 non-profit organisations for a 10 day bootcamp.

This is evidence that Oculus and Facebook are acting on Mark Zuckerberg's belief that virtual reality has a broader potential for impact on everyday life, and this program is aimed towards this instead of letting you sit in a virtual cockpit.

An Oculus VR spokesperson has said: "Virtual reality has unlimited potential for gaming and entertainment, but it’s also a powerful way to drive important social change. Filmmakers everywhere see this and are pushing the boundaries of cinematic VR to tell stories with an impact. There’s also a large community of nonprofit organisations eager to embrace VR as a tool to raise awareness for causes in need of a voice.'

Find out more about the pilot program on its official website. This joins Vive X's Accellerator program that was launched in April.

Jake Tucker
Jake Tucker
Jake's love of games was kindled by his PlayStation. Games like Metal Gear Solid and Streets of Rage ignited a passion that has lasted nearly 20 years. When he's not writing about games, he's fruitlessly trying to explain Dota 2 to anyone that will listen.