Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Trend Watch: People Are Online What They Are Offline--Divided, and Slow to Build Bridges

IN 2007 Danah Boyd heard a white American teenager describe MySpace, the social network, as “like ghetto or whatever.” At the time, Facebook was stealing members from MySpace, but most people thought it was just a fad: teenagers tired of networks, the theory went, just as they tired of shoes.

But after hearing that youngster, Ms Boyd, a social-media researcher at Microsoft Research New England, felt that something more than whimsy might be at work. “Ghetto” in American speech suggests poor, unsophisticated and black. That led to her sad conclusion: in their online life, American teenagers were recreating what they knew from the physical world—separation by class and race.

A generation of digital activists had hoped that the web would connect groups separated in the real world. The internet was supposed to transcend colour, social identity and national borders. But research suggests that the internet is not so radical. People are online what they are offline: divided, and slow to build bridges.

via www.economist.com

CollegeOnly: A Parent Free, Exclusive Social Network for Students

Remember when Facebook was only for college kids? CollegeOnly is a return to those simple, pastoral days — with a whole lot more tech.

If you have a university e-mail address (.edu), you can join the site, where everyone in a school is instantly connected — no friending required (you can block people, though).

Currently there are three schools on the site — Princeton, Yale and Cornell — but it plans to expand.

Users can create profiles where they can include info like what dorm they live in, activities they’re into as well as their classes. They can also upload multiple profile pictures, as well as snaps from Facebook.

CollegeOnly emphasizes that these pictures will only be visible to those on the site, keeping them away from the prying eyes of parents, school administrators and future employers.

A savvy student would be wise to remember that privacy on the web, regardless of the marketing claims, is largely an illusion.

So bottom line: don't post anything online that you don't want to be seen in public.

via mashable.com

Membership is restricted to students with verified college e-mail addresses. CollegeOnly is “connecting student bodies” by allowing our members to see and share what’s going on on campus, chat with schoolmates or other collegiates, and have a protected online social identity.

In addition to our unique spin on current content and social sites, our site is the only one that is free from parents, potential employers, and other folks that shouldn’t see what you are up to on a Saturday night or at any given point during the day. Whether it is campus news and events or funny links, random chatter, and crazy photos -- all of your education and procrastination needs can be found in one convenient place.

It’s time to party, are you ready?

Cartoon Network Launches 'Stop Bullying: Speak Up' Campaign

Last week the Cartoon Network announced further details of its multi-platform Bullying Prevention Campaign at the National Bullying Prevention Summit in Washington, DC.

Speaking to an audience comprised of government officials, business leaders and leading educators of bullying prevention, Cartoon Network’s President and Chief Operations Officer Stuart Snyder unveiled the official title of the campaign—STOP BULLYING: SPEAK UP—which will serve to educate and empower young bystanders to take action to reduce/prevent bullying.

Bystanders represent the 75-85% of students in schools that witness incidents of bullying every year, whether on the playground, in the classroom, on the bus, on social media websites, or cell phones.

The STOP BULLYING: SPEAK UP on-air and online CAMPAIGN will launch in October to coordinate with the fifth annual National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, sponsored by the National Center for Bullying Prevention.

As part of a larger commitment to the anti-bullying efforts, CNN, sister network to Cartoon Network, which has to date covered numerous stories about the rise and growing concern over bullying in America, will also recognize October Bullying Prevention Month by presenting an Anderson Cooper 360° Town Hall event the first week in October.

“Bullying recently has been designated by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a national health crisis.” -- David Doss, senior executive producer for Anderson Cooper 360°

Award-winning journalist Anderson Cooper will welcome government and education leaders, parents groups and child behavioral experts from top universities and non-profit institutions to discuss the many issues and concerns surrounding bullying.

Cartoon Network’s initial steps include launching a new series of original PSAs that will premiere on Friday, Oct. 1, at 9 a.m., introducing the pro-social effort and directing viewers to key online resources at CartoonNetwork.com.

Indie Film: Support East African Storytellers

For three weeks this summer, twenty African artists met on the Island of Manda, Kenya to take part in Sundance Institute's first-ever East African Theatre Lab.

To support the development of their original stories for the stage, the Institute's staff and advisors encouraged participating artists to freely explore the creative possibilities within their work.

via donate.sundance.org

Lab participants represented a new generation of African writers, musicians, and performers, and their work promises to introduce storytelling that is exciting and innovative to audiences around the world.

It is with support from people like us that Sundance can continue to advance originality, diversity, and authenticity in independent film and theatre. Be a part of the stories that need to be heard.

Please, make the difference for independent artists across the world.

Twitter Cheat Sheet

Twitter Cheat Sheet

Togetherville: Building a Social Web Experience for Kids

What is it?

Togetherville is a social networking experience intended for your younger children (5-10 year olds). The new service is designed to provide a training ground where parents can teach their kids important lessons about online communication, community building and what it means to be a good digital citizen.

The Togetherville community experience piggy-backs on the Facebook platform and allows grownups to guide their kids through an age-appropriate social networking experience, kid friendly content, moderate connections and interactions all in an ad-free environment.

How does it Work?

In Togetherville, grownups act as the moderator for new contacts, assuming the responsibility for inviting family members/friends and other kids' to join their child's online neighborhood. The 6-to 10-year-olds are invited to engage with their real-world friends, play games, watch videos, and create art.

Is it safe?

Togetherville is intended for kids who are too young for Facebook and is fully compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Kids' are *NOT connected* to anyone without their parents approval, so parents don't need to worry about 'stranger danger.'

Unlike other child oriented social networks, kids' use their real names instead of an alias. This is important because it teaches them to be responsible for their actions within the community. Since their identity isn't a secret, the thinking is that this will reduce the chances that they will engage in cyberbullying or other no-no behaviors.

 

Togetherville "Allowance"

Allowance is a new site feature that helps teach kids financial literacy while providing parents with a way to reward good behavior, both online and off.

Parents or other approved adults (family members, coaches) can give a child Togetherville currency called "T-bills," which can be spent on virtual goods, games or gifts within each child's unique Togetherville neighborhood.

Once they have T-bills, parents and adults can give Allowance to children for whom they are administrators. Kids and adults can use T-bills for virtual goodies, gifts and games.

As with any feature in Togetherville, a parent or other adult with administrative rights has complete control over who can give their child funds. In addition, just like in the offline world, a parent can suspend or eliminate a child's Allowance at any time.

Developing Healthy Media Habits

A lot of people will say that kids' don't need to be online and that they should go outside and play.

Think of it this way: too much of anything is bad. Too many hours playing video games or watching cartoons--not healthy! Eating too much ice cream, Taco Bell or drinking too much soda are also not a good thing.

It doesn't really matter if it's chocolate milk, riding your bike in the dark, watching too much TV or being online. As adults, we need to be the ones who help children develop healthy habits.

Social by Design

Think of Togetherville as a social networking apprenticeship where parents act as a Facebook "expert" who mentor and help their children through the experience of participating in a social networking community.

The situated learning theory argues that learning and knowledge acquisition takes place only when situated in a social and authentic context.

Ultimately this process –known as legitimate peripheral participation—moves the newcomer deeper into a community of practice leading them closer to acquiring the knowledge and skills required to be an expert. In Togetherville, young kids' will form a community of practice (and safety net) consisting of their peers, site moderators, and several parent "experts."

Cognitive apprenticeship is an instructional design and learning theory wherein the instructor (or parent), through socialization, models the skill or task at hand for the child. Kids' may also receive guidance from and learn from their peers.

The role of the parent is to help novices (in this case, your kids') clear cognitive roadblocks (Facebook/social networking) by providing them with the resources needed to develop a better understanding of social media. This process is called scaffolding.

Ultimately the kids will become an expert who no longer needs the scaffolding provided by Togetherville and/or parental guidance. In turn, they will have a better understanding of potential roadblocks and are now equipped the skills to navigate the world of social media/networking sites like Facebook.

Putting it All Together

In the end, what's important here is to take a balanced position when it comes to kids and technology. As a parent or teacher, don't be afraid to jump into the technology and social media pool and get your feet wet.

Use this as an opportunity to spend time with your kids and learn more about how they are using technology, mobile phones and social media in their lives.

Most importantly, when it comes to kids and social networking, don't panic!

The Real Life Social Network: Google, Online Relationships & Influence

The future of the Web is social. What does that mean? Google is trying to figure it out.

The company's previous attempts to corner the social Web, like Google Wave and Buzz, fizzled or failed to sustain much, well, buzz.

But the company is making waves online with a new 216-page slide show that tries to explain how we interact online and how we use those interactions to make purchasing and reading decisions.

It's a long, fascinating document, notable more for its clarity of thought than for any mind-blowing insights.

via www.theatlantic.com

 

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

 

Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? [Research]

In their paper, "Facebook Privacy Settings: Who Cares" (2010, Boyd & Hargittai) examine the attitudes and practices of a cohort of 18– and 19–year–olds surveyed in 2009 and again in 2010 about Facebook’s privacy settings.

The results challenge widespread assumptions that youth do not care about and are not engaged with navigating privacy.

Boyd and Hargittai find that, while not universal, modifications to privacy settings have increased during a year in which Facebook’s approach to privacy was hotly contested.

Facebook privacy settings: Who cares?

Related: Google, Everywhere, Or How Privacy Is The Net's Biggest Quagmire

Trend Watch: Social Media in the UK 2010 [Video]

This is a little video produced by Ireland-based PR firm Simply Zesty that explores the state of social media in the UK.

The video includes some interesting social media stats and other demographic information, including: 85% percent of the UK population is online and they spend over 6 hours on social media sites every month, nearly 60% of them read blogs and 64% have their own profile on a social network.

U Rock: Disney's Kid UGC Mashup Contest is Back!

U Rock, the popular user-generated content (UGC) summer promotion sponsored by Disney, is back for its third summer!

The contest gives fans the opportunity to create their own music video mash-up set to songs from popular Disney artists and post their original videos on the U Rock site.

The most popular U Rock video finalists, voted on by fans, will win amazing prizes like the chance to meet the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato.  

You can get more information, including the scoop on all the cool prizes & the rules, over on the official U Rock page.

Unleash Your Kids' Creativity with Disney Create

Create is an entertainment portal on Disney.com, the No. 1 ranked community-family and parenting destination on the Web.

The Create portal features a set of creativity tools that offer an entirely new way to interact with Disney characters and stories.

For the first time, guests have access to rich Disney character art and graphics to design their own works of art then share them with other guests online.

Create builds on the vision created long ago by Walt Disney, “A focus on creativity and engaging the imagination of the guest.”

Since it’s launch, more than 1.2 million original pieces of user-generated kid content have been created within Disney.com/Create!

Apps

• Create Apps allow children to design artwork, comic books, music videos, animated pets and more, all using Disney characters and graphics. 

Comic Creator

• Craft a comic book using favorite Disney characters.  Guests lay out pages using fun and wacky graphics, text and images to create their own rich narrative.

Digital Painter

• Paint like a master artist, right in your browser, using tools, textures, and fun pens.  Create a masterpiece that can be shared for everyone to see!

Animods

• Illustrate an animated online pet that can be individually styled and customized.  Kids choose from a number of different animals, each with its own collection of pre-set animations, interactions, and accessories. 

Photo Mashup

• Combine photos of favorite Disney stars with hip stickers and cool gear to create personalized images for use on a computer desktop, phone, inside a school locker, or any other fun application guests can dream up.

Music Slideshow

• Compose a harmonious mix of images, text, and sound.  Guests create their own music videos using photos of Disney stars, their own text, and a choice of songs from artists such as Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers.

Group Wall

• An innovative new community gallery called the “Group Wall” will launch on Disney.com Create.  The first Group Wall theme is a “Tribute to Mickey” and will build a dynamic mosaic portrait of Mickey Mouse with user-generated content. 

My Portfolio

• Create an online art portfolio on Disney.com to share with friends, filling it with creations from all of the Create activities – digital paintings, comic-books, pets and more.

Infographic: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day Inferred From Twitter

For over three years, researchers at both Northeastern and Harvard examined tweets (September 2006 to August 2009) to see if they would be able to gauge the emotional pulse of America. The result: is this infographic titled, "Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day Inferred from Twitter."

Knowing they could rely on users for wild mood swings and emotionally charged rants/raves packed into 140-character outbursts, they looked for certain words that indicated a person's mood and combined that data with information from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Google Maps API and other resources.

According to the researchers:

In the video, green corresponds to a happy mood and red corresponds to a grumpier state of mind. The area of each state is scaled according to the number of tweets originating in that state.

Note how the East Coast is consistently 3 hours ahead of the West Coast, so when we're sleeping in Boston, the Californians are tweeting away. It's also interesting that better weather seems to make you happier (or rather, that better weather is correlated with happier tweets): Florida and California seems to be consistently in a better mood than the remaining US.

Also note how New Mexico and Delaware behave very differently from their neighbors. Full results, individual maps, and a high-res poster can be found on the dedicated Twitter Mood website.

 

The time-lapse video shows mood variations throughout the day. In summary: We're happy in the morning (hopes and dreams abound), then not happy (hopes and dreams crushed under weight of reality/freeway traffic), then happy again (crushed hopes and dreams forgotten during happy hour).

 

Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter

 

And because "I'm happy" and "I'm less happy" don't always capture an individual's emotional state, researchers used this 49-page manual: "Affective Norms for English Words."

It rates emotion expressed by words. For example, "kitten" and "snuggle" are happier words than "syphilis" and "terrorist."

It's Official: Facebook Hits 500 Million Members

via techcrunch.com

This is no surprise to anyone even remotely following the company, but Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg just made things official on the company’s blog: the social network is now 500 million members strong.

Watch Mark Zuckerberg's interview with Diane Sawyer.

National PTA to Showcase Facebook Stories Application

National PTA today announced that it is teaming with Facebook to showcase the Facebook Stories application on the National PTA Facebook Page.

With more than 500 million people using Facebook,the Facebook Stories application celebrates the personal and collective experiences of millions of individuals around the world.

Content displayed in the Facebook Stories application comes from all around the world and demonstrates the diversity of people and breadth of ways they are using Facebook.

The stories are navigable via a world map and can also be sorted by dozens of themes including, Love, Family, Reunions, Sports and College.

By visiting the National PTA Facebook Page, PTA members can view and search for stories that are of interest to them and their efforts on child advocacy.

YouTube & Sundance: 'Life in a Day' User Generated Film Experiment

What does your Life in a Day look like? Everyone has a story. Every day has a story. Sundance and YouTube want you to share your story with the world.

Sundance Institute are joining forces with YouTube and filmmakers Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott to create the first-ever user-generated film shot in a single day. The film will document one day on earth (July 24, 2010), as seen through the eyes of people around the world.

Want to take part? Here’s what to do:

1. Visit the “Life in a Day” channel on YouTube and learn more about the project. Be sure to read through the steps you need to take to participate and the guidelines for creating your video(s). Also check out some of the sample videos for inspirational ideas.

2. On July 24, capture your day on camera.

3. Upload your footage to the “Life in a Day” channel any time before July 31.

Regardless of whether your footage makes it into the final film, your video(s) will live on on the “Life in a Day” channel as a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010.

If your footage is selected for the completed film, you’ll get the chance to attend the premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. This is your chance to be part of cinematic history!

Trend Watch: What is Social Currency? [PRESO]

This is a fantastic presentation put together by Graham D. Brown, founder of Youth Research Partners.

If you're interested in digging deeper into the ideas around social currency, online community and branding  check out "Bowling Alone" (Robert Putnum), "Hanging Out in the Digital Pub" (Lori Kendall) or Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake's blog.

What is Social Currency? by Graham D Brown