Participants at Dizzywood’s virtual summer camp can earn badges in several
areas, such as gardening and exploring, which are designed to build
confidence and provide a connection for children to participate in
real-world activities in their communities.
Achievement badges
are also awarded to players for specific accomplishments in-game, such
as helping to rebuild the road to Canal City, or voting in the annual
election for Chief Poobah. When kids earn a badge, it is displayed in
the game on their player profile card for friends to see.
Here's a round-up of some of the summer activities taking place in Dizzywood:
Players can now earn achievement badges for cultivating in-game skills, such as exploring and gardening, and for specific accomplishments such as voting in the annual election for Chief Poobah. The badges are displayed on player profile cards and designed to build confidence in young children.
Dizzywood is fostering teamwork and collaboration in a fun meta-game of Color War, as part of its virtual summer camp for kids. Players can often be found at their team clubhouses self-organizing rallies to boost their team points and proudly displaying their team colors.
Kids can now earn a membership to Dizzywood through the SmartyCard program. SmartyCard allows kids to earn stuff they want by completing educational and grade-appropriate activities. Rewards include subscriptions to their favorite virtual worlds, including Dizzywood.
Looks like there are lots of fun activities and games for kids to play in the virtual playground at Camp Dizzywood. All the fun of summer camp--without the mosquitoes!
Iranian Youth, Mobiles & Social Media: Despite the government crack down, Revolution 2.0 continues to move along, thanks in large part to Iranian Millennial's and their savvy use of mobile and social networking technologies. [Mobile Youth][Mobile Youth Marketing Trends & Clips] [Barking Robot]
Mobile youth culture continues to flourish in Japan, with Disney Mobile going gangbusters after flopping in the USA. Check out this Barking Robot post on kids' use of mobile phones in other countries. [Guardian] [Times Online] [Tech Crunch]
Under 30 and Kicking Ass? Derek Johnson, the founder of popular group text messaging service Tatango has created a user-powered list of entrepreneurs/CEOs under the age of 30 to help connect young entrepreneurs to one another.
If you are a young entrepreneur under the age of 30, you can add yourself to the list here. Derek has also posted a video from his recent talk on personal branding. Good stuff. Watch it! [Big Ideas From a Young Mind] [Game Change Ventures]
New Bravo Show Will Let Viewers Interact via Tweet, Email, Phone, Video & Facebook: NBC Universal-owned cable channel, Bravo, on Monday announced plans to
launch an interactive TV series, entitled “Watch What Happens: Live.” It's good to see that someone gets that there in TV-land understands that there is a huge media shift taking place and that holding on to the old media model with a death grip, just isn't going to work. [Interactive TV Today]
Tweet of the Week: "I could never be a rock star guy who trashes hotel rooms. All I think is "someone's mother has to clean it up." -- @ThisIsRobThomas[Twitter]
Nielsen Debunks Myths on Teens & TV: According to Nielsen, teenagers are far from abandoning TV for
so-called new media. In fact, television viewing rates among U.S. teens
have actually gone up 6% in the last five years.
If you've been a long time reader of Barking Robot, this researchisn't really, uhm, news. More excellent analysis on the Nielsen study from Anastasia over at Ypulse. [Tech Crunch] [Ypulse] [Barking Robot]
Social Media 4 Good: Lipton Tea has partned with National Geographic and the Rainforest Alliance to create a micro-site
that tells about sustainable agriculture in general, including the
origins of Lipton teas, as well as sustainability, social and economic
aspects of the tea-growing and harvesting process.
Storytelling is a collaborative, social learning practice
that strengthens family and cultural ties while also providing a
context for information to be carried forward to future generations.
These family stories and shared experiences (folklore, food traditions, and oral histories)
are a mirror of where we have been and shape where we are going as
families, society, and individuals.
"The WE story defines a human being in a specific way: It says we
are central selves seeking to contribute, naturally engaged, forever in
a dance with each other. It points to relationship rather than to
individuals, to communication patterns, gestures, and movement...Like the particle-and-wave nature of light, the WE is both a living entity and a long line of development unfolding.
By telling the WE story, an individual becomes a conduit for this new inclusive entity, wearing its eyes and ears, feeling its heart, thinking its thoughts..."
In New York City five students participating in the youth programs at the Tribeca Film Institute have created short films showing how the recession has impacted their parents, friends and sharing how the recession has affected their own lives.
The recession has has affected all of these students in different ways. For some of these kids it means forgoing camp this summer and instead getting a job to help support the family. For others it means reconsider attending the prom and thinking hard about whether the experience is worth the expense.
And when it comes to college, the cost of application fees alone are forcing many students to cut colleges from their list and looking at working for a year or attending community college.
One of the students talks about the shift of attitudes when it comes to discussing money. Last year her friends would never admit that they couldn't afford to participate in an activity.
Now that more kids are opening up and sharing their own stories about the recession, they feel more comfortable opting out of activities and just stating up front that they can't afford to participate. Most importantly the conversations about money that were once avoided between parent and child are now open for discussion.
Filmmaking is a valuable learning technology and storytelling vehicle that allows students to combine their love of technology with storytelling to explore difficult subjects as well as provide avenues for them to share their own points of view.
Moreover, through the process of telling the "we story" they are able to amplify their voice within their respective communities and become "a conduit for this new inclusive entity, wearing its eyes and ears, feeling its heart, thinking its thoughts (Zander).
I ran across this brilliant post by youth branding and marketing guru Dan Pankraz (you are reading his blog and following him on Twitter aren't you?) last night and it really hit the nail on the head.
"The fundamental emotional need of youth is and always will be BELONGING.
It’s hardwired from birth, a primal need to belong to a community, to a
tribe. It’s a fundamental form of self expression that is at the core
of the human psyche. The growth of social media has turbo charged young
peoples ability to connect and be part of global tribes.
The best youth brands understand that youth are desperate to connect
with each other, so youth marketing is not about pushing messages onto
a target audience of disparate individuals, it’s about inspiring the TRIBE, so they connect with each other. It’s about talking to the WE, not necessarily the ME."
I just got back from the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup in San Francisco and it was an incredible, informative and all around great two days to meet up with old friends, meet lots of new colleagues and to talk about what's happening in the youth media and marketing space.
I'm planning on doing some longer posts on the Mashup, but thought I'd use the the Weekly Wrap to share some of the scoop from the 2009 Ypulse Mashup event. Josh Ship Ypulse Mashup Opening Keynote: Youth guru Josh Shipp gave the opening keynote for the 2009 Ypulse Mashup.If you haven't heard about Josh and his pretty incredible story---you need to! Josh shocked the crowd, comprised of mostly marketing and media types, when he told them "teens don't give a crap about your brand."
Ouch!
His advice? Be authentic. Tell your story. Do you have a story that I would plug in on my Facebook status or Tweet to my friends? If you don't, your brand has a problem. To be honest, the crowd response to Josh's keynote was a bit frosty. Classic case of shooting the messenger. Other nuggets 'o wisdom from Josh: Email is dead (it's all about mobile). Free stuff rules! Never
underestimate the power of free cookies and girls.[Follow Josh Shipp on Twitter]
Speaking of Teens & Twitter: One big theme of the conference was that teens & tweens don't use Twitter. Teens tend to be on Twitter as observers, not contributors (in educational psychology/instructional design speak this we call this Legitimate Peripheral Participation [LPP]).
Teens prefer updating their whereabouts or their status within the walled gardens of social networking services like Facebook or MyYearbook. Someone at the conference commented: "We used to call it ADD, now it's who we are." So, so true. Mobile Teens: Five quick blurbs from the breakout session on youth and mobile phones:
The median age for first mobile phone is around 11.5, next year projected to be 10;
SMS is unsexy, but it's persuasive technology. 80% in US have sent/received a text message;
According to according to Niels Aillaud from LG Mobile, carriers used to make money on voice plans however, in next few years data revenue will surpass voice and will go to 80-20 ratio. 2010 is the year of mobile;
Mobile phone is increasingly becoming the access point to the web outside the USA;
A Harris poll found that 59% of youth will to provide personal info to get targeted information in return, but be aware that teens have high expectations for privacy controls, user experience, want to be in full control of their info.
Truth and Dare: At the Mashup, we had the opportunity to attend a private screening of the indie (teen) film "Dare." The movie chronicles the coming of age of four teens who attend a private school in the suburbs.
The film, which garnered rave reviews and kudos from the crowd at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, features cameo appearances by Alan Cumming and Sandra Bernhard. The young actors do an equally incredible job portraying the roller coaster ride of hormones, desire and trying to just figure it all out.
But this isn't a movie just for teens. Some of us who think we have figured it
all out could learn a thing or two about being more daring and doing something we're afraid of...
Let's get one thing straight: The film will make parents squirm. But that shouldn't deter you from seeing it and using it as a jumping off point for meaningful dialogue between parents and teens. You can connect with Dare on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or their website.
I loved this film.
Disney Launches U Rock 2: The Disney.com folks blew me away. No, I mean really. I didn't expect them to, but this is one "old media" organization that really, really gets it and is fully embracing the world of social media, online community and user generated content (UGC) as a way to connect with their viewers.
As part of it's UGC drive, Disney has launched the second edition of U Rock 2, a site where they provide the IP and allow kids to remix, mashup and create own music video. There are strict moderation policies in place and parents must approve all media before it's uploaded onto U Rock 2. Disney has created a "how to" video series, hosted by their music artist, that teach kids how to mashup and create their own music video. Brilliant!
Two other amazing factoids about the power of kid user generated content on Disney.com: 95% of video uploaded to Disney.com/urock had a comment or rating (wow!). 2/ A kid mashup of a JoBro single performed twice as well as the "official" Jonas Brothers content. Yeah, amazing.
And oh, who's waiting in the wings to follow in the footsteps of Miley and the JoBros? A young singer-songwriter named Mitchell Musso.
Ypulse Mashup Live Blog and Live Tweets: Ypulse had two volunteers who did a great job taking notes for the the official Live Blog. You can check out the Live Blog, which also includes Tweets from the other participants, over on the Ypulse Mashup website. You can also do a search on Twitter using the official conference hash tag #ypulse09.
The 2009 YPulse Totally Wired Teacher Award (Sponsored by Dell) honors a public school teacher who is successfully using technology (internet/mobile/social media, video games) in the classroom.
The award is inspired by Ypulse founder Anastasia Goodstein’s book, Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online,
and the challenges she observed around integrating technology into
public school classrooms. The award is designed to recognize a teacher
who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring both students and
other educators.
As part of the committee choosing the winner and two finalists, we read
over 200 nominations from every corner of the country and spent a lot
of time trying to whittle our list down to just three teachers.
All of us on the YPulse Totally Wired Teacher Award Committee invite you to join your colleagues and fellow educators over at Edu4U (www.edu4u.com), an
innovative new community for educators sponsored by Dell. Edu4U is dedicated to
educators who are seeking to harness the power of technology to enhance
teaching and learning for all students. Within this site, you will find
information, resources and colleagues to help you achieve your teaching goals.
Each event includesinteractive discussions,hands-on-demos, collaborative scheming about ways to use, develop, and deploy mobile technologies in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, citizen media, to name a few areas. In 2009 Social Change Camps will be held in Barcelona, Nairobi, Israel, Cape Town and Toronto.
Economic Slump Slows Down Summer School: "The economic downturn has prompted many school districts to reduce
funds for summer school. That's bad news for students who need remedial
work and for those who are taking summer classes to advance a grade."[NPR]
Embracing the Twitter Classroom: Huffington Post blogger Jessica Gross takes a look at the battle over the use of social media going on in our schools between kids, parents and teachers. Jessica has a brilliant observation: "This argument is akin to that for abstinence-only education. Kids with
access to the Internet are going to use it whether or not their parents
decide they're "ready."" Amen. Also, check out my previousposts on using Twitter in education. [Huffington Post]
Student Uses Wikipedia to Punk World Media: Looks like the mainstream media (MSM) need to take a course on digital literacy and basic research techniques. I think this also points out that youth have a better understanding of web credibility that adults give them credit. [Irish Times]
Noika to Launch 3G Phone for Emerging Markets: Nokia has announced the Nokia 2730 classic, a phone that includes 3G data connectivity and tools for emerging phone markets. This should be a boon to educators to deliver content and instruction via mobile learning platforms. [MobileBurn]
The Rise of Social Music: Mashable has a great post tracing the history of audio on the web and the rise of social music services like Last.fm, Blip.fm and MySpace. It also takes a peek into the future and looks at the rise of mobile music. [Mashable]
The Latino Initiative: Between 2005 and 2006 the teen birth rate increased 3% - the first
increase in 15 years. This increase occurred among most ethnic groups -
among Hispanic teens, the increase was 2%. The National Campaign’s Latino Initiative focus on helping
the Latino community in its efforts to reduce continued high rates of
adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. Plus, Bristol Palin talks to People Magazine about teen sex and life as a teen mother. [People Magazine]
8 Key Trends for the Next 5 Years: Gerd Leonhard once again attempts to predict the
future. While many people scoff at those who try and look ahead and
light the paths for the rest of us, Gerd is actually quite good at it.
Here is a glimpse into his mind and some trends he suggests for the
rest of the decade. [Future of Music]
The End of the Age of Free: For a decade now, consumers have become accustomed to free access to
music, films and information, via the internet. But with many of the
media's big players - including Rupert Murdoch - thinking of charging
for content, is the tide about to turn? Plus, Martha Stewart announces plans to test paid online video downloads & touts Twitter as powerful brand marketing tool. [Guardian UK] [SmartMoney] [MediaWeek]
Generations at Work: McCrindle Research, based in Australia, has put together a slew of great research on Gen Y, Gen X and Boomers in the workplace. Very impressive stuff! [McCrindle]
Making Social Media Music:What do a middle school band concert and social media have in common? Ari Balder of Digital Pivot explains this and more in this excellent blog post.
Twitter and ABC Launch a Tweetable News Show: The lines continue to blur between "traditional" TV and the social web. ABC News is following in the steps of CNN and creating a show that allows for interaction between viewers and anchors. NBC is also looking to dive into social television with the launch of Outside.In--a "hyperlocal" news show. Looks like 2009 is the year that TV 2.0 might (finally!) take off! [Mashable] [BNET]
Bravo Virtual Season Finale Party a Big Hit with Viewers: If you need more evidence that viewers want to use social sites to connect with their favorite shows, take a look at these impressive metrics from the Bravo TV Season Finale of The Real Housewives of New York. Also take a look at eGuides TV Web Extensions project. Oh, you can follow @BravoTV on Twitter. [Mashable] [eGuides TV]
The iPhone as Teachers Pet:Although Apple has long been a fixture in the education sector, the
University of Missouri's School of Journalism has taken things one step
further -- it now requires journalism majors to have either an iPod
touch or an iPhone.
[TechNewsWorld]
People Are Talking About Your Brand: Talk may be cheap, but according to new research conducted at the Kellogg's School of Management, listening to what people are saying about your brand can be a valuable method of improving corporate performance as well as help you fine tune your marketing message. [Kellogg Insight]
Social Media ROI. Measuring the Unmeasurable?: Fresh Networks has put together a great blog post and shared a SlideShare presentation created by Egg Co on how brands can measure the success of their social media strategy. Also, Social Media today explains how social media profiles help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). [Fresh Networks]
Did Ashton Get Punk'd? Simon Dumenco from AdAge explains how the mainstream media -- and Kutcher himself -- got wrong about his "win."
High School Musical(s): An evangelical, anti-gay Kansas-based church plans to protest the staging of the musical
"Rent" at a Newport Beach, California high school. Also, Ypulse reports that "Spring Awakening" is moving from Broadway to the Sliver Screen. And Fox's Gleehasn't aired yet, but it's already getting lots of buzz--both good and bad (ouch!).
Wonder if the RIAA Got This Memo? According to research, those who download 'free' music are also the industry's largest audience for digital sales and are actually 10 times more likely to purchase music.
Social TV & Multiplatform Media Consumption: New research from IMM finds that "watching TV" is no longer a one-way, passive experience--viewers are increasingly surfing the web while they watch TV and demanding more social networking features.
Conference on Social & Interactive TV: In June EuroITV2009, an international forum for media professionals from
all over the world who are interested in, work with and do research on
all aspects of interactive and mobile television, will hold their annual conference in Leuven, Belgium, from June 3-5, 2009. Also of interest is a workshop at the conference that will examine ways to integrate social game play into the TV viewing experience.
College Life, MTV Style: The interns over at Unigo.com, the uber cool college review site, share their thoughts on the new MTV reality series College Life. Oh, be sure to follow @Unigo on Twitter! Also, with the economy in shambles new college grads flocking to national service programs.
Another Yahoo! Bites the Dust: Yahoo! is closing its very cool video editing and hosting service Jumpcut. This is really sad. Jumpcut had a great following in the education community as a free alternative to iMovie. RIP Jumpcut, RIP.
For about 7 years, in a previous career incarnation, I worked with the
homeless. Our company placed homeless men and women in jobs and
connected them with social services at the local food and shelter
coalition.
At first, for this kid raised in the coastal suburbs of 'the OC', it was a
bit overwhelming. I had never seen a homeless person, let alone talked to one. But
as time passed, I gained their trust and they began to share their stories with me.
Take "Old Man" Brinker. Yes, that was his
name. He was in his 70s, had a great sense of humor and was a really
hard worker. He used to come to my office about once a week to shoot
the breeze. He'd also give me the scoop on the goings on at the
homeless shelter.
One afternoon I leaned across my desk and quietly
asked him how he ended up in a homeless shelter. He thought about it
for a few minutes, wiped a small tear out of his eye and told me the
story.
A Nightmare Journey From the American Dream to a Homeless Shelter
Back in the late 1960s, Old Man Brinker was working in
the natural gas fields in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. It was hard work, but he had steady
work, a devoted wife and a baby girl. For the Brinker's, life was good.
One day, after a particularly grueling and hot summer day in the gas fields,
Old Man Brinker came home to an unusually quiet house.
He
peeked in the kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. He went down
the hall and found the baby's room empty too. As he walked into the
master bedroom, he discovered the lifeless and bloody bodies of his wife and
baby. His whole world instantly shattered around him.
Consumed
with grief and overflowing with pain, he sought relief first with
alcohol, moved on to cocaine, and then heroin. The next twenty years
were a blur of arrests, drug busts and gaps in time. Finally, when he
had hit rock bottom, he decided enough was enough. He entered a free
drug rehab center, got back to work and has stayed clean.
He
told me that he could, if he wanted, get an apartment and live like
everyone else. But, he's afraid that if he did, if he took that jump
back into the "real world", it could all come crashing down like
it did so many years ago.
This time he couldn't, he wouldn't survive.
For him, being homeless was the "safe" choice. As he put it, "When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose."
Everyone Has a Story
But Old Man Brinker was just one of a daily cast of characters that went in and out of my office. There was Beauford,
who was always one step away from his three ex-wives and the wage
garnishment for unpaid alimony. There was a woman who said her name was
God. No last name, just God.
Most of the homeless folks were gentle, doing their best to keep
their head above water, battle their respective demons, and make it to another day. That's not to say that there weren't some scary
times.
One time there was a guy named Comanche, a really big guy, a
guy who would make John Wayne look wimpy, who pulled a knife out of his
boot when I told him that I didn't have any work for him and wouldn't
give him any money. Truth be told, I was beyond scared.
I had to embrace my inner Don Corleone and shout
him out of the building, locking the door and quickly dialing 911. Later
that day I learned from the police that Comanche had been arrested by the FBI for
murder.
So, yeah. Some scary moments. But for the most part I wouldn't change the experience for the world.
Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart
All in all the
experience taught me that, despite what we think, we are all living on
the razor's edge. A single event can turn our world upside down. Most importantly, it taught me to always look beyond what our eyes can
see.
Under the ragged clothing, beyond the shopping cart or the
seemingly incoherent babble could lurk a Harvard trained physicist, a
man like Old Man Brinker trying to escape great personal tragedy, or in
the case of The Soloist--a musical prodigy.
In the film, opening on Friday, which was based on a true story, Journalist Steve Lopez
(Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers
(Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing
his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the
homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that
transforms both their lives.
I
deeply believe in the power of film to engage, educate and enlighten
people on issues around social justice. I really hope that
this film will help change the way that our society view the homeless.
Moreover, I hope that people will see this movie as a call to action, that more
people will be motivated to donate clothing, money or their time to
their local homeless shelter. You might not think that your community
has a homeless shelter or any homeless at all, but a quick Yahoo! Search is likely to prove otherwise.
A Call To Action: Help 1 Million Homeless Teens
In October at the 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East, Ron Faris from Virgin Mobile USA gave a really fantastic presentation on the various Virgin Mobile Pro-Social Initiatives. Virgin Mobile, and the
Virgin brand, have done some really innovative, creative and
interesting work in the music, pro-social, marketing and branding
space.
At
the end of his presentation on the mobile and texting habits of Gen Y, he talked about the Virgin Mobile awareness campaign to shed a light on the issue of homeless teens.
Want to hear something shocking? According to research conducted by Virgin Mobile, there are approximately 1 million homeless teensin the United States of America.
These
teens are homeless for a variety of reasons ranging from being kicked
out by their parents due to sexual orientation, abusive parents
or being abandoned. This figure just floored me.
I've spent a lot of
time working with homeless adults, but I was
woefully ignorant on the subject of homeless teens. To me this is unacceptable. Even in our current national economic situation, we still have the resources to get our kids off the streets. It's about priorities. It's about kids.
Virgin Mobile has compiled a list of resources and actions that you can take to help help homeless teens. But here's the thing. If you stop what you're doing and text "Karma" to "68405" Virgin Mobile and American Eagle will donate a hoodie sweatshirt to a homeless youth.
The power to help homeless teens is literally at your fingertips.
It's no secret that younger viewers are more inclined to watch their favorite television shows online rather than sit in front of the television. Remember, this is a hyper-connected generation and to them sitting in front of the TV is a really passive, boring and disconnected media experience.
For younger viewers, television is a much more interesting and socially interactive experience when they can watch a show online, preferably with friends.
In addition to being able to choose when (synchronizing viewing with friends across disparate time zones) and where online (Hulu, YouTube, TV.com, FFWD) they view television content, younger viewers value the web because it allows them to simultaneously watch and exchange IM's with friends, participate in multiplayer online games related to their program, do homework, download music they hear on a show, check text messages, Tweet and/or update their Facebook status.
New research published this week by Integrated Media Management (IMM), points to the increasingly blurred lines between TV and the web. In their survey, IMM found that "viewers were online during roughly 9.3 percent of their
prime-time viewing."
Other key findings from IMM on TV and the web:
Simultaneous consumption of both television and web viewing doubles as the week progresses (5.8% on Monday to a high of 15.9% on Thursday);
Women spend more time surfing the web while watching television (13% of women vs. 9% men);
Twenty-somethings were more likely (20%) to watch tv and surf than thirty-somethings (6%);
As I blogged a few weeks ago, research from Park Associates found that over one-fourth of broadband users ages 18-24 are interested in
having social media features integrated on their TV. The report, Social Media & User-Generated Content, found that multiplayer
gaming, in-program chat, and “most watched” lists were among the most desired social extensions sought out by Gen Y respondents.
Networks like MTV and CNN are keenly aware of these trends and have responded by creating interactive multiplatform opportunities for viewers to connect and snark together. For example, every Monday, 10,000 superfans play MTV's Backchannel, a multiplayer online game based on the popular reality show The Hills.
Want a glimpse of this hybrid social networking-TV model of media consumption? Check out how Rick Sanchez over at CNN has created a real time, interactive mash-up
between social networking sites, Twitter and television. And oh yeah,
his show is drawing a younger demographic and blowing the ratings
through the roof.
CBS has created Social Rooms a virtual environment where viewers can "join family, friends and fellow fans and watch your favorite episodes of your favorite shows together." The hit CBS comedy, How I Met Your Mother weaves real blogs into their storyline, further blurring the lines between TV and the web.
Yahoo! Connected TV is working on lots of TV widgets, including Twitter, that allow you to literally bring the web to your TV. And one need only look at Twitter to see perhaps the most basic and
immediate social TV viewing experience.
On any given night, the
"Trending Topics" on Twitter provide ample opportunities for viewers to
actively participate in a shared social experience revolving around a
television program or news event.
Twitter also moves multiplatform media consumption and social TV to a whole other level--mobile. In addition to SMS, there are dozens of mobile clients for Twitter that allow you to send Tweets from your smart phone via the mobile web.
Since people have their mobile phones with them at all times, this allows consumers to watch a television or news program to create a spontaneous, real time and instant mobile social networking experience via Twitter.
Tweenbots is a social experiment conducted on the streets of New York City where a robot tries to navigate between (tween) one coordinate to another. It's also a study of human-robot social interaction.
The experiment is the brain child of Kacie Kinzer, a graduate student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
"In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to
another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and
streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our
relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find
in it?
More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger
context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the
city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.
Tweenbots
are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of
pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight
line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on
people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right
direction to reach their goal."
I think this is both fascinating and brilliant. In graduate school I focused a big chunk of my research on how people respond to the spatial architecture of virtual spaces--online classroom, virtual worlds, and social networking communities.
I see a lot of parallels between how the Tweenbots interacted with people, space and their "community" and the way that we humans navigate the virtual spaces of the social web. When I watch this video, it's amazing to me how truly social and interactive people are with these robots.
I'm keeping tabs on this project and can't wait to learn about the Tweenbots next adventure in New York City. Go robots! These robot's don't bark, but they sure are cute!
