Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Weekly Wrap: Social Media, TV & Michael Jackson, Captain EO, Video Game Tips for Parents, Teens Leaving Facebook, Bruno & MySpace, Adam Lambert on Michael Jackson

Social Media, TV, Michael Jackson & Saying Goodbye to the 'King of Pop': Michael Jackson's  memorial service garnered huge numbers on TV, but so did the social web. Facebook and CNN teamed up again to provide a live stream of Jackson's memorial and allow viewer to simultaneously share their thoughts on Facebook. Also worth a read is John Morton's post on 'The Passing of Michael Jackson & Mass Media.'

Over on Ypulse.com, Meredith Sires explains who 'Michael Jackson was to Today's Teens.' In other related news, Disney may re-release the 3D Jackson space fantasy multimedia experience/film 'Captain Eo' and American Idol alum Adam Lambert shares his thoughts on Michael Jackson. [TechCrunch] [eWeek] [SuperGeekery.com] [Ypulse.com] [Examiner] [YouTube] [Rolling Stone]

Declaration of Independence from Social Media (For One Day): "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the digital bands which have connected them with all of their friends they haven’t seen since preschool, and to assume a life away from the computer for one day, a respect for other Internet users requires that the person should declare the causes which cause them to separate from social media for that day." (Very clever and worth reading!) [Examiner]

Bing Now Bigger Than Digg, Twitter & CNN: According to Compete.com, Bing was able to amass 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month as Microsoft’s official search engine. Bing’s traffic trumps that of Digg 38.96 million) Twitter (23 million), and CNN (28.54 million). We want to note that this focuses on U.S. visitors, since Compete does not track international visits. [Mashable]

Tweet of the Week: "If Google bought Twitter, it wouldn't get a new feature for 3 years. If Apple bought it, tweets would be .99 but you'd get a 10 char preview." [@DanielFlorien]

Raising a Healthy Gamer: Parenting is always a tough job, and video games are a tricky subject in today's families. Ars offers a no-BS guide to dealing with gaming and your children, and their advice is simple: you know your children better than anyone else.

Also be sure to check out video game parenting tips from the folks over at Microsoft & XBox 360 along with safety tips from Yahoo!, Disney and AOL. Just keep in mind that your kid is probably smart enough to hack your parental controls. [ARS Technica] [Yahoo! Safely] [AOL Parental Controls]
[ARS Technica]

How to connect to Today's Millenials: Shop-Eat-Surf has a recap of a presentation given by Michael Wood, the Senior VP of Syndicated Research at Teen Research Unlimited (TRU), at the SIMA Boot Camp on understanding today's millennials. Hat tip to Group Y Sports for the heads up! [Shop Eat Surf]

Kids, Video Games, Learning & Health: The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) has a good analysis of the Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children's learning and health report released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. [CMCH]

One Last Thing: Check out this mashup of the Michael Jackson classic 'Billie Jean' by Soulwax (great, great stuff!), Julia Fallon offers advice for educators Lost in Web 2.0 Cyberspace (pdf), a must-read article with fantastic ideas for teaching kids about media literacy & body image, as grandpa & grandma join Facebook--teens begin to bail, according to new research from BabyCenter 39% of moms report that they make 'net time' their quiet time, Crain's New York Business wonders if Bruno can save MySpace, and finally...don't tell Al Gore, but the environment is not the number one social cause among college students (pdf). [YouTube] [Princial Leadership] [MyHighPlains.com] [Read Write Web] [Crain's New York Business] [SurveyU]

Texas Lawmakers Crack Down on Cyberbullies

In an attempt to crack down on cyberbullying and online harassment, Texas lawmakers have passed legislation that would "make it a felony to create phony profiles on social networking sites with the intent to "harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten" others."

According to MediaPost, the new law "defines commercial social networking sites broadly, saying they include any sites that allow people to register to communicate with others or create Web pages or profiles. Email programs and message boards are excluded from the definition."

The legislation, which may or not be challenged in court on the basis that it limits free speech, is on the Governors desk and awaiting his signature.

Related Links

• Fake User Profiles: Free Speech or Defamation?
• Yahoo! Safely
  
• Fake Online Profiles Trigger Suit
  

Weekly Wrap: Mobile Phones & Toddlers, Under 30 CEOs, Teens & TV, Summer of Social Good, Social Branding, Facebook Filters

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 Toddlers: Despite bans by other European countries, a new mobile phone being targeted to toddlers is heading to the sticky hands of wee ones in both the UK and Ireland. A new UK study found that 50% of British children aged 5 to 9 own a mobile phone.

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 research isn't really, uhm, news. More excellent analysis on the Nielsen study from Anastasia over at Ypulse. [Tech Crunch] [Ypulse] [Barking Robot]

Bad Apples? A High School Senior loses diploma over a kiss (FAIL!), a teacher gets suspended for posting gun pictures on Facebook, 60% of students at a Chicago school won't graduate and the finger pointing has already started, a Los Angeles student is barred delivering a graduation speech because she participated in a sit-in to protest teacher layoffs, and a new study finds that many teens use mobile phones to cheat in class. [Yahoo! Buzz] [AOL Switched] [CBS Chicago] [USA Today]

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.

Also this week, Google launched All for Good, a new service to help you find and share volunteer opportunities, and social media companies have joined forces and declared this the Summer of Social Good.

One Last Thing: Check out this good overview of social branding, MTV talks about digital strategy and youth, help for parents trying to figure out t/weens, how to filter out Facebook "Friends" without them knowing, teen 'prodigies' debate vital issues and stuff, learning about forgiveness from Monica Lewinsky and finally, did Michael Jackson 'Fail Whale' Twitter? Yep!  [justbrand.me] [PBS] [Connect With Teens] [AlleyInsider] [Hot Air] [Flickr] [New Media Strategies]

Demographic Snapshot: Facebook & Teens

Related Links

• Memo to Gen Y: Facebook Never Forgets
• BJ Fogg on The Psychology of Facebook
• Gen Y: Growing Up and Sharing Way Too Much

Weekly Wrap: Twitter & Social Media in Education, Television 2.0, Social Gaming, Boomers & Social Media, Virtual Worlds Growth Spurt, BackTweets & TwitterCal

Higher Education is Stuck in the Middle Ages: In this article Don Tapscott, youth guru and author of Growing Up Digital, outlines the clash between the model of learning offered by big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up digital learn. The entire U.S. education system is woefully behind when it comes to using social media (and mobile devices) in the classroom. [AlterNet]

The Hidden Problem with Twitter: Speaking of the Middle Ages, this article stirs the pot by asking if the texting and Twitter habits are "hurting" the English language. Perhaps we need to take a cue from our Aussie friends and look for a way to use social and mobile media to help educate the Net Generation.  [HigherEdMorning.com] [University of Melbourne]

More on Television 2.0: Is the TV business dying or does it have a second act? Television networks are actively looking for ways to hold onto Gen Y by interjecting more social media and even 3D television features into their programming.

In an attempt to hold on to younger viewers, MTV is launching It's On with Alexa Chung, while the BBC is placing its bets on a new interactive TV studio. Or will 'traditional' TV networks be replaced by young upstarts like Halogen TV which is featuring both webisodes and traditional distribution outlets for its content?

Virtual Worlds Booming: Market research firm Strategy Analytics released its forecast for growth within the virtual worlds sector and said it sees the global population of virtual world users growing from 186 million today to almost 640 million by 2015 -- that's almost one hundred million new players a year, a nearly 25 percent compounded annual growth rate. [Virtual Worlds News]

Boomers Crashing the Social Media Party: According to iStrategy Labs, Facebook's seen its 35-54 demo membership blow up by 276.4 percent between June 2008 and January 2009. The 55-and over contingent grew 194.3 percent in the same amount of time. In comparison, that ever-so-sought 18-24 group bounced just 20.6 percent.

The total number of Facebook users aged 35-plus in October 2007 totaled just fewer than 845,000, while as of this past January, their combined might totals just less than 8 million - 18.9 percent of the total Facebook pie. [MediaPost]

Young Obama Official Helped Keep Twitter on in Iran: According to The New York Times, there's a steady flow of information on Twitter largely thanks to the efforts of a 27-year-old State Department official named Jared Cohen, whose job is to advise the department on how to use social media to promote U.S. interests in the Middle East. [MTV News]

One More Thing: According to experts social gaming is the next big thing, use Backtweets to see which tweets link to your site, mobileYouth has a list of youth marketing & trend Twits on Twitter (thanks Graham!), get a sneak peak of Josh Shipp's new tv show--"Jump Shipp", tweet to add appointments to your Google Calendar, more on Millennials and Twitter and an Iranian Gen Y writes about Revolution 2.0!

Also, thanks to all of you who took part in Operation 55 Zebra! Go David Go!

Josh Shipp to "Rock" CNN

Young People Who Rock is a weekly interview series on CNN focused on people under 30 — from CEOs to entertainers to athletes to community and political leaders — who are doing remarkable things. This Friday (3:30pm EST) youth guru Josh Shipp will be featured on the show.

Why are so many teens are drawn to Josh? 

It's simple. Josh is authentic, he can spot BS a mile away, and when he talks to teens he shoots straight. Most importantly, he has a keen ability to offer up relevant advice that resonates with his young audience.

Young People Who Rock (YPWR) has an interactive format, so if you have a question for Josh you can file an iReport or post it on the YPWR or Hey Josh blog.

Related Links

• Hey Josh
• Follow Josh on Twitter
• Hey Josh on Facebook
• Operation 55 Zebra

Weekly Wrap: Sociology of Twitter, Bing, Miracle Whip Woos Gen Y, Doogie Howser 2.0, Campus Marketing, Gen X Loves Twitter & Taylor Swift Goes Gangsta

Kraft Woos Gen Y with Miracle Whip: Kraft Foods is trying to reintroduce Miracle Whip to younger households, particularly those who grew up eating it but might not be using it today. The strategy includes print, a Facebook page and Twitter profile, other social media, consumer relationship marketing tactics, sampling, in-store support, and truck fleet billboards. [MediaPost]

Doogie Howser Lives!: For eight years, Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain so horrible, it brought her to her knees. Her doctors, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't figure out the cause of Jessica's abdominal distress.Then one day in January, Terry, 18, figured it out on her own. [CNN]

Steps to Refresh your Campus Media Plan: Jason Bakker, author of the EngageGenY blog, lays out some good information that you can use when marketing to college age Gen Y's. You can also check out my Campus Marketing Recap from the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup. [MediaPost] [Barking Robot]

Gen X, Gen Y & Twitter: At the 09 Ypulse Mashup there was lots of talk about how Gen Y/Millenials don't really dig "the Twitter." So who's driving the Twitter bus? Turns out it's Gen X who is love with Twitter. [Jessie X]

What Every 24-35 Year Old's Facebook Profile Really Says: Zombies. Facebook Apps. All that damn poking. What's the deal with Facebook? Holy Taco explains it all. [Holy Taco]

The Sociology of Twitter: Sociologist and ethnographer, Liz Pullen, spent a month tracking the top 500 Twitter users (as ranked by number of followers) as well as the much-contested suggested users list. In tracking these accounts, she also closely analyzed the behaviors of new adopters and their expectations of the service. [Read, Write, Web]

Search vs. Decision or Library vs. Librarian: A few days ago Microsoft launched Bing, it's new "decision engine", to mostly positive reviews. It even, according to some reports, kicked some Google and Yahoo! booty in the process. In this blog post, Robert Stinnett explains how Bing is his "librarian in a world full of books". [RobertStinnett.com]

Mobile Internet Booming: Mobile internet access increased by 36% in the US last year, but the number of Americans (18 million, ages 13+) who connect to the mobile web is still relatively low compared with the 100 million users who connect via mobile in China, according to a recent report from Netpop.

One Last Thing: Taylor Swift goes Gangsta, Vlingo research finds 94% of teens use their mobile phone to text, MTVU launches an incubator for aspiring college filmmakers, the best wedding invite in the history of the world, plus 10 ways to use mobiles and social media to connect with Gen Y.

Weekly Wrap: Ypulse Youth Mashup, Hey Josh, Disney U Rock 2, Teens & Twitter, Dare & Mobile Teens

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]

The guru's over at Premise Marketing have a great analysis on the Josh Shipp keynote over on their blog. [ Follow Premise Marketing 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:

1. The median age for first mobile phone is around 11.5, next year projected to be 10;
2. SMS is unsexy, but it's persuasive technology. 80% in US have sent/received a text message;
3. 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;
4. Mobile phone is increasingly becoming the access point to the web outside the USA;
5. 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.

Weekly Wrap: End of Free, MTV & Martha Stewart Turn to Twitter & Facebook, Social Media ROI, TV 2.0 & 8 Key Trends

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]

MTV Turns To Twitter And Facebook To Power New Flagship Show: MTV plans to integrate even more social media into its television programs. You may remember that MTV has already integrated  multiplatform media consumption and social gaming into its popular show "The Hills." Be sure to check out Senior VP and GM of MTV Digital Dan Hart's 2008 Ypulse Mashup East presentation on some of MTV's latest digital strategies for bridging the gap between TV, online and mobile.[TechCrunch]

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]

Microsoft Vine: A Social Dashboard for Your Digital Life

Looks like the folks up in Redmond are getting ready to throw their hat into the social messaging ring with a new service called Vine. Vine is designed to make it easy for people to exchange information and stay in touch with friends and family during an emergency. Here's the official scoop:

"Microsoft Vine Beta connects you to the people and places you care about most, when it matters. Stay in touch with family and friends, be informed when someone needs help. Get involved to create great communities. Use alerts, reports and your personal dashboard to stay in touch, informed and involved."

Currently Vine is in closed beta and not yet open to the public. I took a look at the demo and I have to say it's pretty slick. It goes way beyond the 140 character text and link posting on Twitter.

Vine has a pretty slick mash up of Live Maps and News---effectively creating a very customized social news tool. But wait--there's more. MS Vine is also has integration with Facebook, email, as well as your mobile phone.

For example, I live in California and we are prone to a little shaking of the earth every once in awhile. Say we had a quake. I'd want to check in with all the members of my family.

I could use Vine to send a text to my sister, an email to my parents, and Facebook message to my cousin--all at the same time. Since Vine aggregates news, I can easily get the latest information on road closures, damage & other breaking news.

While the tech crowd will be quick to point out all the services that already exist that offer the same features as Vine, it's important to remember that outside Silicon Valley (aka the "real world"), there are lots of people who don't have the time, inclination or technical aptitude to seek out and learn how to use those tools.

There are also tons of opportunities for integration with Yahoo! properties if/when that deal ever goes through. It seems like Flickr, for one, would be an excellent addition to Vine. (Heck, just add Flickr now, not later!) I also think that, like Twitter, there are lots of interesting ways that educators could use Vine in an educational or mobile learning environment.

One other note to the fine folks at Microsoft. You've put together four fine video's showing how people can use Vine. However, you haven't included any way for people to share them with anyone else. Why not include the "Share This" button and allow folks to email, embed, post to Facebook, Digg, Stumble, Y! Buzz or Tweet about Vine with their friends? 

Vine is a pretty impressive effort. There will be those who, because it's a Microsoft product, won't give it a chance. But a good tool is a good tool. I don't care who makes it. I think Vine has real potential to be a popular choice for lots of people, organizations and families. I'm looking forward to taking a deeper look at it soon (hint! hint!).

Related Links

• Microsoft Wants to Help Familes Get 'Game Smart'
• Change the World, 500 Words at a Time
• Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research
• Educational Games for Microsoft Surface

Weekly Wrap: Billabong Moves Beyond Surfing, Boston for Kids, Public Media 2.0, Youth Work Online, Oprah Joins Twitter

Billabong is a Media Company, Not Just a Surf Brand: Great post by youth guru Dan Pankraz. "Billabong really get it. They create content, not ads. 40hrs of it a week actually, distributed via Fuel TV, mobile phones and the web." Dan's blog focused on youth culture is a must read.

Cool Stuff for Kids in Beantown: This is a super site full of fun and educational activities for parents and kids in Boston.

Kids Motivated By TV to Visit Web: "According to MRI's 2008 American Kids Study, children ages 6-11 are increasingly using the Internet  to check out products they see in advertisements. 46.3% of kids visited a Web site that they saw or heard about in a commercial or advertisement." (AdAge)

Support the Brothers Flannery: The Flannery Brothers, a kid's band from Maine, are finalists in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Competition in the children’s music category.

How to Weather a Twitterstorm: "Motrin Moms. "Dove Onslaught(er)." Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, all sorts of new critics and activists are finding their voices amplified online. So what's a marketer to do when an online firestorm erupts?" (AdAge)

Bullied 11-year Old Commits Suicide: An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday after being bullied at school despite his mother’s pleas to the school to address the problem. So, so sad. Check my blog post from earlier this week for tips and resources on bullying. (TakePart)

The Center for Social Media at American University has published a new white paper titled Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics. Wanna get a quick synopsis? Check out this five minute clip on YouTube or this powerpoint on Slideshare.

2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award: The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of technology, mobile technology, social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.

Youth Work Online: This is an online community dedicated to exploring how youth work and informal education professionals can support young people in a digital world. The site was launched and continues to be moderated by the brilliant Tim Davies.

I'm Just Not That Into You Facebooking With My Kid: Author and parenting guru Sharon Cindrich blogs about Parental Faux Pas on Facebook – "written by a real parent (me) of a real teen (my 14 year old daughter) as I watch my real friends (without teens) send my child friend requests on Facebook (weird)." Hey Sharon--I agree. Weird.

Twitter Gets Mad Props: Oprah, yes *that* Oprah is joining the Tweetosphere. @oprah welcome!

Scholastic Launches Virtual World: Scholastic has partnered with SC Johnson to create a "green" virtual world for kids. The Virtual Forest Challenge is tied into the product launch of SC Johnson's new line of green cleaning supplies, Nature's Source. The site also includes some very lightweight "lesson plans" and other edutainment learning materials.

Global Youth: Meet Alex, Australian Gen Y

Dan Pankraz, a youth culture and brand strategist, gives us a peek into the life of a twenty-something Gen Y living in Sydney, Australia. Who is Alex? What's his story?

"Alex is the typical Sydney Gen C’er. He’s a creative guy working in the communications industry and is super savvy when it comes to technology. He is also a bit of a muso and is a self confessed ’snooper’ on Facebook, as he constantly needs to be in the know as to what is on."

Related Links

• Youth Marketing Tip: Don't Try and Be My Mate!
• Kenyan Youth Faced with 'Westernization'
• Youth Mesh > Youth in China
• Want to Reach Youth? Think Mobile.

Photo Credit: Dan Pankraz

Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award

The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of technology, mobile technology, social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) 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. We will recognize a teacher who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring both students and other educators.

The award-winner likely had to overcome challenges from parents and administrators in order to use the technology, but because they understand how students use social media outside of school, they persevered with their initiative and worked collaboratively with students, ultimately sharing their insight and knowledge with the larger teaching community.

Representatives from Ypulse and Dell will choose three finalists to interview by phone. The selected teacher will be honored in person at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup June 1-2 in San Francisco.

All three finalists will receive a IT solution from Dell to use in their respective schools. Teachers can nominate themselves. You can get all of the details about how to nominate a teacher (or if you're a teacher, how to nominate yourself!) over on Ypulse.

Related Links

• Dell > EDU4U
• Follow Dell Education on Twitter
• Totally Wired Teen Book
• Ypulse Interview: Josh Shipp, Advice Slinger, HeyJosh.com
• Video > Anastasia Goodstein on "Totally Wired" Teens
• Follow YPulse on Twitter

Anti-Bullying Resources for Parents, Teachers & Students

 Last week my friend Dominic Campbell, one of the leading voices in the U.K. Gov 2.0 community, pointed me to Bullying U.K.--a top destination for parents, students and teachers looking for bullying advice on the internet.

The organization was founded by journalist Liz Carnell and her son John, as a direct result of their experience of dealing with school bullying, which included taking successful legal action against an education authority.
 
Whether it's mobile phones, social sites or school bus teasing--Bullying UK has a vast treasure load of content for just about any type of bullying situation. They've also partnered with the (always fantastic) Teachers.tv folks and produced a series of videos on student-student bullying, as well as teacher-teacher bullying as well.

All in all a really wonderful resource for anyone involved in working with youth. I strongly urge you to drop by Bullying UK and take a look at all the wonderful resources they have curated on their site.

Thanks Dom!

Back here in the states, celebrities Lance Bass, Taylor Swift and Hillary Duff have added their voice of support for the 2009 Day of Silence on April 17th. The goal of The National Day of Silence goal is to bring awareness to the anti-LGBT bullying in schools.

As part of the program, members of the Twitter community are being encouraged to "Tweet the Silence" and encourage people to take a stand against bullying of LGBT students.

Related Resources

• ADL Students & Cyberbullying Forum
• Social Safety
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NCSS Position Statement: Media Literacy is an Imperative

In February the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) released a position statement on media literacy, social technology and learning in the digital age. Their conclusion?

"These changes in society and the experiences the students bring into the classroom challenge social studies teachers to change both how and what we teach. One reaction is to fear these changes and try to protect our students from things we don’t understand or appreciate. Such an approach is neither helpful nor pedagogically sound.

Another response is to take advantage instructionally of the wealth of experiences that young people have making media choices by respecting those choices when consistent with democratic principles. Whether we like it or not, this media culture is our students’ culture.”

Today's Students Are Experiencing a Different Childhood

• The digital age requires new skills for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and distributing messages within a digital, global, and democratic society.

• The ubiquitous and mobile nature of information and communication technologies has resulted in a world far different from that of those of us whose childhood was once surrounded by large box televisions, rotary dial telephones, and transistor radios.

• What was once characterized as a digital divide has transformed into a digital disconnect. Outside of the classroom young people regularly engage with music and videos via MP3 players, constantly text their friends with their mobile phones, check the latest videos on YouTube, and even upload ones themselves. But, upon entering the classroom they are expected to disengage from this interpersonal, producer-oriented, digital world.

Media Literacy

• Canada, Australia, and Great Britain have taught media literacy for several decades, while the US, the world’s leading producer of media, is far behind.

• These changes in society and the experiences the students bring into the classroom challenge social studies teachers to change both how and what we teach.

• Teaching students to think critically about the content and the form of mediated messages is an essential requirement for social studies education in this millennium.

• Media literacy integrates the process of critical inquiry with the creation of media as students examine, create, and disseminate their own alternative images, sounds, and thoughts.

• Media literacy includes the skills of accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and distributing messages as well as the cultural competencies and social skills associated with a growing participatory culture.

• Media literacy also includes analysis of ideology and power as students learn how media are used to position audiences and frame public opinion.

• In the 21st century, media literacy is an imperative for participatory democracy because new information/communication technologies and a market-based media culture have significantly reshaped the world.

Media Literacy & the Social Studies Classroom

• Teachers need to expand their notion of “legitimate texts” and realize that it includes popular culture, advertising, photographs, maps, text (SMS) messages, Twitter, movies, video games, Internet, all sorts of hand-held devices and information communication technologies (ICTs) as well as print.

• Students should be presenting their research and learning through interactive multimedia presentations, as Internet blogs, videos, podcasts, Facebook, etc.

• The ability to differentiate between primary and secondary sources or distinguish fact from fiction is now intimately connected to the ability to analyze and create media.

• Social studies educators should provide young people with the awareness and abilities to critically question and create new media and technology, and the digital, democratic experiences, necessary to become active participants in the shaping of democracy.

Related Resources

• NCSS Media Literacy Statement
• Learning Styles 2.0: Digital, Social, and Always On
• mobileYouth: 100 Million Mobile Youth in USA
• Making mLearning Work: Gen Y, Learning & Mobile Technologies
• Social Software & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles
• Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy