Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Pixels Attack!

New York invasion by 8-bits creatures! PIXELS is Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location in New York. This is a cool mashup of old skool video game culture.

Big hat tip to Mike Schmid for the heads up on this awesome little film!

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Discover more animation and arts videos.   

Infographic: If Web Browsers Were Modes of Transportion

via neatorama

Trend Watch: 'Tweet me' is the new 'I love you'

Always eager to be au courant, NECCO continually updates the sentiments that appear on its heart-shaped candies.

This year, the New England Confectionery Co., or NECCO, held an online contest that asked consumers "exactly what expressions of love they wanted to see printed on the colorful candy hearts.

The new consumer-generated sayings for 2010 reflect the technology-driven ways people show their love, with 'Tweet Me' and 'Text Me' at the top of the list."

via www.boston.com

The Inspiration Found Project

Inspiration Found is a project, started by the founding director of the social media agency MediaSnackers, that asks 100 people from 1-to-100 years old: "What single thing inspires you and why?"

The resulting images, words and insights will be collated into a FREE ebook available to view online or download PLUS will be presented at TEDxCDF in April 2010.

You can learn more about the project and how you can get involved over on the Inspiration Found website.

Happy 75th Birthday to the King!

Yep. It's true. I'm an unapologetic Elvis Presley Fan Boy. Long live the King!♠

When it Comes to Digital Literacy, Don't Be a Billy!

'I Am What I Learn': Department of Education Announces Student Video Contest

In an effort to get students more engaged in their education, President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have announced a new video contest, asking students to "inspire" them with their stories.

The contest, called I Am What I Learn, is accepting entries from middle school, high school, and college students ages 13 and older. Students can submit videos up to two minutes long, and entries must be received by Nov. 2.

You can find all the details, along with the contest rules, over on the I Am What I Learn website.

Lego Wants to Rock Your Blocks

Youth Trend Watch: Kidrobots

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News

Related Links

• Kidrobot
• Kidrobot: Concept Becomes Culture
• Follow Kidrobot on Twitter
• Become a Kidrobot Fan on Facebook

Weekly Wrap: Back to School with Twitter & Facebook, Gen Y Workaholic, Texting & Teen Health, Kodu, Tom Daley Defies Bullies

Back-to-school pitches go social with Facebook, Twitter Last year, cutting-edge back-to-school marketing for the pop culture-driven brand was all about luring young girls to the Candies.com website. This year, back-to-school marketing is all about driving discussion in online social-media "communities." [USA Today]

Don't Ignore the Least Common Denominator With the boom of smartphones and mobile applications, it's easy to dismiss SMS as soooo 2000 and late. But in this week's reblog, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures stresses the appeal, simplicity, and popularity of the SMS format and begs us to get our heads out of our apps. [MobileBehavior]

Memo to Gen Y: Your Touted Workaholism isn't a badge of Honor I’m getting a little tired of Gen Y bloggers proudly flouting their “workaholism” in post after post of how they love their jobs, don’t see a need for work/life balance anymore and question whether or not their relationships are holding them back. (Spot on Holly!) [Work Love Life]

Hey! Miley: Youth advice slinger Josh Shipp offers unsolicited advice to the Queen of Tween. Yep, he's talking to you Ms. Miley Cyrus. And if you're so inclined, you can also take the "Which Demi Lovato Song Are You" quiz. Although, if you're not a tween, please don't! [Hey Josh!] [LOL Quiz]

Night Texting Putting Teen Health at Risk What most don't know is that too much texting can actually be detrimental to their teens' health. That's because new technologies, such as cellphones and social networking sites, give teenagers easy access to their friends 24 hours a day. (I'm sure this is an issue, but I just hope that parents don't overreact.) [Miami Herald]

Teenage Tom Daley Defies Bullies Daley's success led to him being bullied at school. It got worse when he became more well known and he was eventually forced to change schools. At the time, his father, Rob, said: "In class they throw pens and pencils at him. Some have even threatened to break his legs. That was the last straw." [Guardian UK]

Tweet O' the Week: "The funny thing about the Internet is that we forget that we once thought TV would solve all of our problems too." (via @basler)

I Want My Wireless & Social TV Verizon has launched services that provide mobile application and social networking services on your television. The new service allows customers to access free widgets that connect to social networks Twitter and Facebook, or access a “fantasy football” service from ESPN. Given research showing that Gen Y want more social tv features, this move by Verizon could really pay off.

Meanwhile, a new report by ABI Research states that television manufacturers will ship about 20 million wireless-networked TVs globally in 2011 and consumers will spend about $2.9 billion on video content that's streamed from the Internet to TVs in 2013, up from about $600 million this year. [GoMo News] [Video Business]

Virtual Worlds for Children: In America, nearly 10m children and teenagers visit virtual worlds regularly, estimates eMarketer, a market researcher—a number the firm expects to increase to 15m by 2013. Speaking of virtual worlds, this week Shidonni launched a Spanish-language version of its pet-populated virtual world, Tales 4 Tomorrow an eco-friendly virtual world for kids with a strong animal conservation message (via Premise Marketing on Twitter). [Economist] [Virtual World News]

Speed Round: Even more on teens and Twitter, a great list of Mobile Social Networks (MoSo's), in a bold youth play, Microsoft creates a new programming language called Kodu designed for kids and made specifically for creating games & also launches Microsoft Education Labs, turns out that parents share too much on the social web too & STFU, Parents is there to blog it in all it's horror (I love this), Japan to politicians: no Twitter for you, California teen to stand trial in slaying of gay classmate, and finally.....Yahoo! Music has put together a playlist of the Top 10 Songs About Robots! [Unit Structures] [GoMo News] [NextGreatThing] [STFU, Parents] [Inquisitr] [KTLA] [Yahoo! Music]

Mary Poppins Remix'd

Related Resources

• Henry Jenkins > Convergence Culture
• Remix Culture
• Creative Commons > ccMixer
  

A Phantom Introduction: Millennials Getting Creative in a Down Economy

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” - Jean-Paul Sartre

It's June. A time for college graduation and big dreams of landing that first "real job." Enter the econolypse. Gen Y, faced with their first recession and dwindling job prospects, are looking for a way to stand out from their peers and get the attention of recruiters and HR folks.

Check out this innovative approach to ye olde cover letter, created by twenty-somethings Branden Kramer & Christy L Pregont, who are trying to get a foot in the door of the uber hip and acclaimed Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency.

Looks like all that "goofing around" on the internet and playing with social media sites has some real practical applications in the "real world."

Related Links

• Motivating Gen Y in a Downward
• Gen Y: How to Get a Job Now
• Welcome to the Gen Y Workplace
• Gen Y Guide to Social Media in the Workplace

Real Life Twitter: Can You Hear Me Now?

Watch Real Life Twitter on CollegeHumor

Related Resources

• Twitter College Directory
• Twitter Handbook for Teachers
• UK Students May Be Required to Master Twitter
• Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter

Meet the Tweenbots

No, not those Tweet Bots.

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.

I'll let Kacie explain more about the project:

"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!

Related Links

• How to Survive a Robot Uprising
• Zac Efron, Tween King
• Why Spatial Metaphors are Relevant to Virtual Campuses
• Generation Text: New Research on Tweens & Mobile Phones

Zac Efron, Tween King

A little self-mocking is the perfect way to transition from High School Musical and on to a new demographic....good on ya Zac!

Related Links

• 2009 National Tween Summit
• 'Hannah Montana’ Is a Box Office Hit
  
• Yo Mom & Dad! Tweens Want You to Text
• Ypulse.com > Tweens
• SNL: Ruh-Roh! Zac Efron Back for HSM4