Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Weekly Wrap: Chegg Battle of the Bands, Oprah's Leno-CoCo PollGate, Social Data Revolution, Mattel Looks to AR, Gen X Stereotypes, Real Time UX, Rowling on Imagination & Failure, Mowtown Content Strategy & More!

Chegg Joins College Battle of the Bands: College Battle of the Bands is proud to announce its partnership with textbook rental service Chegg.com! Student bands and musicians can sign up for FREE and promote their music for a chance to play great venues and win amazing gear and cash prizes as part of the national series of events. [Chegg.com]

Conan-Leno Mudslinging Continues With Oprah.com Poll Allegations: So how exactly does the source close to NBC figure that Team Coco flooded Oprah’s ballot box? By good old-fashioned ballot box stuffing, thanks to software designed by die hard Coco fans and advertised on one of the many Team Coco Facebook pages. (Really Team Jay? Why would Ms. Winfrey, or Conan for that matter, want to do that?) Related: Conan, Leno & The Tonight Show Debacle [MovieLine] [Barking Robot}

Augmented Reality Gives Lift to Kids Digital Space: Mattel was at the head of the line as the first major consumer products player to incorporate AR into a retail toy product. As the master toy licensee for James Cameron's film Avatar, the California-based toyco teamed up with an AR software solutions house Total Immersion to create a line of action figures. [Kidscreen]

The Social Data Revolution(s): In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. Information overload is more serious than ever. [Harvard Business Review]

Free Reality TV Show Debuts on Your PlayStation 3: Sony Computer Entertainment America is making good on its promise to expand original content offerings on its PlayStation Network distribution service. It will be bringing an original reality television series, The Tester, to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles via the PSN as a free downloadable series starting February 18. [Mashable]

Study Finds Podcasts Reach Unreachable Consumers: Although podcasting has shown to be quite popular in niche markets, many marketers have not jumped into the fray. The results of a recent Edison Research and Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) study could change some marketers minds, however, because apparently consumers being reached by podcasting are unreachable in other formats. [Junta 42]

Tweet O' the Week: "At Chateau Marmont on a gorgeous day. Everyone here looks like they're on the verge of famous." via @TVBlogster

Get Real About Gen X Stereotypes: Much laudatory ink has been spilled on the Baby Boomers...usually by Boomers themselves. As for the Millennials, those born between 1982 and 1998, the quantity of reportage lauding their public-spiritedness has quickly become tiresome. But a new report casts doubt on the widely accepted stereotype of Gen X-ers as inferior to these other groups. [New Geography]

The Case for Content Strategy, Mowtown Style: how do you start humming the content strategy tune to your own team and to your prospective clients? Listen up and heed Aretha Franklin. No, really. [A List Apart]

UX of the Real Time Web: A major thing done by users on the real time web is the posting and recommending of external links. These links will often go to a story, website, picture, or video that could be of interest to people right now. One problem is that there is so much sharing being done on the real time web that it can become difficult to differentiate the legitimate links from the noise. [instantShift]

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination: J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. [Harvard Magazine]

Global Youth: What Youth Think | 2010 Youth Trends Report

Partnering with youth marketers, culture and trend experts from around the world, Graham Brown (the force behind mobileYouth) have crowd-sourced an impressive amount of research on global youth trends and shared his findings in a series of three presentations.

What Youth Think: 2010 Youth Trends Report presentations are a must see for youth marketers, media planners, educators, youth pastors and anyone else who works in the youth space.

So sit back, take notes and enjoy. Then let's all meet up at the Carrot Mob!

2010 Youth Trends Report Part 1

View more presentations from Graham Brown.

2010 Youth Trends Report Part 2

View more presentations from Graham Brown.

2010 Youth Trends Report Part 3

View more presentations from Graham Brown.

Millennials: The Gen Y Tsunami is Here

 

"For marketers, the Millennials represent a multifaceted challenge that defies easy categorization. Beyond their demographic diversity, marketers need to recognize distinct behaviors, preferences, attitudes, and values that set this group apart from the rest.

We need to realize that consumer-driven marketing integration is not a dream but a critical reality. And this starts with understanding who these young adults really are."

--DMW Direct Consumer Insights,"Millennials"

Related: 2010 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup

Dan Rosensweig becomes CEO of Textbook Rental Service Chegg.com

Dan Rosensweig is leaving his job overseeing Activision's Guitar Hero video game franchise to run Chegg. Chegg.com has been trying to shake up the college textbook industry by allowing students to rent the material required for their courses. The hiring was announced Tuesday.

Rosensweig is best known for his four-year stint as Yahoo's chief operating officer, where he worked closely with the Internet company's former CEO, Terry Semel. Rosensweig left Yahoo! after a management reshuffling in 2006.

This isn't Mr. Rosenweig's first foray into the education technology space. While at Yahoo! he was actively involved with my team on the Yahoo! For Teachers project. You can catch Dan's cameo in this promo video for Yahoo! Teachers. Dan is also current member of the DonorsChoose National Advisory Board.

Yahoo! For Teachers @ Yahoo! Video

Youth Then and Now: 1969 Versus 2009

via www.channelone.com

Channel One News recently conducted its own survey of 1300 young adults in order to make a comprehensive comparison of two distinct generations -- teens of 1969 and 2009.

Channel One also visited the University of Colorado at Boulder, posing questions to students exactly as CBS News had done on campus in 1969. At that time, the University of Colorado had been chosen for its diverse and nationally representative student body. 

Find out how close, or far the generation gap is between teens from 1969 and today -- then, tell us what you think about the differences we found.

Introduction to Using Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

The Commons provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

This printable guide provides an overview of how to use Creative Commons along with additional information regarding technical implementation on the Web. Introduction to Using Creative Commons

Additional Resources

• Creative Commons
• Flickr + Creative Commons
• Yahoo! Search + Creative Commons 
• Support Creative Commons

A Kindle in Every Backpack: A Proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools

A concept paper published in July by former members of the Obama-Biden transition team, titled A Kindle in Every Backpack: A Proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools, suggests we consider an innovative plan to spread eTextbooks around the country, rapidly scaling up employment of the technology so that we can learn, adapt, and perfect its use quickly. It describes the case for an eTextbook system in three parts.

In Part One, the report discusses the multiple reasons why eTextbooks like Amazon's Kindle are a much better approach for our nation’s students. The reasons they are superior include the ability to update eBooks relatively cheaply and easily, environmental and health benefits (such as reducing loads on young backs and shoulders), and the enormous opportunity to make texts more exciting and interactive—like the other tools children use today and that compete for their attention.

In Part Two, this paper discusses the economics of this approach. Cost estimates in the education world are notoriously sketchy and often self-serving, but it seems clear that over time an investment in these tools would produce big savings.

Finally, in Part Three, this paper outlines how we could implement such a plan, and why there could be broad-based support for it.

Also of interest is an article in the September/October 2009 issue of Scholastic Administrator Magazine titled, "Will the Kindle Change Education?" The article does a really good job of weighing in on both the pros and cons of using the Kindle in the classroom.

A lot of education folks have focused on using the mobile phone as the primary device to usher in the age of mlearning (mobile learning).

But perhaps we should be paying more attention to e-book devices like the Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook or the (rumoured) Apple tablet as the more viable mlearning option to delivering media rich and digital content to kids at school.

A lot the current research shows that when kids go to school they are disconnected from how they live outside the classroom. Either way, what's important is that we take a look at and try using any resource or tool--including e-books--that gets kids' more engaged and invested in their education.

Fall 2009 Internships: Shaping Youth, mobileYouth & The Highway Girl

Shaping Youth, a nonprofit concerned with media & marketing’s impact on kids, is looking for an (unpaid) intern to help with the organization’s social media activities.

These include: social media outreach (bloggers, organizations, etc.), establishing and maintaining web presence (via Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress) and making sense of online analytics.

As an added bonus, you'll get the opportunity to work with Amy Jessel, Founder and Executive Director of Shaping Youth, who is a leader in the youth marketing and media space.

While Shaping Youth is based in the San Francisco Bay area, this internship is open to anyone. This is a really terrific opportunity for a student who wants to hone their social media skills and help focus youth marketing in a more positive direction.

*****

mobileYouth, a leading global consulting firm focused on youth marketing and mobile culture, is looking for 'agents of change' in marketing, advertising and/or branding.

As an intern you'll contribute to research, writing, insights, video production, tour preparation and events. Odds are that if you take advantage of this opportunity, you'll learn more working with Graham and Josh than you will from that crusty university professor.

Interested? If you want to be a leading marketer - start marketing yourself! Forget that resume/CV nonsense and make yourself known. You know how you can contact mobileYouth.

*****

The Highway Girl: This internship--based in Atlanta, Georgia--is a great opportunity for someone interested in the digital music industry. Singer Songwriter Samantha Murphy created The Highway Girl over four years ago and was accepted into Techstars, a prestigious incubator/mentoring summer program for startups.

Since that time she has sat down with a different artist each week to discuss the life of an artist and how it's changed in the digital age. Past guests include Aimee Mann, Martha Wainwright, Elvis Perkins, Teitur, The Slow Push, Juliana Hatfield, The Devoted Few, AJ Croce and many others.

The Highway Girl has two internships available for the Fall 2009 semester.

• The first internship is for a developer with a background in PHP, MySQL and knowledge of current social media trends.

• The Highway Girl is also looking for a marketing intern to work on projects related to social media, grassroots marketing strategies and is familiar with the music industry blogosphere.

For more information about The Highway Girl or to apply for these internships, please contact Samantha Murphy [sm (at) thehighwaygirl (dot) com].

Weekly Wrap: Fox Twitter #FAIL, MySpace is Dead, UK TV Revolution, Ad Literacy 101, Too Much College Debt, RIP Zune & More!

A Revolution in TV as Content Moves Online: There's a revolution going on in television but you may not necessarily be watching it on the set in your living room. Online viewing of programmes in the UK will more than triple in the next few years, according to the latest forecasts, boosted by new video on demand websites offering the best British and US shows to users for free. [The Guardian UK]

A Textbook Discount: The Bigwords free iPhone App works to take some of the sting out of the experience through a complex calculation to find the best textbook deals, whether than means buying new, used or digital, or just renting. [NYT]

Fox's 'Twitter on TV' Experiment Irks Fans: Fox’s idea of “tweet-peats” would combine reruns of popular new shows Fringe and Glee, with producers and members of the cast tweeting their show commentary as the episodes rolled. [Mashable]

Ad Literacy 101: Ads are often enjoyable for kids. They're also pretty ubiquitous. So it might be counterproductive to act as though all advertising is dumb or boring or evil, or to make your kid feel guilty for partaking of it. The goal here is rigorous critical thinking, and good/bad dichotomies generally fall into the "simplistic thinking" category. Life is much more complex. [Brett Berk in Babble]

Web-monitoring software gathers data on kid chats: Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children's chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered. [San Francisco Chronicle] 

A Sneak Peek at Obama's Speech to Schoolchildren: On September 8th, President Obama will speak to American schoolchildren. I got a look at an early draft... [Huffington Post]

Is A College Education Worth The Debt?: A college degree has long been considered a golden ticket to success in this country. But with the current economic recession, some question whether obtaining a college degree is worth going into debt. [NPR]

New College Majors for Changing Times: The Chronicle of Higher Education says colleges are now offering new disciplines for students, including a major in the science behind customer service. [American Public Media]

Speed Round: UK considering 'No Fee' degrees, teachers are using Twitter to connect with students, teachers discover how building video games can help at risk students do better in school, an Ofcom study finds young people want advice about online privacy (thanks Tania!), according to HitWise MySpace is Dead..long Live Twitter, Zune doesn't pass Microsoft's 'death panel' and finally....new data from comScore shows that teens now LOVE the Twitter! (At least until next week when another study will show that they don't love the Twitter!) [BBC] [SA Blog] [Edutopia] [eGov] [Josh Dhaliwal] [GadgetLab] [Mashable]

Weekly Wrap: Girl Scouts Launch LMK, Texting & Teen Brains, Kia 'Soul Collective', Coca-Cola's Sounds of Buzz, Twitter & Mourning for Michael Jackson, 2010 Twilight Convention, Yodeling Mamas & More

Girl Scouts & Microsoft Launch Online Safety Site: LMK (text speak for 'Let Me Know') was created with help from teens and from industry experts, to provide teens with the know-how to safely navigate their digital life and help parents to understand what their teens are doing online. Which is a good thing, since a research conducted by Common Sense Media  found that most parents are pretty clueless what their kids are doing on social sites. [Girl Scouts of America] [Common Sense Media]

University of California 11th Campus Online? : The University of California's 10 campuses, facing severe budget cuts, may no longer be able to educate as many students as before. One surprising solution in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece: Open an 11th campus, online. Which, according to a new study reports that online education actually beats face-to-face classroom learning, might not be such a bad idea. [Chronicle of Higher Education] [Ypulse]

Kia "Soul Collective': In an effort to deepen their ties with youth, Kia has also launched a nationwide, youth-oriented program, titled "Kia Presents The Soul Collective." As part of the campaign, Kia is partnering with young and modern thought leaders, brought together to form The Soul Collective, from different disciplines including music, film, design, and gaming to show exactly "how they roll" through their respective mediums. [Barking Robot] [Kia Motors America]

Coca-Cola & BuzzNet 'Sounds of Buzz': Coke, BuzzNet & Stereogum are partnering together on a site that provides live concert & music festival updates, music videos, news & ticketing information. So, are you ready for American Idiot the musical? Also, PacSun, the premier surf clothing wear company, has a newly updated music site. Check it out, it's pretty sweet! [BuzzNet] [PacSun] 

Tweet O' The Week: "I swear one day I'll be able to convince some members of my family that new technology isn't just a fad." (via @plasticbagUK) [Twitter]

Texting may rewire young brains: Texting is not only a nuisance for teachers struggling to keep their students' attention - it's a brain-altering habit, according to a new study. Researchers say text messaging trains young people to be speedy yet sloppy. [The Globe & Mail, via @sydneyeve]

Troubled Teens Learn Culinary Lessons: Founded in 1982, the Teen Home serves girls who are pregnant or new moms. The facility can house up to 12 girls and their babies, many of whom have been ordered into state custody or are homeless. A juvenile-court judge has recruited a world renowned chef to teach them the culinary basics. [Salt Lake Tribune]

Yodeling Mamas: Yahoo! has launched 'Yodeling Mamas' a new parenting blog written by Yahoos who are moms, including--Jeanne Moeschler--one of my favorite Yahoos! She was a great advocate of the Yahoo! For Teachers & Ypulse Totally Wired Teacher Award. [Yahoo!]

Speed Round: UK Music research highlights the complexity of music consumption in 14-24 year-olds, the folks at @WebEcology analyzed expressions of sadness on Twitter when mourning Michael Jackson, Pew Internet reports that teens' use of mobiles has increased recently (but may not be as pervasive as you think), Twilighters are the new Trekkies, Time Warner and YouTube team up to carry Cartoon Network clips & ad sales, Gossip Girl is also making its way to YouTube, some are claiming that mobile phones have achieved more than other types of aid in Africa, Nissan hopes kids will Live Wired, Die Young and finally......Beloit College professors hope their annual 'Mindset List' is an antidote to ‘Boomer arrogance'. [UK Music] [Web Ecology] [Pew Internet] [Creation Entertainment] [Bloomberg] [YouTube Blog] [All Africa] [MediaPost] [USA Today]

Weekly Wrap: Sears to Sell Toys (Again), MTV Mobile Marketing, Riley Project for Charity Water, Virtual Goods & Britney Spears, Cheskin on Chinese Youth & Facebook for Grandma

Return to Toyland: Sears, famous for its Christmas Wish Book, has announced that it's returning to the toy business in time for the holiday season. Also, Costco has pulled a controversial doll from its shelves after customers complained it was racist. [LA Times] [KTLA]

MTV Youth Marketing Uses Mobile to Promote Setting Goals: MTV launched a new multi-platform advertising initiative inviting youth to publicly share something they feel strongly about. [MobileMarketer]

The Riley Project: After learning that 5,000 kids die a day because they do not have clean water, 7-yr-old Riley Goodfellow wanted to see what 5000 kids dying a day looked like. She drew 5,000 lines to help people understand how many kids die a day. It took her about 4 days to make the lines. Riley is now collecting donations to fund new wells in Africa through one of my favorite organizations--Charity Water. [Riley Project] [Charity:Water]

NAEP on Technical Literacy: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released a draft framework for the national assessment of technological literacy, the first to gauge students’ understanding of and skill in using a range of tools, has been presented to the board that oversees the testing program. [Education Week]

Virtual Goods, Real Money: Virtual goods represent one of the strongest ways that marketers and retailers can get involved with virtual worlds, and their popularity in social networks has increased with the opening up of the Facebook platform. This potential gold mine has inspired Britney Spears to launch her own line of virtual gifts on Facebook. [eMarketer] [Britney Spears.com]

Less than 1/20 Social Networkers Pay Attention to Ads: Research out today by LinkShare (via the Internet Advertising Bureau) shows that only 4% of users have ever clicked on an advert on a social network. [Social Media Today]

Miley's Choice: Over on Ypulse, Anastasia Goodstein has an excellent essay about Miley Cyrus' and her risque "pole dance" performance on the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. [Ypulse.com]

Tweet O' the Week: "One of the few holy traditions that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all hold sacred in common? S'mores." (via @sacca)

Cheskin on Chinese Youth Culture: China’s New Culture of Cool provides answers to these questions and more. LiAnne Yu, Cynthia Chan and Christopher Ireland take a fresh, easy-to-read look at the emerging, affluent and influential middle class of China. [Cheskin]

Speed Round: A 11-year old interviews President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is bullish on mobile phones in the classroom, research conducted by Common Sense Media found that parents aren't hip to what their teens are doing online (shock! awe!), Ars Technia has compiled an excellent privacy guide for Facebook (thanks Anastasia!) and Rookie Moms has a Facebook guide for grandma, Glyndŵr University is hosting a conference on how youth and community work practice can respond to the digital transformation of society, and finally........CNN asks if the Twitterati can sell your soda pop! [ABC News] [Tech Disruptions] [Common Sense Media] [Ars Technia] [Rookie Moms] [Glyndŵr University] [CNN]

Weekly Wrap: Brizzly, Twitter Research, TV is Dead, UK vs USA Social Networking Stats, Craig Ferguson on 'Why The World is Stupid'

Meet Brizzly: I recently got an invite to give Brizzly a test drive. I have to say that, so far, I'm really impressed. Brizzly has a ton of great features that make using Twitter even better, without hogging your computer's memory.

I'm going to write a longer post about Brizzly next week, but in the meantime, why not surf over to Brizzly and sign-up for an invite?! [Brizzly.com]

What Youth Think: The mobileYouth team has launched a new YouTube channel, What Youth Think, that features young people providing unfiltered, unbiased video reviews on brands and products like TweetDeck, Boost Mobile and Hollister. What a great idea!

You can also follow mobileYouth and What Youth Think on Twitter. [mobileYouth]

Researchers Ride the Twitter Wave: No fewer than a half-dozen Microsoft Research college interns are pursuing various Twitter-related projects this summer, five of them based at Microsoft Research New England. Also danah boyd, also part of Microsoft Research, breaks down Nielsen's "Teens Don't Tweet" research. [Microsoft Research Labs] [apophenia]

The Family Together in Front of the TV is Dead, Facebook & Twitter Rule: In the new, multichannel era of texting, tweeting and tapping away on computers, the generations are finding their entertainment in very different spheres.

Twitter, Facebook and Spotify are at the heart of the new entertainment, consuming hours of attention a week and even taking up time while people are supposedly watching television. [Times Online]

Tweet O' the Week: "The reason I like Twitter so much? It's because it gives "thinking outloud" a social dimension." ~@gapingvoid (aka Hugh MacLeod, author of Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity)

Social Networking Ages in Britain: U.K. teenagers are turning their back on social networks including Facebook, according to an official report, which also found that Britons are more likely to cut spending on their holidays and nights out than on their mobile phones or television subscriptions.

Meanwhile in the U.S., according to research conducted by Universal McCann, social networking is showing no sign of slowing down. In fact, it's still growing. From posting photos to writing blogs, the desire to share has become a universal phenomenon. [Business Weekly] [ReadWriteWeb]

Internet Use Triples in Decade: New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 62 percent of households reported using Internet access in the home in 2007, an increase from 18 percent in 1997, the first year the bureau collected data on Internet use and other research points. [US Census Press]

Craig Ferguson on Why The World is Stupid: 'What happened is youth became more important and  more important. Society started to turn on its head. Because youth has a byproduct -- inexperience.

By the nature of youth you don't have any experience. It's not your fault. You're just kind of stupid. So the deification of youth evolved, and turned into the deification of imbecility.' [NY Post]

Speed Round: Students can now rent their textbooks, ISTE & HP begin a joint professional development venture, UK troops are encouraged to use Twitter and Facebook in the field, in contrast the U.S. Marines bans Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and finally....Guy Kawasaki takes A Look At What Young People Are/Are Not Willing To Pay For Online!

Weekly Wrap: Gen Y Love Mom & Dad, Google Generation, Best Buy Mobile Survey, MySpace as 'Digital Ghetto', Millennial Stereotypes & Calling BS on Social Media

The Real Life of Teens: The media portrays teens as being 'sexting', binge-drinking louts - but it's just a variation on a centuries-old stereotype. Why are we so afraid of young people? (This is such a great column, well worth reading and a refreshing portrayal of Gen Y.) [Irish Times]

Gen Y Still Love Mum & Dad: They might be young adults making their own way in life, but a new research published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that the wired wonders of Gen Y still value the advice of their parents. [Courier News]

Google Generation is a Myth: Research conducted University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web. [JISC]

Tweet of the Week: "For the record, I keep my billions of virtual dollars tucked safely under my virtual mattress with a virtual rottweiler protecting (via @elusivefish)." Speaking of virtual currency... [Twitter] [Virtual World News]

Hot for Teacher?: A teacher accidentally put pornography into a DVD that was meant to be filled with school memories from the past year, and nobody caught the error until after it was sent home, shocking parents and students alike. Hey DJ--cue the music!. [CBS News] [MTV]

Calling Bullshit on Social Media: "For starters: social media is a stupid term. Is there any anti-social media out there? Of course not." I love this blog post. So. Spot. On. And long overdue [scottberkun.com]

Storytelling 2.0: Penguin Books have launched a great new site that allows kids to play in an unlimited online space where they can create their own virtual stories, books and games for just $10. Once created they can send them to friends to watch, read or play and save them to their own virtual bookshelf. [Digital Buzz via @liamom]

Best Buy® Mobile Survey: Of all Americans with mobile phones, 62% say they use text messaging, mostly because it's a convenient and quick way to communicate. More than one-third (37%) say they use texting to avoid long or tough conversations, and over one-quarter (27%) say they use it because they dislike talking on the phone. One-quarter feel it's a great way to flirt, particularly among the 18-24-year-old set (39%). [Business Wire]

One Last Thing: Corporate types pledge to be more open about tracking consumers online, according to some experts MySpace is now a 'digital ghetto', a new study by FUSE Marketing shows that teens love events, Steve Wheeler on e-learning 3.0 (think mobile!), the abstinence movement gets rebranded, two college kids get a book deal for 'Twitterature', and Nickelodeon launches video games with a pro social message (also related). [AP] [TransComic] [BrandFlakes] [Steve Wheeler] [Alpha Mommy] [Galley Cat] [MediaPost] [Press Any Key]

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!

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.