Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Report: 17.2 Million Children in America Are at Risk of Hunger

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17.2 million children in America are at risk of hunger. Of the 37 million Americans served annually by Feeding America member food banks, nearly 14 million are children under the age of 18.

Here are some facts about child hunger in America:

• Research indicates that even mild under-nutrition experienced by young children during critical periods of growth impacts their behavior, school performance, and cognitive development.

• Children who are hungry may not perform well academically.

• Children who are hungry may experience slower growth and inhibited brain development.

• Children who are hungry may suffer from more stomach aches, headaches, colds, ear infections, and fatigue.

• During the school year, about 20.5 million children depend on free or reduced-price school meals to help keep them from going hungry.

ConAgra Foods and Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, will premiere “Child Hunger Ends Here: A Special Report” on select NBC stations across the nation on March 19.

The 30-minute special, hosted by Al Roker with Natalie Morales, gives viewers a better understanding about the negative effects of hunger on children and how they can help end child hunger.

The special kicks off ConAgra Foods’ annual Child Hunger Ends Here campaign. From March through May 2011, ConAgra Foods will embark on its largest branded initiative to fight child hunger in the United States.

 

Consumers can purchase select ConAgra Foods brands and, when they enter their code online, the company will donate one meal to Feeding America — up to 2.5 million meals during this time period.

Related Resources

• Child Food Insecurity in the United States 2006-2008
• Child Food Insecurity: The Economic Impact on our Nation
• Emergency Food Assistance and Hispanic Children
• Hunger in America 2010: Largest study of domestic hunger in the United States
• FeedingAmerica.org
• Facebook.com/ConAgraFoods

Facebook Live SXSW 2011: Solei Moon Frye & Randi Zuckerberg on Social Media, Facebook & 21st Century Parenting [VIDEO]

In this Facebook Live event, filmed at the IFC House at SXSW 2011, Soleil Moon Frye and Randi Zuckerberg talk about how moms use social media, like Facebook, to connect with each other to share ideas, solutions and to handle the daily stress of parenthood.

One interesting stat from Randi Zuckerberg: moms are the most engaged demographic on Facebook. Who knew?

 

Watch live streaming video from facebookguests at livestream.com

 

Related Resources

• Millennial Mom 101
• Trend Watch: Yahoo! Connectonomics
• Razorfish Digital Mom Report
• BlogHer-iVillage Social Media & Moms
• Yahoo! Women Online Study
• The Rise of the Real Mom
• Study: Millennial Moms & Digital Communication
• Mr. Youth: Millennial Mom 101
• 21st Century Mom Report

Global Youth: UNICEF Report | State of the World’s Children 2011

UNICEF has released their annual report, The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity, which examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage.

UNICEF Report: The State of the World’s Children 2011

The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in.

 

The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

United Nations 'Girl Up' Campaign Encourages American Girls to Raise Awareness for Programs That Help the World’s Hardest-To-Reach Adolescent Girls

The United Nations Foundation is launching its newest campaign – Girl Up – which encourages American girls to channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for their counterparts in the developing world.

Girl Up will raise awareness about the 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries and encourages American girls to give back.

Funds raised through Girl Up will support proven United Nations programs that help the hardest-to-reach girls in such countries as Malawi, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Liberia.

Campaign supporters are encouraged to give a “High Five” to girls in developing countries by taking five minutes to learn about the issues facing girls or by donating $5 or more to provide girls with such basic needs as access to school supplies, clean water, life-saving health services, safety from violence and more.

Quick Facts about Girls:

• More than half of the world’s 1.5 billion young people (ages 10-25) are adolescent girls living in developing countries.
• Girls make up more than 50% of the world’s 143M out-of-school youth.
• 1 in 7 girls in the developing world is married before the age of 15.
• Up to 50% of girls in developing countries become mothers before the age of 18.
• In some countries, girls spend up to 15 hours a day obtaining water for their families and villages.
• 1/6 of the world’s young people live on less than $2 a day, including 122 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa who live on less than $1 a day
• There are 21 million girls ages 10-19 living in the United States – more educated, socially connected and empowered today than ever before in history.

Founding campaign partners include MTV Networks, National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, Women’s National Basketball Association, Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, Girls Inc., and Camp Fire USA.

For more information, visit www.GirlUp.org.

Related Resources

• Sign the "Girl Up" Pledge
• Join "Girl Up" on Facebook
• Follow "Girl Up" on Twitter

Global Youth: Is That Egyptian Facebook Sign for Real?

via techpresident.com

Floating around the Internet of late has been the photo above of what looks to be an Egyptian man amidst the anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square holding up what appears to be a pro-Facebook sign.

A sign like that lends a little weight to the idea that, whatever tactical role that social technologies might have played in the Egyptian uprising, they've captured the hearts and minds of Egyptians. Alec Ross, the U.S. State Department's senior advisor on innovation, found vindication in the photo. "14:58 ... 14:59 ...,"  tweeted Ross this morning. "Cyberskeptics, your 15 minutes are up."

Powerful stuff, perhaps. But with the sheer volume of photos, tweets, blog posts and more we're seeing about Egypt, provenience is often an afterthought. And perhaps I'm the only one who had the though, but that block lettering looks awfully well done.

So to, um, just put on our skeptical pants for a moment, let's ask, is the Facebook-in-Egypt sign for real? Or is this a joke on Malcolm Gladwell? It's the real deal, or at least all signs point in that direction.

As to what the sign itself actually reads, the Arabic-trained  Aaron Banks translates it as, "Thank you...youth [of] Egypt," then the Facebook reference, and then "Steadfast we will not go."

• Read the full article on techPresident

Trend Watch: China's 'Angry Youth' Movement

The transcript of Kai-Fu Lee's keynote on China's 'Angry Youth' at The Brookings Institution is a fascinating read full of insight and observations of Chinese youth made by someone with the experience and knowledge to do so.

Dr. Lee was the founder of China-based Microsoft Research Asia and was the founding president of Google China. Kai-Fu Lee, is a household name in China, has written three best selling books and all them aim to help people understand, educate or mentor China's young people.

According to Dr. Lee China’s "angry youth," or fenqing, present a challenging phenomenon to both China and the outside world. These young men and women often use the Internet and other channels of political discourse to publicly express their critical views.

Earlier this year Accenture released a report that found young Chinese (14-27 years old) spend an average of 34 hours each week using real-time communications and social media/networking tools. At 34 hours a week, that number is almost triple the average of the other 12 countries profiled in the report.

So who exactly are China's "angry youth?" According to Kai-Fu Lee:

"So when we talk about angry youth, I think we're talking about post-80's, people born after 1980, that they had access to the internet, and that they often use it to vent their frustrations and that frustration often comes from either their patriotism or their desire to seek that which is righteous, fair, true and transparent.

They care about social issues. They're concerned and they feel that they need to be outspoken to have their voices heard, and they often use the internet to gain knowledge and to have their voice heard.

...when we talk about angry youth, I really don't want to think about this as a very negative term because I think if we think deeply about what angry youth are about, this is people who are young people who have access to information, who have a sense of social repsonsiblity, who have their sense of right and wrong--they are not always right--but they have a sense of right and wrong.

Their hyper-nationalistic and often anti-Western sentiments, which first emerged in the late 1990s and are widely disseminated today, stand in sharp contrast to a generation of Chinese youth just 20 years ago.

What gives rise to the frustrations of China’s "angry youth?" How representative of China’s youth are fenqing? What implications does their existence have for the country’s political trajectory? How will the growing influence of China’s "angry youth" impact China’s foreign policy in years to come?

This keynote aims to both answer these questions as well as educate Westerners on the emerging trends among Chinese youth.

China's 'Angry Youth' Movement

 

Related: Barking Robot@Tumblr > China's Top Social Networks

Land of Nod Teams with the No Kid Hungry Campaign

Kid retailer The Land of Nod has has teamed up with the No Hungry Kid campaign, a program of Share Our Strength, dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.

There's been lots of chatter about how well Millennials respond to cause marketing campaigns. In many regards this generation expects corporations to "do well and do good." Since many of them are full swing in the baby and childhood rearing stage of their lives, hopefully this collaboration will resonate with Millennials and their pocketbooks.

The Land of Nod, part of the Crate and Barrel family of stores, has set up a dedicated microsite to educate their customers on the facts on childhood hunger in America. In addition, they have several products that they will give 5% of the proceeds from the purchase to No Kid Hungry.

To make it even easier for people to get involved, The Land of Nod has made it possible to donate to No Kid Hungry via SMS. You can make a $10.00 donation now by texting "NOD" to 20222.

While some may see this as yet another exercise in slacktivism, the sad truth is that nearly 17 million American kids don't have enough to eat. So if this pro-social campaign makes it easier for people to donate, then I'm all for it--kudos to The Land of Nod!

 

The No Kid Hungry Campaign operates on four key points:

* Creating public-private partnerships at the state level to break down barriers that prevent kids from accessing the food they need.

* Feeding hungry kids where they live, learn, and play. In 2009, thanks to a lot of team work, we helped provide 4.5 million more meals to needy children.

* Educating children and families about nutrition and healthy eating. Through Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, we have reached nearly 60,000 families, spreading knowledge on how to budget for groceries and cook great tasting and nutritious foods.

* Building awareness of the childhood hunger crisis and a drive for change among all Americans. Using as many channels as possible we are making No Kid Hungry a shared national priority.

• Connect with No Kid Hungry on Twitter and Facebook

• Connect with Land of Nod on Twitter and Facebook

"It Gets Better Project" Delivers Digital Hope and Shows the Power of Social Media

“It gets better… It gets so much better… I promise, it gets so much better.”

These are the promises of participants in the It Gets Better Project, founded by advice columnist Dan Savage. In September 2010, following a rash of suicides by gay teens bullied by their peers, Savage created a YouTube channel to offer hope to those in similar situations.

The goal was to showcase the positive and fulfilling lives led by Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer adults, and to give LGBTQ young people something to hold on to when they saw only misery in their futures. Savage encouraged adult members of the queer community to upload their own videos describing how life “got better” for them after high school.

The response was enormous. Savage received 3,000 emails about the project in its first 24 hours. Over 200 videos were uploaded in the first week, and the limit of 650 videos for a single YouTube channel was reached a week after that. Savage set up a website to help direct users to the many new videos being uploaded every day to other channels.

Hollywood stepped in as well, with videos uploaded by celebrities such as Tim Gunn (Project Runway), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) and President Barack Obama. 

Though the star power helped bring visibility to the campaign, Savage emphasized a focus on average, everyday LGBTQ adults. He wanted to show kids that you don’t have to be rich and famous to be happy and find love, whatever form of love that may be.

"It Gets Better" is a good message for all bullied teenagers, no matter the reason for being bullied.

Online buzz spiked when news of American Idol contestant Adam Lambert’s contribution to the project hit Twitter. A GLAAD campaign to “wear purple”on October 20 to raise awareness of anti-gay bullying gained traction on Facebook and Twitter.  

Some participants even reported wearing purple despite not knowing the reason why – they simply saw it in their feeds and wanted to fit in with their friends (who quickly told them about the campaign).  

The power of social media over behavior can be staggering.

via www.nmincite.com

Indie Film: MTV Introduces Gen Y to 'The World of Jenks'

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live someone else’s life? Find out when MTV introduces viewers to “The World of Jenks,” the brainchild of award-winning documentary filmmaker Andrew Jenks.

This new MTV docu-series follows Jenks as he shadows a complete stranger in each episode – exploring their lives, interacting with their family, hanging with their friends and living life through their eyes.

World of Jenks - MTV Shows

 

Whether he is on the road with rapper Maino, spending time behind bars at a juvenile detention center or living on the streets with a homeless teen, Andrew Jenks keeps the cameras rolling every hour, every day. “The World of Jenks” premieres on MTV this summer.

Throughout the series, Andrew’s experiences continuously change how he perceives and interacts with the environment around him.  For every new journey, Jenks brings the audience closer to understanding someone else’s reality.

Connect with Andrew Jenks

• Follow Andrew Jenks on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook

2010 Social Media Matters Report: Majority of Top Media Destinations Are Social

According to research conducted by BlogHer and iVillage “2010 Social Media Matters Study,” co-sponsored by The Nielsen Company and Ketchum, social sites are now a frequent destination for nearly three-quarters of Internet users.

Social Media Matters 2010

Respondents’ top daily media activities were social as well. Watching television is still on top, but Facebook was the next most common media destination visited every day.

The study found similar rates of usage among men and women, and pegged the percentage of weekly social media users at 73% of the online population.

via www.emarketer.com

Here are some of the other key findings in the 2010 Social Media Matters Study:

• Blogs trail only search engines as the preferred media source for product-purchasing information for BlogHer users.

• Among BlogHer users, 96 percent read blogs weekly or more often.

• BlogHer users are more active than average women across the board on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.

• As for iVillage users, message boards and forums were second only to conversations with friends and family as the preferred source of product-purchasing information.

• 73 percent of respondents from the iVillage community said they share topics on message boards and forums that they would not share on social networks. Of those, relationships (61 percent), health (45 percent), and work-related issues (39 percent) were the top topics they would not share on social networks.

• 31% higher than the total online population for Gen X generation

• 3.6 percent of iVillage community members post on message boards or forums every day.

Related: Millennials, Men Watch Most Online TV

Weekly Wrap: iPad Demographics, Geolocation Wars, Twitter + Blackbird Pie, Facebook Privacy Translated, TED TV, Nintendo DS Glucose Meter, iPad Apps for Kids & More!

Apple iPad User Analysis: Just a week after the iPad’s launch, we began to analyze the behavior of the first iPad users on the Yahoo! network. While some of the findings were expected, there were a few surprises that popped. Related: US Twitter Demographics & Stats [Yahoo! Mobile] [Barking Robot]

Facebook Set to Add Geolocation Features: Watch out Foursquare, information has leaked that Facebook is set to roll out location-based features for users and brands as soon as this month. According to Advertising Age, users could see location options any day now. [Mashable]

What is Twitter Really Up to With Blackbird Pie?: Following a bit of online buzz yesterday around embeddable Twitter quotes for online publishers, Twitter Media made it official today by unveiling a new tool dubbed 'Blackbird Pie'. [Social Media Today]

Facebook-to-English Translator: Despite the voluminous buzz, many commentators have missed the most confusing announcement of all — new Facebook jargon. So, in the interests of helping users understand what's going on, we've put together a rough Facebook-to-English translator. Think of it as a handy phrase-book that could help you navigate through the more common situations you'll find yourself in. [Electronic Freedom Foundation]

Kids Blood Glucose Meter Attaches to Nintendo DS: Every time a kid uses Didget to check his blood glucose level, it awards points that can be used to buy items and unravel new game levels within an associated game. The idea behind Didget is to encourage kids manage their diabetes by rewarding them for regular blood glucose testing. [BoingBoing]

Why Does the BBC Want to Send Its Readers Away?: The BBC aims to double the number outbound clicks from its site by 2013. That’s double the number of people sent away from the BBC site — intentionally. [Nieman Journalism Lab]

TED TV: The new initiative will allow television broadcasters around the world to air the talks for free as well as create programming around them. One of the primary goals behind the project is to extend the reach of TED’s idea-spreading mission into the developing world. [JED] 

Millennials Tech-Dependent, But Not Necessarily Tech-Savvy: One of the biggest myths about Millennials is that they are all digital natives, blogging and tweeting their way through life.  The truth is a bit more nuanced. Related: The Myth of the Digital Native [Millennial Marketing] [Barking Robot]

Teenage Homelessness on the Rise: In Minnesota, the number of 18- to 21-year-olds in shelters more than doubled in the past three years. [StarTribune.com]

Top 10 Entertainment iPad Apps for Kids: Sure, the new gadget isn’t perfect, but not to worry—techie geniuses have been up since its release, working through the kinks and quirks. Nothing left to do but the fun stuff; grab your kids and try out some of the latest entertainment apps, adapted or created for the iPad. [Kideos]

2010 Totally Wired Teacher Award: After listening to feedback from our friends in the educator community, we've made some important changes to this year's Totally Wired Teacher Award provided by Dell. Please help us spread the word to any public school teachers you are in contact with. [Ypulse]

Global Youth: Africa is the Future

The youth and branding Africa

View more presentations from G. Kofi Annan. (@G. Kofi Annan)

This presentation looks at Africa not as a place, but as a brand and calls on African youth to make a change. With 60% of the population under 25, the role of young people in the developing a new Africa is immense.

Thanks to Three Billion for the heads up on this excellent presentation!

Report: Minority Teens Close Digital Divide with Mobile Web

A recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report, Teens and Mobile Phones, indicated that black teens were more than twice as likely as whites to go online on with their mobile phones, at 44% versus 21%. Hispanic teens were also relatively active on the mobile Web.

“Teens from low-income households, particularly African-Americans, are much more likely than other teens to go online using a cell phone,” the report said. “This is a pattern that mirrors Pew Internet Project findings about adults and their cell phones.”

Urban Youth Are Wire(less)

For most of the 1990s the conversation around minority youth and technology was centered on the “digital divide.” This conversation was primarily focused on hardware issues and connection to the Internet.

However, as S. Craig Watkins points out, the digital divide is not just about access, it is “also about social and cultural skills in human networks to enable proper participation.”

In his keynote at the 2010 Digital Media Learning 2010, S. Craig Watkins (University of Texas at Austin) presented a number of emergent patterns about African-American and Latino youth usage and participation in the digital media space:

• Usage Is Mobile: Mobile phones are emerging as the preferred platform among minority youth. 92% of 1500 minority youth surveyed in 6 major urban markets own a mobile phone;

• Usage Is Peer And Interest Driven: They are "living and learning" with new media, engaging their peers, peer interaction, peer informed spaces that drive their usage and interest driven genres (e.g., hip hop);

• Digital Media Is The New Town Square: "Back in the day" hip hop youth were always writing stories, carrying pens and papers; documenting their stories about their life in poems and hip hop. Today, the digital landscape is the new town square and they go online to engage with their community, and engage in a "stunning" critique about the world around them;

• Use Digital Media As A Space Of Opportunity: Messaging & hanging around in digital media is NOT just wasting time, but they are creating gateways for them to create opportunities and engage with what they are love and passionate about (e.g., a young girl who used hip hop to connect with hip hop artists, but also to connect with her friends and record/tweet about her own hip hop).

Whether it's marketing soda, producing digital entertainment or online learning opportunities, it's vital that we have a better understanding how minority and urban youth connect and interact on the web so that we can create more inclusive digital experiences.

Related: The Young and the Digital

Image Source: eMarketer

The Virtual Homeless Project: Using Mobile Phones to Raise Awareness

This is a pretty moving piece from Pathways To Housing & Sarkissian Mason depicting a “virtual” homeless man projected onto a wall in NYC, shivering from the cold of a sleepless night, alone, outdoors, he is just one of 40,000 similar people that are homeless in New York.

The campaign to raise awareness hope to create interaction with someone most people just pass by, in prompting the public to interact with the virtual homeless man by SMSing a number that opens a door.

Passers by are then given the opportunity to send another SMS to make a small donation instantly from their phone. Very, very cool work for a great cause.

via www.digitalbuzzblog.com

Related: Lady Gaga Joins Forces with Virgin Mobile to Fight Teen Homelessness

Weekly Wrap: Fisher-Price Facebook Apps, I Want My Android TV, Justin Bieber for Old People, UK Entertainment Convergence, SXSW Roundup & More!

Fisher-Price App Aims for Moms on Facebook: Targeting the many moms online, Mattel’s Fisher-Price is launching a Facebook app Thursday that allows mothers to be more selective in choosing which of their friends can see photos of their children. Mothers who go online, particularly the influential group of “mommy bloggers,” present an important market for toy makers. [WSJ]

Android TV! | Google, Intel & Sony Join Forces: This trend is potentially much more disruptive than the introduction of 3D displays. Now a secret joint effort by Google, Intel and Sony to enter this field in partnership has been revealed. It will bring Google’s Android operating system and Chrome browser to TVs and set top boxes.

The technology has the potential to be disruptive to traditional TV by making the full range of Internet content available on television. [Collaborative Creativity]

What's TV's Next Business Model: It's hard to find TV content today that does not contain Web site addresses, Twitter mentions, and text-based messages throughout. It's accepted that even with these "light" reference points, as it stands now TV's long-term prospects pale in comparison to those of the Internet, mostly because TV content still has no direct-response mechanism.

Blending Internet elements into TV content makes for a seamless experience - and, in my opinion, is tomorrow's preferred business model. Related: Business Exchange > "Social Television" [MediaPost] [Business Weekly]

US Children get Playboy, not Bugs Bunny in Cable Mix-up: Young viewers of children's television programs in North Carolina got a glimpse of something far more risque than their favorite cartoons, when a cable glitch broadcast two hours of the Playboy channel. (Oooops!) [Yahoo! News]

Entertainment Convergence in the UK Digital Home: The UK is still at a relatively early stage of convergence when it comes to digital entertainment such as TV shows, films, short-form video, games, music and social networking. But momentum is building. [eMarketer]

Vodafone gives $1 million grant to Web Foundation for Web-enabling entrepreneurs in Africa: While only 25 percent of the world population uses the Web today, more than 70 percent of the world’s population has access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content.

In Africa, where the Internet penetration rate is approximately 6.8 percent, furthering Web access can create learning opportunities for local entrepreneurs and support the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by 2015. [WWW Foundation]

SXSW Video Interview Roundup: SXSW 2010 was a gathering of innovative companies, forward thinking people, and interactive influencers. While I didn’t have a chance to talk to all 15,000 attendees, I was able to speak to a few choice companies that have progressive products in the social media and technology realm. [Edelman]

India's Rural Cell Movement: Just last month, nearly 20 million new mobile accounts were opened. That’s more than double the people than have high speed Internet in the entire country. Even in slums where people live on less than $2 a day, everyone has a phone. If “Slumdog Millionaire” was more accurate, Jamal wouldn’t have had to go on TV to find Latika. He could have just called her, or worst case, called a few friends until he found her number. [TechCrunch] [Yahoo! Movies]

Content Strategy is Much More than Web Copywriting: Where there should be content strategy and SEO strategy, we're often on projects where we're focused much more on target audience personas, design standards and project management charts, instead of content. The web writer is then brought in, given the creative brief, the wireframe and two weeks to "crank out the content." [Ignite Social Media]

The Justin Bieber Guide for Old People: Bad news, Old Person: No matter how much you try to avoid it, you will have to eventually interact with someone to whom Justin Bieber (BEE-BURR) is the sun around which their little life revolves. So we present this Justin Bieber Guide for Old People to help you avoid embarrassing yourself in front of your offspring, students, or patrons of your candy shop. [Gawker]

Flemish Digital Youthwork Practices: On the 8th and 9th of February 2010, Steunpunt Jeugd, Flemish knowledge and expertise center on youth, youthwork and youth policy, organized a big congress (JET) centered around youth, youth work and youth policy. One of these sessions is labeled "the 'e' in youthwork" that collected e-practices in Flemish youthwork. [Youth Work Online]