Derek E. Baird

Global Youth: How Kids Can Help Japan

On Friday, March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake struck Sendai, Japan, resulting in a devastating tsunami that ravaged the coast just 180 miles from Tokyo.

In response, Students Rebuild has partnered with DoSomething.org, to ensure students worldwide have a way to support their Japanese peers.

Help Japan by making paper cranes

These simple yet powerful gestures will trigger a $200,000 donation from the Bezos Family Foundation - $2 for each crane received - to Architecture for Humanity's reconstruction efforts in Japan.

Once we reach our goal of 100,000 submissions, the cranes will be woven into an art installation - a symbolic gift from students around the globe to Japanese youth.

Why Cranes?

Cranes are sacred creatures in Japanese culture. According to legend, anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish by a crane.

While anyone can contribute to the virtual mosaic on Facebook, our goal is to collect 100,000 origami cranes from young people to represent 100 wishes of support and healing for Japan. A list of wishes will begin to appear when we receive the first 1,000 cranes by mail.

Related Resources

• Tutorial: Make an Origami Crane
• Students Rebuild on Facebook
• Students Rebuild on Twitter

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.

Military Government Using Facebook to Reach Out to Egyptian Youth

"I’m hearing that the temporary military government has begun using Facebook to reach out to Egyptian youth, even creating a Facebook Fan Page page (here).

The Ministry of Interior, in attempt to repair the image of the state police, has set up multiple pages. And while my guess is that being a locus of political uprisings wasn’t the original intent of the American college campus-based social network, somewhere Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has got to be secretly proud.

Click here for an excellent video of how young activists in Cairo documented the Egyptian protests despite the Internet blocks."

• Read the entire article on TechCrunch

via techcrunch.com

Global Youth: Teen blogger in Syria, accused of spying, sentenced to 5 years in prison

A Syrian court has sentenced a teenage blogger to five years in prison on charges of spying for a foreign country. Tal al-Mallouhi was 17 when she was arrested in 2009 and has been held by authorites for the past two years.

Human rights groups said her long jail term was another sign of an intensifying crackdown on opposition in Syria, in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

Al-Mallouhi had written articles on her blog saying she yearned to play a role in shaping the future of Syria, which has been under the control of the Baath Party for the last 50 years. She had also asked Barack Obama, the US president, to do more to support the Palestinian cause.

It was not clear whether her arrest was connected to the blog, but a security court charged her several months ago with "revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country".

Syria's Higher State Security Court issued Monday's sentence at the end of a trial held behind closed doors, an official close to the court told the Associated Press news agency.

via english.aljazeera.net

Related: Young Egyptians want American youth to share in their dramatic moment of liberation (via MTV ACT)

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

Global Youth: Skateistan | To Live and Skate in Kabul

Over the next two weeks, The YouTube Screening Room will be showing  short films from the Sundance Film Festival --past and present.

Among the films currently availbe for streaming is Skateistan: To Live And Skate Kabul, a beautifully shot film that follows the lives of a group of young skateboarders in Afghanistan.

Skateistan is Afghanistan’s—and the world’s—first co-educational skateboarding school. Operating as an independent, neutral, Afghan NGO, the school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding, and provides them with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment.

Skateistan's students come from all of Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They not only develop skills in skateboarding and skateboarding instruction, but also healthy habits, civic responsibility, information technology, the arts, and languages.

“Skateistan is the epitome of what skating is all about. Raising awareness and providing that outlet is an incredible accomplishment. I honestly share in the excitement those kids feel!” - Tony Hawk, Skateboard Hall of Fame Inductee

The students themselves decide what they want to learn—we connect them with teachers who will enable them to develop the skills that they consider important.

Since Skateistan has been active in Kabul, we’ve seen that Afghan youth of all ethnicities, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds love to skateboard. Skateistan brings them together, equipping young men and women with the skills to lead their communities toward social change and development.

Related

• Skateistan of Facebook
• Skateistan on Twitter
• Shanghai 5: A Documentary About Chinese Youth Skateboarding Culture

Weekly Wrap: China, Social Media & Chinese Youth Trends

I've been doing some research on Chinese youth culture and their use of technology, mobile phones & social networking for a book chapter I'm working on and thought I'd share some of my research.

The following sites and articles have provided me with a pretty good insight into what it means to be a Chinese Millennial.

China's Top 4 Social Networks: There is no single dominant network, no Facebook for all of China. The actual Facebook.com is blocked by government censors (Chinese sites all obediently and quickly remove “objectionable” content). No single social network will conquer the China market in the immediate future, least of all a foreign one. [China Social Games]

Digital Confucius Introduces Chinese Students to Liberal Arts at Yale and Beyond: Hundreds of thousands of young Chinese are joining a new craze: auditing American university courses available online. Of most interest: topics like happiness and justice. [CS Monitor]

China's New Culture of Cool: China’s 1.3 billion citizens—particularly the 640 million who are under age 30—are becoming a world force. However, China is not a monolithic culture.

Though deeply rooted in native traditions, its contemporary marketplace is eclectic, combining regional styles with elements borrowed from foreign cultures.

And, it is evolving at a remarkable pace. To succeed in this dynamic emerging market, smart businesses need to understand its driving influences—especially its urban youth. [Cheskin Added Value]

Mobile Youth Trends | China 2010: The Mobile Youth Trends China 2010 Report provides marketing and product managers an overview of both the quantitative and qualitative state of play with young mobile customers (aged 5-29). [MobileYouth]

China Internet Status Report 2010: The latest report on China Internet is ready, which is based on CNNIC data. [China Internet Watch]

China Internet Network Information Center: China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the state network information center of China, was founded as a non-profit organization on Jun. 3rd 1997.

Enovate: In short, we’re a Shanghai-based insights and design agency. We combine on-the-ground research and an experienced strategy team, to arrive at innovative solutions to China’s youth market. We work with a wide range of client to build meaningful relationships with Chinese youth.

A Look at China's 240 million mobile youth: China’s legion of 240 million mobile owners under 30 yrs old has a significant bearing on the shape of the mobile phone industry and we’re fortunate to have Jesse Hu in the region to do our on-the-street research for us down in Shenzhen city. [Mobile Youth]

Infographic: Social Media Equivalents in China

Image Credit: Enovate

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

Infographic: Chinese is the New Dominant Language of the Internet

via thenextweb.com

China gained 36 million additional internet users last year meaning there are now over 440 million internet users in the country.

English has long been the most widely used language on the internet but with Chinese Internet growth rising at the rate it is, it could be less than five years before Chinese becomes the dominant language on the internet.

Boomers, Millennials & Gen X: We All Want to Be Young [VIDEO]

via vimeo.com

The movie "We All Want to Be Young" is the outcome of several studies developed by BOX1824 in the past 5 years. BOX1824 is a Brazilian research company specialized in behavioral sciences and consumer trends.

Some of the key generational characteristics (or insights) showcased in the film include:

• the sense of global, personal connection and collective consciousness enabled by the internet (and information age);

• a generalized sense of anxiety brought on by access to an overwhelming amount of information – and the need to stay connected across networks;

• use of hyperbolic language in self-expression, arguably to avoid getting ‘lost’ amidst this information overload;

• blurred definitions and categorizations of self (think designer-slash-DJ-slash copywriter-slash blogger);

• transience in short-term relationships;

• balancing work & pleasure by seeking out pleasure in short, pre-programmed breaks – this generation is used to having access to things that give them immediate pleasure.

Related: Watch 'We All Want to Be Young" in Spanish

Global Youth: Chinese Millennials' Use of Technology, the Internet, Social Media & Mobile Devices

Earlier this year Accenture released a report that found that 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.

Global Research on Millennials Use of Technology

Other key findings from the Accenture report:

• Chinese youth dwarfed other countries’ video game habits (14 hours compared to 3.4 for other countries);

• Online Shopping ( 5.1 hours vs. 1 hour for other countries);

• Virtual Worlds (5.3 hours vs. 1 hour for youth in other countries);

• Chinese youth are more obsessed with real-time chat at work than any other nation in the survey. Reporting that on average they spend 9.2 hours each week on instant messaging;

• Chinese are more enthusiastic about posting personal information on blogs or social networks than any other nation surveyed;

• Social profiling is most common in China where Millennials report that 50% of their time using SNS is spent trying to learn more about peers or superiors.

Chinese Youth and Social Networking

Currently the most popular social networking utilities for Chinese youth include QQ, MSN, RenRen and Kaixin. In China there are 640 million people under the age of 24. Like other markets, the Chinese SNS ecosystem is peppered with lots of niche communities.

Related: China’s Top 4 Social Networks

QQ, with 1 billion registered accounts (keep in mind that users are allowed to have multiple accounts, so that number skews a bit high), seems to be the leading SNS with Chinese youth and its revenues were reportedly four times higher than Facebook.

Chinese Youth, Mobile Phones and the Internet

Other key facts about Chinese use of the internet based on China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) data:

• By June 2010, Chinese internet users has reached 420 million, up 9.38% since Dec 2009;

• 41% of Chinese interet users are above 30 years old;

• 88% accessed the internet from home;

• 77% use mobile phone to access the Internet in their leisure time;

• Mobile IM is most popular application, used by 61% of Chinese Internet users;

• Chinese boys are more likely to own a mobile phone  before Chinese girls. In addition, the "network effect" appears to play a stronger role in the adoption of mobile technology among Chinese youth.

Trend Watch: People Are Online What They Are Offline--Divided, and Slow to Build Bridges

IN 2007 Danah Boyd heard a white American teenager describe MySpace, the social network, as “like ghetto or whatever.” At the time, Facebook was stealing members from MySpace, but most people thought it was just a fad: teenagers tired of networks, the theory went, just as they tired of shoes.

But after hearing that youngster, Ms Boyd, a social-media researcher at Microsoft Research New England, felt that something more than whimsy might be at work. “Ghetto” in American speech suggests poor, unsophisticated and black. That led to her sad conclusion: in their online life, American teenagers were recreating what they knew from the physical world—separation by class and race.

A generation of digital activists had hoped that the web would connect groups separated in the real world. The internet was supposed to transcend colour, social identity and national borders. But research suggests that the internet is not so radical. People are online what they are offline: divided, and slow to build bridges.

via www.economist.com

Infographic: Social Media Equivalents in China

View Large | via www.thomascrampton.com

Related: Infographic | World Map of Social Networks

Global Youth: The Goal for Digital Citizenship

Anne Collier, digital parenting guru and author of the must read NetFamilyNews blog, has a really great post on digital citizenship. As usual, she provides some keen insight on kids, parenting and the social web.

These are some of the same issues that Mercedes Fisher and grappled with as we developed a knowledge management and digital citizenship program for the National College of Ireland way back in 2006. It interesting that we are still trying to navigate this new digital and social world.

Here's an excerpt from Anne's post:

The “global village” is increasingly mirrored on the living Internet – the one that we the users update in real time with our thoughts, images, behavior, sociality, and productions.

I hadn’t thought about the overused global-village metaphor in a while, but it resurfaced at the end of an important piece about “The End of Forgetting” in the New York Times Magazine yesterday – what it calls “the first great existential crisis [and I'd add most basic parenting crisis] of the digital age.”

What we all, including and maybe especially parents, are being called on to consider is, what the indelible memory of the social Internet – if it remains indelible – does to something civilization has long valued: redemption, the chance to change or even reinvent ourselves.

Read more over on www.netfamilynews.org