By Jove, I think THEY’VE got it!

I know that’s a famous quote, but it’s been used so many times… I think it was in Disney’s Alice In Wonderland… hmmm… ANYWAY, to the article!

The phenomenon of branded social networks was thrown into the spotlight back in January when Disney CEO Bob Iger unveiled the company’s revamped Web site complete with MySpace-like features [...]

Media Responsibility, Myspace, and Preteens/kids

This morning I was surfing Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis (CynKids 2/28/07) morning email (which I love by the way) and I came across a Great sounding new property called “Those Scurvy Rascals” –a CGI animated series that will premiere this spring (‘07) on Nicktoons Network (our buddies who are also airing the Edgar & Ellen cartoon [...]

"A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Here’s a Tuesday giggle for you (p.s. you wanna check out their site for the video):
ICYMI: Watch Out! The Emo’s Are Coming!!!Is there anything funnier than when the local news attempts to tackle “hip” and “now” issues like “blogs” or “emo” music? I don’t think so. Just check out this report on [...]

BBC’s Blue Peter VS Nickelodeon & Cartoon Network

UGC (User Generated Content) & Kid Empowerment could be SOOO dynamic. Truly.  Why the big kid-networks haven’t figured it out yet, i don’t know.  I’m not bringing Disney into this, simply because Disney tends to only promote Disney (That’s not a diss, just a valid observation)… haven’t seen them branch beyond their own Disneyness yet [...]

Ten Tips for Your Forums X 3

I Just stumbled upon this blo, SEORefugee. It has some really great information for young forums, especially those moderating young forums. Check out the lists below. I thought they were REALLY informative (and gratifying to know how right I am– that ALONE is an amazing thought, lol!)
*10 Mistakes that Will KILL a [...]

CommunityNext: The Awesomeness of Threadless!

Time Vs. Awesomeness = Threadless‘ success.
Don’t believe me?
Watch Jake and Jeffrey talk about it themselves:
http://communitynext.com/threadless-video-notes
(Link stolen… ahem BORROWED, from Noah’s OkDork)

Power Trio: User Generated Content & TV & Jack Black (Acceptable.tv)

The folks behind the site Channel101.com are teaming up with VH1 and Jack Black for an innovative video show called Acceptable.TV (watch the hilarious promo). In a nutshell, users upload their own three-minute mini-shows. The user shows are combined with “professional” shows produced by the Acceptable.TV team. Users then vote for the shows they want [...]

Virtual Life, The Sims, and Teaching the Future

The Sims Life Stories Exhibition will explore and celebrate some of the iconic art and storylines that gave us advice over and above what teenagers learned behind the bike sheds.
The subjects explored are:
1. Friendship – Dealing with jealousy and arguing
2. Love – Exploring everything from boyfriends to broken hearts via flirting and cheating’
3. Appearance / [...]

More: Kids Social Networking

In fact, most of these sites are remarkably safe. For example, at sites like Webkinz, members can only chat by choosing from a list of the site’s preexisting conversational snippets—safe but a bit stifling. Language and profanity filters at Club Penguin are so strict that one user complained of being blocked from the site for [...]

"To find a friend one must close one eye; To keep him, two.”

-Norman Douglas
Social-Networking Traing Wheels
Actually, I think these sites may be teen-social-networking training wheels as much for parents as for their users (parents who don’t already have MySpace profiles, anyway). Newsweek leads with how Club Penguin (4 million visitors/month) kept a child, who was in the hospital for five months, connected with his then-distant friends. But [...]