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Posted by Izzy Neis on January 28, 2008
Lolzville. Many thanks to Jennifer for this gem!
Posted in Online Community Expert, Teens, entertainment, moderation, online community, pop culture, responsibility, social networking | No Comments »
Posted by Izzy Neis on January 28, 2008
Kate, my neighbor across the hall, brought over her XO for me to try. She had taken advantage of One Laptop Per Child’s $400 “Give One Get One” offer in November, and while a child in the developing world was presumably exploring the donated XO, we now had her matching XO to investigate ourselves.
In my apartment, the sight of an electronic device that was built to last was almost jarring. My trembling, delicate, temperamental laptop suddenly seemed like a dying tropical bird, while the XO is a happy, healthy puppy. A tough puppy. The XO is said to withstand desert heat, direct sunlight, thick humidity, distressing falls, dirt, rainstorms and (I’m not kidding) assault by cats. Kate and I invited some preschool-age kids, including hers and mine, to come beat it up. They squealed and crowded in cinematically to glimpse the holy thing.
It was hard to open. That killed the communitarian buzz for awhile. I had charged it — with a standard AC jack, though it can also run off a custom-designed solar panel — but ignored the (online) instructions. Antennas, which I mistook for kickstands, needed to be raised. An enticingly big button that looked like a latch turned out to be a hinge.
Sarah, my upstairs neighbor, came down with her two daughters. Seeing my bewilderment, she was the first of us to mention “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” That 1980 comedy has lasted: the indelible image of a tribesman coming upon a Coke bottle in the Kalahari seems in retrospect like the last word in any number of 1970s arguments about cultural hybridization. I wondered what promises and threats the XO laptops, air-dropped like propaganda leaflets (or trucked to Catholic schools by the thousands, whichever), would conjure for students in poor countries.
Virginia Heffernan - The Medium - Television - Internet Video - Media - New York Times
This is a fun review, and I’ve always been curious about this project.
Blogged with Flock
Posted in Education, Parents, Youth, child safety, kid empowerment, learning, pop culture, pro-kid movement | 1 Comment »
Posted by Izzy Neis on January 28, 2008
Now, Disney is spinning its tales in the newest mass medium — online virtual worlds, where children adopt cartoonish avatars and play games.Disney and other entertainment companies are rushing to capitalize on the latest Internet phenomenon: the rise of virtual worlds for kids. Online haunts for grown-ups, such as Second Life, grab the attention of corporate marketers. But digital playgrounds for the juice-box set — such as Disney’s Club Penguin and Ganz Inc.’s Webkinz — are drawing bigger crowds.
Disney adds fantasy lands - Los Angeles Times
This article doesn’t say anything overly new, but instead reinforces the fact (and gladly so) that Virtual world environments (or MMO’s, in Disney’s case), cost a LOT of money to build AND CONTINUOUSLY MAINTAIN!
They’re not easy, and they take a lot of people to run.
Check out the article if you’re interested. 
Blogged with Flock
Tags: Disney, MMO, MMORPG, virtual world, online community, youth, kids, tweens, technology, web, internet, entertainment, game, gaming, theme parks
Posted in Parents, Youth, child safety, disney, entertainment, kid entertainment, kid pop culture, marketing, online community, pop culture, social networking, tween | No Comments »
