Great review of Moderation & tools

Via yesterday’s New York Times, a great article by Leslie Berlin (who is the project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford) about the different techniques and technologies used to moderate children’s virtual worlds for inappropriate/dangerous content and risky behaviours. The article focuses on vw’s that try to monitor “intent as well as content”…rather [...]

Links for Today

How to get the most out of social networks and NOT annoy them
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136233
Augmented reality will blur the line between reality and virtual
http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=136284
Gaming industry slowing? Or just getting started?
http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/21/will-the-game-industry-start-to-slow-down-or-is-it-just-getting-started/
The Earth Day generation
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/04/22/the-earth-day-generation/
Neil Gaiman pens a goodbye to Batman
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/04/a-love-letter-t
Rock Band Lego? Awesome
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/04/lego-rock-band-is-coming-and-it-will-be-family-friendly.ars
McDonald’s and Kidzbop work together
http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/news/20090427/kidzbop.html
Teens are tightening budgets
http://adage.com/article?article_id=136253
What ails the worlds biggest gaming platform?
http://kotaku.com/5206876/what-ails-the-worlds-biggest-gaming-platform
EA launches Sims [...]

Vacation time!

Hey all!
I’m flying out for a MUCH needed vacation.  London & the highlands of Scotland, here I come.
Blog when I’m back: April 27th-ish
Iz

live action, tv, tweens, and twitter: Hmmmmm?

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Nickelodeon is stepping up its live-action comedy efforts with two pilots, one about surfers and the other revolving around telepathic high-schoolers.
The untitled surfing show from producer Tommy Lynch, written by Boyce Bugliari and Jamie McLaughlin (“Quintuplets”), is a single-camera buddy comedy about two high school surfers who spend their lives [...]

Kids Online Unconference 2

First of many plugs about the Kids Online Unconference that is happening the day before the Ypulse Youth Mashup. The whole thing is 5/31/09-6/2/09, but come to what you can.
We need to start getting a headcount, so if you could let myself or any of the other coordinators know if you are planning on [...]

The merge of real & online friends

New research about online and offline friends shows that most teens use the Internet to interact with people they already know rather than strangers who might turn out to be predators.
The 2008 study by University of California researchers asked 251 teens about their face-to-face friends and those they communicate with via social networking and instant [...]

Webkinz adds a bit of Enviro-Green fun

In addition to the Deluxe Membership, Ganz also added the Caring Valley to Webkinz World last night! Thanks to yaniella from our forum for providing us with a picture of the Caring Valley map!   Remember, in order to plant saplings and get an Enchanted Tree, you must buy a Webkinz that has a “Caring Valley“ tag on [...]