Thursday, August 23, 2007

interesting perspective on kids and technology

Lots to chew on here:

The Internet's new Dr. Spock?
MIT media scholar Henry Jenkins shares expertise on technology's effect on kids, how games are replacing TV and YouTube-style politics.
By Stefanie Olsen CNET News.com
Published: August 17, 2007

My favorite quote:

...kids don't need someone looking over their shoulders, they need someone watching their backs.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Are video games good for you?

Here is an article from Yahoo!Games arguing that video games are actually quite good for you:

Games are Good for You
Five ways video games can make you better, stronger, and faster.
By Ben Silverman

My favorite quote:
There's nothing particularly pleasant about going under the knife, especially if you're wary of the surgeon's skills. That's why before making the first incision, Dr. James Clarence Rosser, Jr. of New York's Beth Israel Medical Center lets his patients know that he's awesome at Super Monkey Ball.

Hmmm. Reassuring?

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

radio bit - How to Talk to a Teenager

This was on KUOW earlier this month:

How do you talk to a teenager? Many parents say when their kids hit the teen years, they stop talking. A no smoking ad campaign ended up encouraging middle schoolers to rebel and smoke. What's going in teen brains? How do you keep the lines of communication open? Do any of you current or former teens have suggestions? (This part starts 6 minutes into the program.)

David Walsh wrote Why Do They Act That Way: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen. He's the founder of the National Institute on Media and Family, and teaches at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas.

Great tips for thinking about how to connect and communicate with teens.

Monday, August 20, 2007

social networking & advertising

Why Some Brands Seem Anti-Social
by Brian Morrissey
from Adweek


This is an interesting article about companies that have tried to reach their audiences using social networking, what has failed, and what has suceeded. What can we learn from this?

Monday, August 13, 2007

King on Rowling

Here is a quite excellent article by Stephen King on the magic of J.K. Rowling's books

Warning: spoilers abound.

Friday, August 10, 2007

cultivating fans


I like this chart (from Church of the Consumer blog), illustrating how people become fans. I don't know about you, but I was totally a fan of the library as a teen. Perhaps thinking about cultivating not just patrons or customers, but real fans is the way to go in promoting to teens?

Monday, August 6, 2007

comparing virtual hang-outs

Here is an interesting chart comparing "Casual Immersive Worlds" by target audience, main premise, immersion level, graphics & point of view, number of users online when visited by surveyor, June 2007 total unique visitors, and revenue sources.

Some libraries are trying to set up shop in Second Life, but I think once you do that, you are really reaching outside your local target audience.

What can we learn from these sites? I don't think we can afford to create a immersive library world for our teens. How can we create features in our website that provide the feeling of community these sites offer?

social networking for anime fans

from ICv2 news:

AnimeMine Launches Social Network Site for Anime Fans
August 06, 2007
Smarticlesmart announced the July 31st launch of its
AnimeMine social networking Website for anime fans where they can create personal contact pages, blogs, take part in forums and chats, offer reviews, and upload fan videos and art and elicit comments from others on the Site. AnimeMine will also offer news and reviews, and plans to add more features down the road, including a fan art contest.

Some of your teens might be interested in this, plus I think it is worth looking at to see what sorts of features we would like to try to use to attract teens to our future website. Thoughts?

Thursday, August 2, 2007

article: Life after ‘Harry Potter’?

A good article that goes beyond "what next" and gives a solid overview of the state of teen fiction:

Life after ‘Harry Potter’?

Minx Graphic Novels

I came across an article that made me happy this morning:

DC Announces 7 Minx Graphic Novels for 2008

For those of you not familiar with the Minx line, it is DC Comics excellent effort to reach out to a traditionally underserved part of the comic reading demographic: teenage girls. But it is not doing so by talking down to them or trying to make a "girly" product. Instead it is featuring strong girl characters facing challenges in a variety of realistic situations and environments. These are well done with great art and rock solid writing, featuring both young adult authors and comic industry pros. I highly recommend checking one out. My favorites so far are Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Re-Gifters by Mike Carey.

(They are on order, but if you want to borrow my ARCs just drop me an email :)