One Week Countdown! Vote For Your Favorite Ashoka Youth Venture!

What better way to kick off the New Year than a quick click to put fresh faces of change to work on the world’s big issues? Ashoka’s Youth Venture, a global network of over 2,000 youth-led teams, picked 30 teen finalists (ages 13-18) to put their plans in motion and make change in the world. Now it’s YOUR turn to vote ‘em up and whittle ‘em … [Read more...]

Treat Suneet By Voting for Dream Village TODAY At IdeaBlob!

Crowdsourcing has become quite the ‘thang’ with ideas percolating all over the globe on how to create healthier worldviews for kids online, offline, and bridging both worlds in between! (The much anticipated Elf Island opens Tuesday in beta testing, woohoo! It's an AMAZING online to offline bridge for changemaking in the childrens' media arena, and I've been mum … [Read more...]

Dream It. Do It. Youth Grants For Social Change in Virtual Worlds

PDiddy-Puff Daddy-Diddy dude step aside, as THIS is the kind of D.I.D.I. initiative that I want to see out there!!! D.I.D.I. stands for Dream It. Do It…An Ashoka Youth Venture effort with Global Kids and funding by RWJF all teaming up to offer seed money to visionary young people anxious to bring positive change to the health of their community! Nothing 'virtual' … [Read more...]

150 Kids’ Virtual Worlds: 95 Live, 68 in R&D; How Many Are Worthy?

Seems everyone is in L.A. for the Virtual Worlds Expo except me right now, with e-mails and schmooze plans flinging back and forth like a gamer leader board. No, gang, I can’t make it to dinner, but yes, I DO wish someone would crosspost some of these fly-on-the-wall conversations on Utterz as I’m sure key connections will transpire and I want to track anyone … [Read more...]

Kids’ Online Ethics Part 3: Community Solidarity; Marketing Cheats

At the recent Ypulse Nat'l Mashup, I chatted with teen virtual goods wünderkind Asuka Martin also interviewed here by Benett Carter about Teen Second Life. I'm fascinated by her composure in handling the mining of her intellectual property/content creation, (someone swiping her stuff) as well as the impact on her authentic brand of custom-created virtual textures and 'skins,' … [Read more...]