Are “Game Cheats” a Misnomer? Kids, Ethics & Virtual Worlds

Yesterday I had yet another mondo three-hour lunch with Michael Carter, PhD, mastermind of informal learning and Chief Playwright at cool new upstart virtual world Zookazoo. (feature forthcoming on their eco/animal endangerment efforts in their inspiring tween world soon!) As I was recapping the Ypulse Mashup session on kids’ virtual worlds, we zinged off on a variety … [Read more...]

Free for the Asking: ChaCha Answers, Texted to Your Phone

At the YPulse Mashup, I thought I might see mobile search companies like Thrumm MMS (multimedia messaging service/cameraphones) ChaCha the human-search engine in beta, and even Yap voice to text speech recognition to keep those "66% of teens who text while driving" safely at bay... Especially since mobile search texting answers to your phone seems like a natural for this … [Read more...]

Harvesting Kids’ Eyeballs; Free Mobile For Ad Views: Blyk!

“What do young people want in mobile? Text. Voice. Alarm clock,” Antti à–hrling, the co-founder of Blyk, mused… What else? Free. And man, do kids want free... Blyk, (pronounced 'blick', YouTube video here) offers 217 texts and 43 minutes free to 16-24 year olds in Europe...The quid pro quo trade-off of minutes for marketing? Try a 29% … [Read more...]

Confessions of a Virgin Meebo User at YPulse…

Youth mobile activism? Media mashups? M-commerce? M-trends? Heads up...I'd say keep your eyes peeled on Meebo for starters, as this live instant message platform is coming out with all kinds of new interactive integration, right down to iphone chat on the go... Last year at the YPulse National Mashup, Virgin Mobile's Homeless Youth Awareness caught my eye with their … [Read more...]

Using Mobile to Mobilize: Tapping Into Youth Info Needs

Aug. 7 update: New podcasts for ISIS and MobileVoter links at the end. If you still think Cha-cha is a dance step and Isis is a bird, it’s time to mobilize your mindset and get a glimpse of mobile youth trends and teen texting so you're fully abreast of The Next Great Thing. Kids literally have helpful information at their fingertips just a keycode away, whether … [Read more...]