I think that Nintendo’s “Wii” should have a movie making channel in which you are the director of the movie and you may hire other people’s Mii’s from the check Mii out channel and use them as actors. You can choose all sorts of different backgrounds from all sorts of different scenes in different movies and you can write a script and choose vehicles and make robot animals and aliens and things that couldn’t be filled by the parts of the Mii.

You can make animated movies in which the Miis are smaller or funnier, or 2-D or 3-D movies or 4-D plays. You can make movies about anything, as in ANYTHING.

Thank-you, thank you very much!

We offer a look at some recent studies on use of the Internet by kids as well as a personal inventory of how techie our own boys have become.

Carter has a Facebook Profile

Children are at the vanguard
In an article on how parents monitor their kids’ use of social networks, author Mike Sachoff reports that one in four pre-teens are already account holders on MySpace, Facebook or Bebo. The lower limit for membership in those social networks is 13 or 14 years old.

Last June, Garlik—an online identity manager based in the UK who is also responsible for the QDOS identity ranking—commissioned the teen virtual world Dubit to survey 1000 UK children between ages 8 and 15. They supplemented this survey information with market research from 1030 UK parents. According to the findings, there are 750,000 underage members of the three large social networks, or about 23% of all UK children in that age range.

“Children are at the vanguard of the social networking phenomenon, using sites such as Facebook and Bebo in the same way other generations used the telephone.”
Tom Ilube, Garlik CEO

Their caretakers responded to that behavior. About a quarter of parents secretly log into their kid’s account to check online activity. A similar percentage admit to creating a second account for the purpose of spying on their children. Other findings from the commercial study include:

• 58% of parents claim they are more diligent now than they were a year ago
• 89% of parents have talked with their kids about the dangers posed by social networking sites
• Two-thirds of kids post personal information on their profile page, including current school and cell phone number
• 26% of kids aged 8-15 have strangers as friends
• 20% of kids have met strangers they previously only knew online

The Pew Internet and American Life project offers an additional longitudinal perspective on the growth of young kids online, as well as how parents participate in that exploration. A report released in April 2007 showed 55% of teens had a profile page and two-thirds of them restricted access to their information in some way. While the Garlik findings probably need better context to avoid coming off as fear mongering, safety is just one of the issues parent currently face raising kids in the Age of Web 2.0. Academic fraud, consumerism and cyberbullying are other areas of concern that confront parents as their introduce the next generation to technology.

Any dystopian fears about exposing kids to tech are countered by the more optimistic focus on benefits. Our (Western) world is so immersed in computers and mobile devices that not having early access to the Internet and Wiimotes may disadvantage children later in life. The creative and expressive tools available through computer, the ease of exploration, and the extended communities formed around niche topics of interest can help overcome limited resources or restricted educational policies in local schools.

An inventory of our kids’ technology
Our sons have a computer—a hand-me-down that only recently gave our eight-year-old Internet access. It sits in the main room of our house, in between the kitchen and Amy’s computer. The screens are visible, and we try to make consumption of the Web a social activity.

We have encountered two notable obstacles in this setup. The first is volume. Carter spends a lot of time on the Bionicle site, which features many movies with background music. He likes it loud. Our parents, regrettably speaking through us, don’t. Out come the earbuds, which addresses the noise but brings up a new issue of connectedness and shared experience.

The second obstacle is clicking on links. Many kids sites are self-contained webs within a larger web, with many clear warnings when you are about to leave the protection of their site. Facebook, YouTube and pretty much anything with site advertising offers no such indicators. We discuss the things he sees and explain our concerns, urging him not to explore YouTube on his own. At the same time, we want to demonstrate the freedom the Internet currently provides and how to discriminate between degrees of truth in its content.

Some precautions are taken. I do have to shield some of the YouTube content I might enjoy from the boys’ eyes and (mostly) ears while working from the living room couch. After a late-night screening when it was first released, however, the family enjoyed multiple viewings of Dr. Horrible. Carter and Amy play PackRat, and Archie loves watching Carter build things on Scratch and the LEGO Digital Designer.

Carter has accounts on a few social networks. We set them up, with a little guidance from him, and restricted who can view them. I am a big proponent of transparency and the ability for sharing to enhance your life, so use of these tools is encouraged. I am less comfortable gambling my son’s identity on emerging properties of an open system. A balance needs to be struck. He is currently working on creating a blog, and we have turned YouTube into a personal gallery for family projects.

After almost two decades of avoiding computer games, we are back in the mainstream with a Wii and plans to add Spore in the fall. I became sold on the Wii because of (a) it’s use of haptics and natural motion for input, and (b) the social nature of the games. Wiis are the new charades for family game nights. Not all of the games on the Wii have been as social as I would like (ahem, LEGO Star Wars) nor have the collaborative ones all captured the boys’ interest (ahem, Rockband).

Archie likes Wii Fit

Spore offers a different set of benefits. It is soaked in opportunities to educate on evolution, group dynamics, cultural capital, ethics, geology, and communication. Although it isn’t a social game, the stories of the evolution of creatures and the pair-programming style our sons typically employ to play computer games make it a communal activity.

In addition to his year-round campaign for Santa to bring a superpower machine, he is also hoping for his own laptop and cell phone come Christmas time. At age 4, Archie has been exposed to technology earlier than his older brother and has been able to experience its benefits in more meaningful ways because of a peer guide. Like his brother, Archie is practicing to read by selecting shows to watch from the TiVo now showing menu.

What is your philosophy on technology use by children?
We would love to hear your thoughts on when and how to introduce children to technology. If you are a parent, what are your plans and limits for your own kids? For non-parents, what kinds of strategies might you employ to address the issues of early adoption while still reaping the benefits?

Parenting for Humanity will be discussing these issues on their radio show this Thursday, August 14th at noon Eastern. Hosts Amy Makice and Lisa Stroyan invite you to participate in that discussion during the show, or post comments here.

I wonder where this kid is going to be in 20 years and what impact the Wii will have on his development. Archie, at 4, mostly watches everyone else play Wii games. He liked boxing, but only for about 20 seconds. Carter is a pro bowler, according to Wii, and is also getting in regular reps in Smooth Moves. Does that mean Archie’s tendons will be less damaged but his reflexes slower? Will the next core interaction paradigm in the future workplace require mastery of The Waiter?

More importantly, how much can I enjoy my Wii victories knowing there is a two-year-old somewhere who can kick my butt.

There are no mulligans in Crunchies voting.

Based on nominations submitted by the Internet community, the awards committee chose five finalists for each of the Committee will choose five finalist companies last month for each of the twenty award categories, based on the nominations submitted by the community. At the moment, just under 108,000 ballots have been cast. Voting ends tonight at midnight PACIFIC.

My votes below have been greatly informed by (a) regularly following blogs big and small for the past 8 months or so through Google Reader, and (b) jumping into new communities as a beta tester or early adopter. In some cases, these tools proved valuable enough to incorporate into my daily and weekly routines. Others? … not so much.

The Crunchies voting site is fairly straightforward, providing a short list of candidates with links to each home site for more investigation. Unfortunately, I had the equivalent of a hanging chad in my vote for Best Overall. I selected “Twitter” but wound up with Zillow, a real estate site of which I had never heard. Unfortunately for all of the recount scenarios, there is no way for me to correct that. Twitter faces stiff competition from Facebook, the former student social network that made a splash with an open application platform in 2007. Doh.

The toughest category for me, by far, was the one for “Best new gadget / device.” It featured five strong entrants in the iPhone (Apple’s revolutionary phone), Kindle (Amazon’s e-book), Ooma (an internet phone), Pleo (an affordable robot pet), and the Wii. If the Pleo had a longer interactive play time—my initial tests showed only 90-minutes of steady play, with no way to automatically recharge or buy backup batteries—it would have trumped my eventual choice—the Wii—based mostly on its potential for community around these little robot dinosaurs. The Wii technically could be considered a 2006 gadget, but we didn’t get ours until last Christmas.

• Best technology innovation / achievement—Recognition for best new technology achievement or breakthrough
  Nominees: Earthmine, Like, Move Networks, Twine, Viewdle
• Best bootstrapped start-up—For a company that has raised less than $100.000 from individuals, angels or others
  Nominees: FriendFeed, PoliticalBase, ProductWiki, Techmeme, UpNext
• Best new gadget / device—For the best new Internet-accessible electronics device launched in 2007
  Nominees: iPhone, Kindle, Ooma, Pleo, Wii
• Best business model—For a company that’s pioneering new revenue-creation opportunities
  Nominees: Glam Media, Imeem, Prosper, Weatherbill, Zazzle
  NOTE: I don’t know enough about any of these, or business, to make an informed vote.
• Best design—Recognition for best user-interface design
  Nominees: Etsy, Jackson Fish Market, Netvibes, SmugMug, Songza
• Best enterprise start-up—For a start-up focused on enterprise or business-to-business applications and services
  Nominees: 37Signals, Attributor, EditGrid, Ribbit, Zoho
• Best consumer start-up—For a start-up focused on consumer-facing applications and services
  Nominees: 1800-FREE-411, 23andMe, LinkedIn, Meebo, Zillow
• Best mobile start-up—For companies who provide mobile content or mobile distribution platforms
  Nominees: AdMob, Fring, Loopt, Shozu, Twitter
• Best international start-up—To recognize start-up achievement outside the United States (company must be founded, headquartered and operated primarily outside the US)
  Nominees: Atlassian, Gizmoz, MusicShake, Netvibes, Openads
• Best user-generated content site—For sites who rely on content created primarily from users
  Nominees: Digg, Facebook, Geni, Instructables, Yelp
• Best video site—For sites who distribute video and/or other rich-media content
  Nominees: Aniboom, Hulu, Joost, Justin.tv, Tokbox
• Best clean tech start-up—For companies focused on environmentally conscious technology applications
  Nominees: A123Systems, Ausra, GridPoint, NanoSolar, Tesla Motors
• Best use of viral marketing—For the company that has demonstrated the best use of viral marketing techniques to drive distribution
  Nominees: Flixster, iLike, iminlikewithyou, RockYou, StumbleUpon
• Best time sink site—Favorite site to use when you’re not working or not wanting to think about work
  Nominees: College Humor, Duels, Kdice, Kongregate, Pandora
• Most likely to make the world a better place—To recognize a site that is making an important social impact in the world. Site does not need to be a non-profit to qualify.
  Nominees: Causes, DonorsChoose, ZeroFootprint, Kiva, One Laptop Per Child
• Most likely to succeed—Site most likely to meet with future financial success (may be defined as revenue creation, a big exit, or other future accomplishment)
  Nominees: Kayak, Mint, Slide, WordPress, Zivity
• Best start-up founder—Award to recognize an exemplary start-up business founder
  Nominees: Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Max Levchin (Slide), Kevin Rose (Digg), Evan Williams (Twitter), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
• Best start-up CEO—Award to recognize an exemplary start-up business CEO
  Nominees: Gina Bianchini (Ning), Dick Costolo (Feedburner), Toni Schneider (WordPress), Rob Solomon (Sidestep), Lance Tokuda (RockYou)
• Best new start-up of 2007—Company must have been founded in 2007
  Nominees: Hulu, iMedix, Joost, Ribbit, Tumblr
• Best overall—For the best overall site or product of 2007
  Nominees: Digg, Facebook, GrandCentral, Twitter, Zillow

The Crunchies Awards Ceremony will take place in a week, on Friday, January 18 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. A limited number of tickets to the 900-seat old world theater are being released here to the general public over the next two weeks.

Back in the 1980s, I had an Odyssey—a well-done table-top console device that never caught on as well as Atari or Intellivision. My set was boxed up when I went to college, shortly after one of the two controllers stopped moving to the right, and now sits on a shelf collecting dust. I did my time with baseball and football games on my Mac, as well, before making a conscious decision to avoid games that compete for time with my computer work.

That lasted pretty much until this week, when the peer pressures of our social networks made it a priority for Santa. One elaborate series of clues from the Man in Red later, and by Tuesday afternoon the Makices were hurling imaginary bowling balls down virtual alleys.

Carter lets loose with a bowling ball, headed for another Wii strike.

The nicest thing about a Wii, for me, is the fact that it isn’t on my computer. My big screen time is severely limited by grad school schedules and deadlines. More than likely I’m going to come home early evening each weekday to find one or both the boys regularly throwing 300 games in Wii Sports bowling, the game of choice thus far for Carter.

Archie is a boxing man, although he tires so easily and hates losing so much—do they really have to put the words, “YOU LOSE,” up on the screen?—that he usually wants to fight with the computer instead of a willing relative.

We tried the LEGO Star Wars, briefly. While both boys (and their dad) had a fun time chopping things in two with a light saber, the puzzle part of the game is a bit much for impatient youngsters and an adult who grows impatient with their impatience. I’ll be fine never seeing that game again, as it also isn’t one that invites physical movement. Smooth moves, on the other hand, is this bizarre game with the feel of a New Grounds cult movie. Every game is divided up into 3-second tasks that vary the remote movement and keep you thinking and reacting quickly. All that, and a frenetic Asian technopop kind of music to keep you bouncing and strangely agitated. Best of all, both boys love both the watching and the playing.

Right now, the Wii is a cross between a Tae-Bo workout video and a modern version of playing Parcheesi on family game night (We had Carter’s Grammy throwing strikes last night). That’s a perfect level for my life right now. God help whoever gets me a Madden-esque football game before my dissertation is completed.

Archie and Carter figure out how a Wiimote can be used to fight Jedi foes.

There is a designerly/academic interest in this toy, too, he types to justify the acquisition. CMU’s Johnny Lee recently hacked out Whiteboard wii. IU HCI potential Drew McKinney took about a day to build one and tweeted about releasing on YouTube a comparison between it and a smart board. This is one possible Design House project for spring 2008, since wiimotes are infinitely cheaper than the large touch tables and electronic white boards available on the market. Maybe we’ll have a few set up for Drew to play with when he arrives in Bloomington.

Johnny Lee‘s wiimote white board demo