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Tuesday Feb 28, 2006
Home Office surveys young people on antisocial behaviour
Per Community Newsire, funded by the Home Office's Active Community Unit, the Government has recently polled Britons about their perceptions of anti-social behaviour, all in preparation for their Respect campaign. Hopefully, we'll get a copy of the full report soon.
Apparently, the majority of young people polled are frustrated with the ASB perpetrated by a minority around them, though acknowledge that they are (negatively) steroetyped by the clothes they wear. And, "researchers also found those questioned are embracing traditional values, with many insisting that young people should respect their elders and calling for improved manners." That ties in very nicely with the Government's campaign, then.
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 3:18 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Yet another list of sustainable corporations
Corporate Knights and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors have recently released a list of the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World".
As a fundraiser I know how important it is that corporates are measured according to their impact on society and the world around them, not just how well they do for their shareholders.
What I find increasingly frustrating though is that as we try and make the business world more transparent by monitoring and tracking what they do, we often end up confusing the matter even more. Take this quote from Innovest about how they compiled the list:
"For the Global 100, Innovest selected 100 leaders from the MSCI World Index that demonstrate exceptional capacity to address their sector-specific environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities."
Maybe I'm being dense but I'm not sure what exactly that means, and I think if you stopped most people in the street and asked them they'd struggle as well.
If we're trying to get rid of the PR and smoke screens that businesses put up, then do we really want to replace them with yet more impenetrable layers?
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 1:16 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Monday Feb 27, 2006
No stopping climate change?
How's this for a depressing Monday news story?The National Trust have acknowledged that they must now rethink their policy on protecting many of their sites as a result of climate change. Fiona Reynolds, Director General of The National Trust, said
"Society cannot ignore climate change. Its impacts are being felt already and they will become more widespread."
Their report concludes that "we can't always conserve things exactly as we once have. This goes for species, habitats, coasts or buildings."
I think The National Trust do fantastic work and it's quite soul destroying to think that if protecting our countryside, coastlines and historic buildings was difficult before, it's now got much, much tougher.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 6:10 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]Reducing voting age to 16 and other ways to revitalise Britain's democracy
A commission called the Power Inquiry, set up in 2004 to consider how to increase and deepen political participation in Britain - particularly in light of the low turnout in the 2001 general election - has published a report based on 18 months of investigating. This tome describes we Brits' apparent disengagement from government and makes recommendations to ensure all have a greater say in the policies affecting our lives.
While we are more apparently intimate with the psychological lives of our politicians, we may be more alienated than before from the world of the "politicos". It's not a matter of our apathy; indeed, we're volunteering and promoting particular issues like crazy. As the commission's chair Helena Kennedy writes in the report's introduction,
"People in Britain still volunteer; they run in marathons for charity; they hold car boot sales to raise funds for good causes; they take part in Red Nose days and wear ribbons for breast cancer or AIDS. They sit as school governors, do prison visiting, read with children who have learning difficulties. They take part in school races and run the school disco. They march against the Iraq war and in favour of the countryside. They sign petitions for extra street lights and more frequent bin collection. They send their savings to the victims of tsunamis and want to end world poverty. What they no longer want to do is join a party or get involved in formal politics."
To an extent this is also true in the United States, where I've lived most of my adult years and where the two major political parties sometimes seem to differ more in personality than in policy (though both have shifted to the right). While among my mostly left-leaning acquaintances, Bush's first win of the presidential election galvanised us to canvass for the alternative, our perception of distorted vote-counting and an almost impenetrable administration left us cold. We could change more, perhaps, on a local level, and we could rally around particular issues. But in the meantime, voting is low and politicians don't know that we care.
One of Power's key recommendations is to reduce the voting age to 16 in Britain. Automatic voter registration could be dealt with as NI numbers are handed out. I think that provides a great parallel, as both political participation and the opportunity to do paid work are hallmarks of an engaged citizenship.
Editorial in the Guardian welcomes the report, noting its "holistic approach" to recognise the complexity of polictical apathy , but states that "it tends to blur perceptions and facts". It reminds readers of an Electoral Commission report two years ago, which indicated the general public (including young people) did not want the voting age lowered. According to the Daily Telegraph too, senior politicians of both main parties are generally supportive of the report. Mind you, they'd look a little silly if they weren't. But it's a good step, I think.
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 4:51 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]Grown ups guide to MySpace
Wired News have produced a MySpace "cheat sheet" for parents to help them understand how and why their kids use MySpace.Is just just me or can you can smell the fear parents have about this strange and mysterious new world?.. Posted by Sam Thomas ( 2:19 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Google to save the earth with Infectious Disease Early Warning System
Dr Larry Brilliant (surely one of the best names ever), newly appointed Executive Director of Google's philanthropic arm, has won a $100,000 prize from the Technology, Entertainment and Design group (an invitation only community packed full of tech and media celebs like Peter Gabriel and Co-Founder of Google, Larry Page).As well as the cash prize, the group also awards the prize winner with one "wish" that the group must commit to fulfil.
Dr Brilliant's wish is to set up an internet based global early-detection and early-response system for infectious diseases, and he plans to gather support from other companies and foundations like the Bill Gates Foundation to make it happen. Last year Bono was one of the winners - his wish was to publicise his campaign to stamp out poverty in Africa and to set up a text-messaging system to pressure leaders of the G8 summit into dedicating money to Africa (he must have been granted an extra wish for being Bono).
I'm sure Dr Brilliant's plan will serve an excellent purpose and will no doubt be delivered using the best available technology, with the best available brains working behind it. He is also perfectly placed to work on a system like this, with a background in both infectious disease and technology.
However, I can't help but feel there's something slightly wrong with celebs and industry leaders granting 'wishes' to other celebs and industry leaders via an invitation only group - the problems they're trying to tackle are hugely complex and existing NGO's and non-profits have been dealing with them on a daily basis for many years. Maybe they'd be better off granting wishes to organisations on the ground - or maybe those that don't have a celebrity behind them just aren't part of the club?.. Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:56 AM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Songs with advice
Our askTheSite service on TheSite.org provides excellent support and advice to the users who submit their personal questions. But really, are our experts any match for the might of the music industry over the years? Readers of The Guardian have come up with a Top 10 of songs which offer advice. Perhaps their number one pick, 'Words of Advice for Young People' by William Burroughs could be the unofficial askTheSite theme tune?Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 9:50 AM ) Link to this post Comments[2]
Friday Feb 24, 2006
Riding the storm of raising teenagers
There are a couple of stories this week in the media look at the contrasting ways parents can deal with 'wayward' teenagers. The Daily Mail reports on a new course being run by charity Relate which encourages confused parents to focus on communicating with their teenage children. Hardly revolutionary, but quite possibly not the first thing some parents might have thought of.But this approach - according to one Mail reader - is missing the point. M. Hastings of Washington, USA writes:
"This is absurd. My children never went through the rude, door slamming stages because from an early age they were taught what proper behavior was, we did not have a television in the home teaching them disrespect and they were kept busy with physical activities. These parents are reaping what they sowed."
Perhaps M. Hastings would prefer the alternative method of sending these reckless teens off to Boot Camp to be taught a fast, hard lesson in responsible behaviour. (With luck, your cowering, half-destroyed offspring may even end up on a Channel 4 programme.) Cherry Potter in the Guardian this week looks at how this trend for tough-love is increasing - despite the dubious results, and sometimes dangerous side-effects of sending teenagers on these courses.
Raising teenagers can't be easy. But treating them as human can't hurt your chances. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 3:55 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Wednesday Feb 22, 2006
Swearing teen fined £80
The Prime Minister's war against yobbery continues bravely, with an 18 year old from Kent being fined £80 for swearing while he chatted to some mates. He plans to challenge the fine in court.From the BBC story:
"In my eyes I have not committed any crime whatsoever," he said, adding that swearing was a normal part of the language he and his friends use."And in a case of life imitating art - take a look at this, which was published four days before.
(found via this blog) Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 5:21 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Tuesday Feb 21, 2006
Online communities create leaders of the future
We like to think of TheSite discussion boards users as introverted, friendless, socially-inept geeks. Now it looks like we'll have to rethink this. The Times is reporting on two new studies that both say belonging to online communities is in fact... good for young people. Golly."The internet is not diminishing community activity but simply transferring it to online communities. Young people who use them are getting just as much practice in leadership and social skills and community involvement as they did before the internet. Involvement might not take place in the school gymnasium or around the campfire but instead in online communities in the glow of computer screens."Personally, I miss those campfire conversations. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 3:46 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday Feb 20, 2006
Race to broadband movie delivery hots up
One of the major battle grounds for big media companies in the next year or two is going to be around the delivery of movies, and other video-based content, over broadband internet connections.Once upon a time, the only way we got to watch movies at home was if a TV channel decided to show it or it was available in the local video store. DVD rentals (and sales) along with multi-channel TV opened this up a little, but up until now, the consumer on the couch's choices have always been limited by the whims of a TV scheduler or a film distributor.
Now this is about to change. The Holy Grail - for the viewer at least - is a system where he or she can download (super-quickly) any film or TV programme at any time they want, at an affordable price.
As broadband penetration increases and download speeds jump up, many internet users (especially younger people) have looked to peer-to-peer file-sharing as a way to get to this Promised Land faster. The advantage of this approach is the films and TV programmes are free to download. The downside is that the quality is sometimes dubious and there is a small risk that the copyright owners of this content may come after you.
The success of i-Tunes, Apple's music download service, proves that consumers are willing to pay a reasonable price for a professional service. This model - where you pay a small fee for access to a specific song - could well be transferred to video content.
In fact, Apple is already doing some of this through iTunes. Customers can download TV programmes and music videos to transfer to their iPods. But this is just one example of movements in this area.
Interestingly, internet giant AOL has started offering full feature-length films for download. (They only have about 100 available right now, but it's bound to grow). Elsewhere, Google Video offers low-quality downloads of American TV, Amazon are looking to launch a new download service in April, while a service called Vongo is taking on Apple with downloads of movies for portable players.
But the most interesting experiment comes locally through NTL. The UK cable company is trialing a service which uses BitTorrent - the software which enables all that illegal sharing of media - to allow it to legally distribute copyrighted material. The benefits for the customers in terms of speed and quality are potentially exciting. Watch this space.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 11:53 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Friday Feb 17, 2006
Making MySpace safe
Wanted: 'safety czar' to control the behaviour of 54 million young people.As a response to the criticism it's received from parents, teachers, and politicians, NewsCorp-owned community site MySpace is looking to appoint a kind of online enforcer to try and make the site less dangerous for its younger users. (Report in the Wall Street Journal).
The safety czar will:
"launch an education campaign that may include letters to schools and public-service announcements to encourage children not to reveal their contact information. It also is considering limiting access to certain groups, such as "swingers," to those over 18; blocking search terms that predators could use to locate kids; and encouraging users between 14 and 16 to make their profiles "private," meaning they can only be viewed by people they already know."Which all sounds pretty sensible, but it's not quite as simple as that. The reason why MySpace is such an incredible success (and why it feels like a frightening, anarchic world to most adults) is that it is pretty much lawless. Almost anything goes and the users can write what they want and talk to whoever they want. Clamp down on this and you risk sending your userbase off somewhere else.
On TheSite.org forums finding the right place to draw the line is an every-day task. Mostly, we let anything go - so long as users aren't overly nasty to each other. But we know that if we don't step in from time to time, then an unsafe environment is possible. Go the other way and you very quickly alienate your users and send them packing.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 6:22 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Thursday Feb 16, 2006
Grafitti game banned in Australia
The most interesting point for me here is its illustration of the generation
"Based on information provided on the Office of Film and LiteratureClassification website, calculations show that the average age of thefour board members who presided over this decision is 43.5 years."At the risk of being criticised of rampant ageism, what chance does this group have of viewing this game in the context of all the other youth culture the potential players are submerged in? Most gamers are sensible, savvy people who are able to make the simple distinction between gaming escapism and real life. Aren't they?
Update: It may be 'ultra violent' as The Sun says, but Grand Theft Auto has been judged a top 10 British icon.
Sonic teenage deterrent
The Daily Telegraph writes about a new technology designed to keep teenagers away: a gadget emitting an ultra high-pitched noise heard only by those of us who haven't started losing our hearing due to old age, which means 90% of people under 20. Nicknamed the Mosquito, the Sonic Teenage Deterrent (I haven't figured out whether that's copyrighted yet) is allegedly supported by police, local authorities and various businesses alarmed by supposed loiterers.
This is almost funny. But the implications seem quite frightening, and while I've never owned or managed a shopfront business or walked a police beat, it does seem to me another way of demonising young people and an attempt to sanitise our streets.
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 1:14 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]Tescopoly takes the fight to Tesco
An alliance of campaigners, trade unionists, environmentalists and charities opposed to Tesco have launched a website (Tescopoly) attacking Tesco's trading practices and the consequences they have on so many different levels.It's great to see a visible alliance reflecting the groundswell ofpublic opinion on this - hopefully it will encourage us to changethe way we buy.
Tesco's response to the site is interesting:
"In our experience, these groups do not represent the views of most ordinary people. . . All we ask is that these groups recognise people have a choice and how they exercise that choice should not be dictated by regulation."
At least they're not burying their heads in the sand then. Posted by Sam Thomas ( 11:24 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Tuesday Feb 14, 2006
War is just like a video game
New Washington Post article shows how young soliders describe warfare in Iraq as being just like a video game (sorry you'll need a sign up for this)
"The insurgents were firing from the other side of the bridge. . . . We called in a helicopter for an airstrike... I couldn't believe I was seeing this. It was like 'Halo.' It didn't even seem real, but it was real."
Apparantly, in the view of Retired Marine Col. Gary W Anderson (former chief of staff of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab) believes that young soliders have grown up with first-person shooters long before joining the military - they are, in his view, the new Spartans.
"Remember the days of the old Sparta, when everything they did was towards war?" says Anderson, now a defense consultant. "In many ways, the soldiers of this video game generation have replicated that, and that's something to think about."
Interviews with young marines also showed how soliders were "on more intimate terms with the culture of video games, reality TV shows and Internet porn than their own families."
So much for the complaints against violent video games, apparently they're alright if they train you to kill real people when the man says shoot. Those poor insurgents must have their tactics all wrong, don't bother getting hold of some new explosives, get a Playstation 3 instead.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 6:26 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
More pornography for children
Or so says the Daily Mail, in one of its regular world-is-going-to-the-dogs pieces about the distribution of sexual health information to young people. The pamphlet, which sounds like the standard sort of stuff many organisations and government departments produce, makes the hell-raising decision to talk frankly and honestly to teenagers about sex.According to the story, which was picked up by Pink News:
"Mother of two Jacqui Davies, found the guidebook in her son's schoolbag, and has written to the head of his independent school to complain. She told the Daily Mail: 'I was absolutely horrified. I had no idea this kind of material was being covered and speaking to other parents, neither were they.'"What the hell was she doing going through her son's schoolbag in the first place? As an aside, TheSite.org has been DailyMailed a few times in the past. I think you should get a badge for it to put it on your site.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 4:55 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday Feb 13, 2006
More on volunteer blogs
Charity Channel, a resource for the non-profit world (based in US, with a UK arm), has published an online article promoting blogging for volunteer programme managers. It suggests using Technorati Tags to categorise posts, making a search for volunteer-related blogs easier.
The article lists some volunteering blogs, written by both managers and volunteers. One is World Volunteer Web's blog, which includes short-lived blogs of activities in disaster areas where live feedback on the best coordination of volunteers is timely.
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 12:37 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Friday Feb 10, 2006
Is the internet evil?
Personally, I think anything that means I never have to pay for a movie, television show, video game, piece of music, comic book, Photoshop or Windows ever again is great. Will Self, however, has a rather more reasoned opinion.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 4:52 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Snogging spreads disease
Or so says a new study into the spread of meningitis, reported in the Telegraph."Researchers found that 15- to 19-year-olds who engaged in what they termed "deep kissing" with multiple partners were 3.7 times more likely to get meningococcal disease."So is meningitis looking to usurp glandular fever as everyone's favourite kissing disease?
Whatever the case, I'm interested in this idea of deep kissing. How do you measure it? Is there a scale of deepness? Are those with longer tongues higher risk?
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 3:55 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Perfect Valentine's Gift for the iPodder in your life
Stuck for a Valentine's Day present for that special person in your life?Check out these sexy little numbers for your iPod.. Posted by Sam Thomas ( 2:35 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Thursday Feb 09, 2006
Should shout out about good work
Sir Digby Jones, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, spoke recently at the Charities Aid Foundation about the good work - and the good intentions - of many businesses engaging with the public sector and, increasingly, charities. A similar extract in the Guardian.
"Business does understand its responsibility to society. When engaging in CSR it is often suspected of having an eye solely on profit, but so often the motivation is simply that it is the right thing to do."
No suspicion here, I'm never cynical! He further argues that it's the job of the voluntary sector, long an effective counterpart to the "nanny state" the public sector encapsulates, to welcome in private industry.
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 1:04 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Wednesday Feb 08, 2006
Channel 4's gay community survey
As our colleague pointed out, the biggest general survey to date of the gay community has been published by Channel 4. An interview with one of the ppl involved, Gavin Harris from ID Research, is posted on the television channel's website, but the link to the survey itself is (currently) broken. It's also reported in the Independent.
The survey results range from perceptions of social acceptance (it may be growing and new legislation addresses discrimination, but abuse persists - physical violence more likely against gay men, verbal attacks against lesbian women) to attitudes toward same sex marriage (older people less interested) to the robustness of the "PinkPound" (higher spending levels than straight counterparts, a strong interest in new technology).
The researchers identified three types of respondents: style-setters, pods and homebirds. Which is an interesting methodology on their part, and it makes you wonder whether such a readiness to develop new stereotypes would be applied to another demographic.
There, now, you can comment. Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 6:07 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Timberland's new eco friendly range
Timberland have launched a new footwear packaging initiative aimed at educating consumers about their environmental footprint.Consumers are also encouraged to fill the empty boxes with donations or items for recycling, which are then distributed to local organisations via Timberland's website - nice idea. Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:12 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
MyVillage online communities partners with VoIP company
Another online community getting into VoIP. Read the full article
Posted by Fiona Battle ( 9:47 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Tuesday Feb 07, 2006
Google launch chat
Google have launched a chat service alongside Gmail.Interesting that they recommend switching off Firefox's adblock extension to make sure it functions properly (nothing to do with protecting their source of income, of course).
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 4:20 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
BBC's coverage of RESPECT
The BBC's coverage of the REPECT agenda
Posted by Fiona Battle ( 1:51 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]The growing power of online communities
More support from the great and the good at Nielson//Netratings about how key online communites are to websites. Globally page impressions on community sites per day are 57m!
Posted by Fiona Battle ( 1:28 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Real beauty? Depends where you live
Dove, the soap makers, received a good chunk of praise in he UK when it launched its "real beauty" campaign, which featured women in ads who didn't look like the skinny clones you normally see in any promotions for these sorts of products.
But I always wondered whether they went far enough. Was the casting a case of finding women which were only a 'bit ugly' or 'slightly overweight'? It always seemed like they played it a bit safe.
I was reminded of this again when watching some of the ads which aired for the first time in the US during the Superbowl, including one for Dove. In the US, the real beauty campaign seems to be even more risk-averse. The message is the same - whatever you look like, you're beautiful - but the young girls they use in this ad are hardly ugly or fat in anyone's estimations. You wonder whether the girls watching who are really fat buy into it.
US advert (video)
UK campaign
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 11:06 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday Feb 06, 2006
Blog for Internet Safety
The Internet Watch Foundation have set up an internet safety blog for 7th Feb's Safer Internet Day. Various organisations will post throughout the day, with the aim of raising awareness of how young people can stay safe online.Posted by Sam Thomas ( 6:42 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
