Boston Emerges as Video Gaming Hub [Boston.com]
Three of the year’s most anticipated new video games — Rock Band, BioShock, and Lord Of The Rings Online — have been products of Boston-area studios, and for the first time in two decades the world is looking to the Boston area for some of the coolest new computer games.
Poll: Family ties key to youth happiness [AP]
What makes 13-24 year olds happy? According to a poll by AP/MTV Poll: spending time with 1) family 2) friends 3) signifant others. To boot, nearly three-quarters of say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.
MTV, RealNetworks Join to Battle iTunes [WSJ]
MTV is closing down Urge, the music service it launched with Microsoft, and is merging with RealNetworks and their digital music service, Rhapsody. It’s MTV vs. Apple, Round 2.
A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy [WSJ]
Young do-gooders are satisfying their philanthropic urges on the Internet through blogs and social-networking sites by sending fund-raising pitches to their friends and families, encouraging them, in turn, to forward the appeals to their own contacts. At the same time, a growing number of charities are launching profiles, hoping that young people will link up to the pages.
Examples:
- “Causes” on Facebook (launched in May by a social action start-up called Project Agape) lets users create online communities to advocate for various issues, charities and political candidates. The program has attracted more than 2.5 million Facebook users, raising some $300,000 for nonprofits and politicians, says , 24, the project’s co-founder.- MySpace launched its “Impact” awards late last year, honoring individuals and nonprofit groups that have successfully used the site to make a difference. MySpace members vote on the winners, who get $10,000.
- On Change.org (also launched in May) users can join “virtual foundations” dedicated to specific causes and raise money for the charities or political candidates that support those issues. So far, its 30,000 members have raised nearly $50,000.
- Users of SixDegrees.org, a program launched by nonprofit site Network for Good, can create a “charity badge” listing their favorite cause and send it out to their acquaintances. The badge keeps a running tally of how much has been raised and how many donors have contributed. Since the program was launched in January, users have created some 6,000 charity badges, raising some $740,000.
No Berlin Wall mars this Mindset [USA Today]
The 10th annual Beloit College Mindset List, released by the small Wisconsin liberal arts college, hopes to update oldsters on the cultural touchstones of today to better communicate with the incoming Freshman class.
Read it here: The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2011
East Meets West as Nick Jr. Introduces Preschoolers to Chinese Language and Culture [PR Newswire]
Ni Hao, Kai-lan, a new animated series premiering this Fall on Nick, Jr., will give 2-5 year olds the opportunity to learn Mandarin words and phrases as it follows a young girl in a Chinese-American intergenerational family.
High School Musical 2 Big 2 Be Ignored [E! Online]
The premiere of Disney’s High School Musical 2 was huge, averaging 17.2 million Zac Efron-worshipping viewers. The TV movie set records and drew more children age 6-11 than any TV telecast in modern Nielsen history
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