i d e a g r o u p

MySpace/MyKids

This week is going to be full of plate spinning as we move offices (see pics of new place here), reshoot the MySpace/MyKids online course (splash page here), and continue to press ahead on key components of the viewzi prototype.

I thought I would tell you a little about the MySpace/MyKids project since I haven't written about it yet.

The project arose out of a conversation Steve Reinemund (Chairman of PepsiCo) and I had at a prayer breakfast about how many parents are clueless about MySpace and that there may be an opportunity to help teach them. Further, Steve wanted to help make this happen and wanted to meet again to figure out how. I had built an online learning platform for Pure Online but knew only enough to be dangerous when it came to social networking and the dangers of MySpace.

But, the very next day, I get an email from this guy Jason Ilian who's telling me about this new book he has coming out called MySpace/MyKids--a book for parents of teens that helps them understand and deal with MySpace. Wow....now we have a project.

So, a few weeks later Jason and I presented Steve with a plan of attack and a budget. He funded it that following week and we began production that next day.

This week, we go back into the studio to shoot Jason, Liz Casteel (a counselor that works with teens), and Chris Witt (director of Sky Ranch--and has worked with teens and their parents for over a decade). We are rapidly approaching our deadline so our post production guys will be in the studio while we are shooting so that once chapter one is shot, we can begin editing it while we shoot chapter two. Rapid application development at its best.

The project will launch on February 10th and has already gotten great support from the execs at MySpace. Lets hope that parents are ready to invest a little time to be better equipped to deal with this new medium their kids have so fully embraced.

//bc

 

The NCPOWE

I have started a new non-profit organization this week. It is called NCPOWE (pronounced, "nuc-pow-wee"). The acronym stands for "National Coalition for the Prevention of Overreporting Weather Events".

This week in Dallas we had a bunch of rain, followed by some really cold temperatures, followed by a little ice here and there. It was pretty messy.  Here in Dallas, we have like 3 sanding trucks that have to go around the entire huge city and sand everything down for us Texas drivers. 

So yes, I agree, there are issues.  The combination of a) drivers with little practice driving in ice/snow, with b) sparce bad weather road gear, do make for some interesting driving when you get out on the roads in this stuff.

But couldn't you just have one little segment, as part of the weather, that says, "Hey, it is icy out there, and remember, you don't know how to drive on the ice so either don't go out and drive, or slow way down."  Shouldn't that do it?  And then, the whole weather team could sit inside by the fire and hang out and just do other news stuff like shootings and Iraq.

Instead *all* the news stations have dropped EVERYTHING and the entire newscast has gone into "ICE ALERT".  They scatter around town reporting, "ice mishaps", "icy blast accidents", "slippery conditions", "slip sliding away", blah, blah, blah.  Last night there were about a dozen scenes of minivans spinning into onramps, Hondas hitting curbs, and a comical mix of reporters standing in the freakin-freeezing weather with ball caps and bandannas trying to report more and more and more about the (un)exciting events sliding around town.

So, I am calling for change. I want to see one station. Just one....take the initiative and sit back in the studio where it is nice and toasty, and just give us one good warning and then move on. Give us the weather, then remind us about our lack of driving skill on ice, then drop it.

Way back when, these guys had to report to the FCC on why they should have a license and how it benefited the public in some way. I just don't get how hours of reporting on minivans spinning around is in the public good.

Report something of moderate interest and then sit back and drink some hot chocolate and let the other guys skid around overreporting when the ice comes to town.

Send your donations to NCPOWE today to stop the madness.