Kim and I will post more about the faculty/deans conversation today, however, suffice it to say that both Locker Talker and DebateThis have one more week of (intense) development/mock-up work before a decision is made as to which 3 ideas will go to Toronto. There are a total of 4 ideas in development at this time, but Dianne only wants to take 3 due to the amount of execution work that will be involved post-ONA.
I have a meeting to run to and will post more of the feedback later, but folks seemed excited about the target demographics you are aiming at. Keep the work coming, everyone!
Looking at my notes, some of the points made on the faculty/deans call include:
ReplyDeleteLocker Talker--
1. Look into "Newspapers in Education" program--there may be a vital tie-in for the news org that takes on this idea.
2. Isn't this similar to the Barbie site for girls. (I don;t think so, but it's worth just checking it out.)
3. Important to emphasize why this will be an asset to a news organization..early in the presentation.
4. AP apparently developed a news for youth product and it failed (folded). Didn't work in trying to reach this age group. We should look into what happened and why it failed.
5. This idea will attune news orgs (market research) to the interests of this age group (as well as encourage them to cover more stories of interest to middle-schoolers.
6. Will young people (9-12) be interested in this if it's not a social networking site?
7. Advertising opportunities here are key.
DebateThis--
1. Isn't this very similar to Digg? How is it different?
2.Why is this an asset to a media organization?
3. How will you draw first users?
the barbie comment was off base - but i think it was becfause they couldn't see the idea
ReplyDeletewhat is related about barbie is like with stardolls - to look at their privacy and security features
the newspapers in education program shows us that schools and newspapers have a relationship - you guys mentioend it during our chats a couple of weeks ago i think - here's their url. THey have some interesting content that if syndicated might fit, including weekly political cartoons, links and quizzes
the value to the news org is something all the groups are going to have to do - because some of hte other ideas had tenuous value in my opinion. you guys have some interesting value - new audience, keep them engaged, local and national advertising opportunities - but like all the groups - the value has to be clear and up front
i heard from the person who asked about the similarity of the debate this to digg - they said that htey meant slashdot, not digg
ReplyDeleteslashdot's functionality might be useful to look at
right now it has a snarky tone, lots of tech focus
but there is a sense of noob poster vs experienced/frequent poster (who people are going to trust more)
Marybeth,
ReplyDeleteThanks for spelling it all out. I'm going to check on all of these things later on today and report back.
1. Newspapers in Education: More on this to come when we actually have a better understanding.
ReplyDelete2. Barbie Site: I think the conclusion has already been reached that this was brought up more for the use of their privacy statement and less becuase people thought it was similar (because it's not). We'll look into privacy statements more in terms of what we want our program to use, but we have established there is a need for parental permission and privacy becuase of the under 13 age group. More to come on this, as well.
3. Asset to a news organization: Kim outlined some reasons why we already have this established:
a. introducing a new audience
b. local and national advertising opportunities through magnet and sticker opportunities. I also thought about the ability to have advertising on the page "sides" on the log in page, similar to what you see on any news page or existing sites for girls this age (think back to the sites we found when we were working on the germ / audience research when we got back from Ithaca Round 2).
4. AP product: I don't know if this is the product that was being reffered to, but I found "asap," released September 19, 2005. Although it says this was morphed into a project for 25-34, it was because their original subgroups were aimed too young (yet they won't release what it is, so I'm not sure if this is the same project being referred to in the faculty/dean's conference call).
It looks to me like this project hasn't actually ended yet, but will next month (also why I'm questiong if it's the same one you're referring to). It appears to me that a decline in usership, just like a decline in readership, was the cause for putting an end to it. This group also wants "MTV news", something we probably won't have to contend with as much with our demographic.
They claim they are going to take the underlying theory behind the idea (writing to this age group and using younger staffers ... something our idea has employed in its mission) into other facets of AP.
5. I don't think this one requires a response?
6. Will young people be ineterestd in this if it's not a social networking site? Yes, becuase they are not into social networking sites. Again referring to what we researched when we got back from the second Ithaca trip, all the sites we found that are geared toward the MS demographic (at that point we were only interested in girls, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the same for boys) are not about social networking. They're about avatars, games, video, and being creative and sharing things and customizing things ... what we're trying to do with news. Nine year olds aren't on Facebook.
7. Advertising: I talked about this above, but I think our most recent additon to Locker Talker with local or national stickers and magnets certainly handles advertising in a creative and pertinent way. Site advertisers could also be incorporated ... and the news organization who would sponsor this site is already going to haver advertisers and advertsing questions.
The part that really is strange to me out of all of these questions is will young people still go on the sites if they are not social networks. I thought we had burried this one, but I guess not. The site will feature some things similar to social networks, but will be much more safe. This will make Mom and Dad much more at ease to let Susie and Joey on the site to begin with. Sure, they might rather be on Myspace, but when the site is blocked they will go for the next best thing. Locker Talker. It's also important to point out that the site would not be in direct competition with Myspace or Facebook. As Andrea had said, many younger kids aren't on these sites. This is just another fun, education site for them to visit, and possibly feel older and cooler becase of the locker and fo-social networking aspect.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS NOT A NEW MYSPACE. IT IS NOT A NEW FACEBOOK. It is a new thing altogether. A combination of the good a lot of sites.