You may have heard of a Morgan Stanley research piece called “Media & Internet How Teenagers Consume Media.”  If you haven’t, you can pop over to the Financial Times and have a look at the actual research.  This has caused a bit of a stir, partially because it’s based solely on interviewing a 15-year old intern.  Some people agree with it, some people disagree with it, some people merely grouse that nothing coming from a single 15-year old ought to be taken that seriously, but it has gotten some digital ink.

For the last four years, I’ve been teaching a college course on e-Business and while the students coming through my class tend to be 20-22, not 15, I’ve talked to considerably more than one person about many of the topics in this paper.  While observations from classroom discussions aren’t any more scientific than interviewing a lone 15 year-old, I think there’s a case to be made that kids may be kids, where digital media is concerned. (more…)

ActofGood is a sort of charity mash-up site, combining elements of social media with a calendar and a good old fashioned Web 1.0 portal component.  If you haven’t heard of it, that’s probably because it launched at the end of April and is still making the publicity rounds.  Still, in a short period of time they’ve signed up 80+ charities ranging from well known names, like The American Lung Association and Children’s Memorial Hospital, to smaller names like Holla for a Dolla and Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.

In portal mode, the site allows for a quick exploration of different charities and has a filter for “Cause Category.”  This could potentially aid in cross-pollination of volunteers for similar causes, as could the social network set-up of the member pages allow for sharing of causes. The site also allows for donations and volunteer sign-ups, but the main piece on the site is the current  events calendar. (more…)