Sunday, December 30, 2007

Americans more wired: survey | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters

Americans more wired: survey | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters: "NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - About 38 percent of U.S. consumers are watching TV shows online, 36 percent use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.
The findings of the online survey of 2,081 Americans, conducted October 25-31, were provided to The Hollywood Reporter before their official release next month.
The 'State of the Media Democracy' notes that in Deloitte's first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24 percent of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices, meaning that usage has soared 50 percent."

Saturday, December 29, 2007

NYT: For the right niche, blogs can be valuable tool for marketing

By MARCI ALBOHER
THE NEW YORK TIMES


To its true believers at small businesses, it is a low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand.

That tool is blogging, though small businesses with blogs are still a distinct minority. A recent American Express survey found that only 5 percent of businesses with fewer than 100 employees have blogs. Other experts put the number slightly higher.

But while blogs may be useful to many more small businesses, even blogging experts do not recommend it for the majority.

Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, managing partner of Garage Technology Ventures and a prolific blogger, put it this way: "If you're a clothing manufacturer or a restaurant, blogging is probably not as high on your list as making good food or good clothes."

Blogging requires a large time commitment and some writing skills, which not every small business has on hand.

But some companies are suited to blogging. The most obvious candidates, said Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of "The Everything Blogging Book," are consultants. "They are experts in their fields and are in the business of telling people what to do."

Friday, December 14, 2007

Bellevue Community College (BCC) YouTube Contest Finalists

Sunday, December 09, 2007

GAMES FOR HEALTH PROJECT

GAMES FOR HEALTH PROJECT ANNOUNCES GAMES FOR HEALTH CONFERENCE 2008ISSUES CALL FOR CONTENT FOR FOURTH ANNUAL GATHERING

December 6, 2007 - (Portland, ME) - Today the Games for Health Project (www.gamesforhealth.org) announced plans for its fourth annual Games for Health Conference. The conference will be held May 8–9, 2008, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

Games for Health announced Humana has signed on as a premiere industry sponsor for the event.Prior to the conference, on May 7, the Project will also host two additional day-long events devoted to virtual worlds and health, as well as games accessibility.

Together, these three days of meetings will cover the intersection of next-generation game technologies, health, and health care. Registration is now open at www.gamesforhealth.org, and a call for content has now been issued on the site and is available to prospective speakers and presenters.

The Games for Health Project is dedicated to exploring and building on the use of games and game technologies to improve health and health care. The Project was started in 2002 by the Serious Games Initiative (www.seriousgames.org) and is sponsored by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

On November 7, 2007,RWJF announced an $8.25M grant to fund new research and continued efforts to build the games for health field, which includes support for the Games for Health Project and primary sponsorship of the Games for Health Conference through 2011.

"On the heels of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s grant announcement, we are proud to launch what we expect to be our biggest and best gathering to date," said Games for Health Project Communications Director and conference organizer Beth Bryant. "The theme this year is ‘Leveling Up,’ which we feel signifies the great leaps forward the games for health community has made since our last major event in September 2006." The Games for Health Conference expects over 300 attendees at Games for Health 2008. “This conference provides a forum for collaborations to emerge between the video game industry and the health and health care industry.” said Chinwe Onyekere, RWJF program officer. “Through these exchanges, we hope attendees will continue to explore how the power of video games can help to solve complex health and health care challenges.”

GAMES FOR HEALTH CONTENT

The Games for Health Conference 2008 will feature more than 30 sessions and an expanded expo, including specific tracks on exergaming and training—two of the biggest areas of activity within the greater games for health field. Over the course of the two-day conference, researchers and game developers are expected to share research, games, and related engineering covering a diverse portfolio of activities, including:

* Exergaming & Rehabitainment
* Health Behavior Change
* Disease Management & Education
* Public Health Messaging & Patient Communication
* Cognitive Health
* Training and Management Sims & Occupational Recruitment
* Accessibility for Games & Disability-Focused Games* Epidemiology
* Pain Distraction & Stress Relief* CyberPsychology
* Entertainment Games About Health or Substantial Health-Related Play
* Health Effects of Games* First Responders & Mass Casualty Training
* Medical Informatics & Health Data Collection* Virtual Patients
* Interface & Visualization Applications* Personal Health & Electronic Medical Record Systems