There’s a book out now that has a chapter I contributed. The book is Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds, and my chapter is called Kids and Digital Ownership.

Here’s an excerpt from my chapter:

Managing Youth Creativity

What is the value of a digital creation, and who owns it? Particularly among the young, the line between creator and consumer has blurred, as has the question of ownership.

Some companies claim full ownership of content created with their tools or stored on their servers, while others take a more hands-off approach. When it comes to kids, neither strategy is ultimately effective.

The hands-off approach, whereby the company denies responsibility for and ownership of user-generated content, is not compatible with laws and standards that are in place to protect young people. For example, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) makes it difficult for website operators to allow children to share freely, and when the website is monitored, the operator can’t deny knowledge of a problematic piece of content.

And using an online contract such as a Terms of Service or an End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) to claim ownership of user-generated content does not work with children, and such digital contracts end up being worth the paper they’re written on.

The solution, however, is not to shut the gates to children. Today’s youth are the ones who will build and manage tomorrow’s virtual worlds as well as enact policies that govern those virtual spaces. The manner in which we address their needs today will have a direct impact on tomorrow’s virtual cultures, laws, and best practices.

Go here to learn more about the project:

http://www.bettereula.com/wp/settlers/

Tags: bettereula, coppa, digital rights, settlers of the new virtual worlds, user rights, virtual worlds

A dear friend of mine is doing some research into the current situation of libraries that serve children, and particularly school libraries. I offered to help, so I’m posting her questions here.

Feel free to answer here or email me directly at Rettstatt (at) gmail (dot) com. Also, if you happen to know of any good online resources, please share.

If any of my readers work in the field and have a few minutes to answer three questions by tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, then I’ll owe you a big favor. At the very least, I’ll owe you a signed copy of The Sky Village for your library or personal collection, whichever you prefer.

(1) What is the biggest challenge facing your library specifically and libraries serving kids (especially schools) in general these days?

(2) What’s the best thing that’s happening with your library?

(3)  What do you see on the horizon–emerging trends, possible opportunities, potential obstacles to look out for?

Bonus (optional) questions:

(4)  Who does the buying for your library?  What is the process?  Is it effective?  Why or why not?

(5) What do you wish people knew about libraries and kids these days?  Or, if you prefer, anything else you’d like to say to someone who’s very interested?

Tags: librarians, school libraries

Mei in the Sky Village missing her parents

Disclaimer: this is from an animation test, which was used to explore a particular style of animation we are considering using for Kaimira. Whether or not we ultimately go with this style, it’s too interesting not to share.

The Sky Village was just listed in  Time Out London as one of the best Christmas Gift Books for 2008.

Kaimira: Book One, the Sky Village
Monk and Nigel Ashland, with illustrations by Jeff Nentrup
Walker £6.99
A dystopian fantasy, ‘Kaimira’ is set in a world divided into three factions: humans, beasts and Meks (machines). Like Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ series, it boasts an appealingly feisty female heroine and a more thoughtful, troubled male one. One of the most seductive aspects of Pullman’s books is the settings he conjures for the adventures of his characters and – though the writing here is not in the same class – the Sky Village, a community of linked hot air balloons floating high above China, and other richly described locations, offer similarly escapist pleasures. ‘Kaimira’ ends somewhat abruptly in order to establish the opening for volume two, but it’s a satisfying read and worth considering as a present for a young reader suffering Pullman (or Potter) withdrawal symptoms.

Tags: christmas gifts, dystopian, fantasy, gift book, his dark materials, kaimira, reviews, the sky village

Image from Kaimira Animation Test

Tags: animation test, feifei, kaimira, sky village

The fourth and final shortlist came out for the Eva Perry Mock Newbery. And The Sky Village is still hanging in there.

I love Mock Newbery awards. Even the ones that don’t nominate me.

And in case you didn’t notice it over there on the left, this is what the paperback is going to look like:

The Sky Village (paperback)

Tags: awards, kaimira, mock newbery, the sky village

So, Sony is paying $1 Million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.

It wasn’t any sort of evil white-collar schemy crime. They didn’t launder money or engage in insider trading. Like a surprising lot of companies, they just didn’t bother to bother the experts. In this case, children’s online community experts. They demonstrated a profound lack of rigor.

The thing wasn’t that they collected email addresses. There are ways to do that legally without jumping through too many hoops. And it wasn’t that they pshawed the COPPA Commandments. The mistake, at the simplest level, was asking for date of birth. That tiny little drop-down doohickey provided the “actual knowledge” that did them in.

There’s more to it, of course. And a company like Sony should be just as invested in best practices as they are in the law, and best practices for them would start with the acknowledgment that kids are going to be visiting their music websites and they’d better face that fact head on.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they went out shortly and recruited themselves a Czar to wear the thinking cap on this sort of thing from now on.

Tags: children's privacy, coppa coppr, online privacy, online safety, sony