Great article about Sebkinz, Club Penguin, etc.

Really annoying trend, this.

Great article from NYT about the rising popularity of kid's sites that charge real world $ for virtual play.

"The money-driven aspect of the games, whether involving actual or virtual cash, is becoming a concern for parents and consumer watchdogs as popular game sites like Club Penguin attract millions of new users. The number of unique monthly visitors to Club Penguin more than doubled in the last year, to 4.7 million from 1.9 million, while the traffic on Webkinz.com grew to 6 million visitors from less than 1 million, according to comScore Media Metrix, which tracks online usage."
LINK

Super interesting article about marketing to teens

Sure, authors have been on MySpace for ages, but this caught my attention.

"This month, Random House will partner with social networking site Gaia Online to promote Michael Scott's May novel, The Alchemyst. According to site statistics, Gaia—a virtual world with forums, games and customizable avatars—has nearly two million unique visitors a month. Along with receiving prominent mentions in the site's news and announcements sections, the title will be featured in the entertainment forum, where readers will be able to discuss the book. When teens post on the Alchemyst boards, they'll receive a downloadable image of the book for their avatars to display; author Scott can “sign” them when he visits the message boards."

Also,


"Little, Brown Books for Young Readers recently promoted an online chat with Clique series author Lisi Harrison via her MySpace page, collecting more than 2,000 questions from readers and attracting 200 teens for the chat session."

From Publisher's Weekly

Professional Literature

>I Found It On The Internet: Coming Of Age Online (2005) Francis Jacobson Harris

>Hooking Teens with the Net (2003) Linda Braun

>Teens.library: Developing internet services for young adults (2002) Linda Braun

>Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication, and

Community Online (2007) Meredith Farkas

>Youth, Pornography, and the Internet (2002) National Research Council, Dick Thornburgh, and Herbert Lin

General Interest

The Rough Guide to MySpace and Online Communities (2007) The Rough Guide

Generation Myspace: Helping Your Teen Survive Online Adolescence (2007) Candice Kelsey

Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online (2007) Anastasia Goodstein

What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?: How to Understand the Electronic World Your Children Live In (2007) Barbara Melton and Susan Shankle

Myspace for Moms and Dads: A Guide to Understanding the Risks and the Rewards (2007) Connie Neal

MySpace Unraveled: A Parent's Guide to Teen Social Networking (2006) Larry Magid

A Parent’s Guide To Myspace (2006) Laney Dale

Books for teens reflecting the importance of technology in their lives

Snail Mail No More (2000) Paula Danzinger and Ann Martin
Now that they live in different cities, thirteen-year-old Tara and Elizabeth use email to talk about everything that is occurring in their lives and to try to maintain their closeness as they face big changes.(Sequel: P.S. Longer Letter Later)

The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez (2006) Judy Goldschmidt
In a blog she sends to her best friends back in Berkeley, seventh-grader Raisin Rodriguez chronicles her successes and her more frequent humiliating failures as she attempts to make friends at her new Philadelphia school. (2 Sequels— Raisin Rodriguez and the Big Time Smooch and Will the Real Raisin Rodriguez Please Stand Up?)

The Write Stuff (2005) Jahnna Malcolm
Rachel is the "It Girl"--she has the looks and any guy she wants. Until Dylan. To get Dylan, Rachel has her best friend, Hannah, write an e-mail for her. It works. Dylan thinks he's falling for Rachel--but he's really falling for Hannah.

ttyl (2005) Lauren Myracle
Chronicles, in "instant message" format, the day-to-day experiences, feelings, and plans of three friends, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela, as they begin tenth grade. (2 sequels—l8r gtr and ttfn)

Rob&Sara.com (2004) P.J. Peterson
Rob, who lives at a school for troubled teenagers, and Sara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an army colonel, meet in a poetry chat-room and develop a close relationship via email.

ChaseR: A Novel in Emails (2002) Michael J. Rosen
When his parents decide to move to an old house in the country, Chase uses email to his friends back in Columbus, Ohio, and to his sister in college to help him deal with cicadas, deer hunters, and other changes in his life.

An Order of Amelie, Hold The Fries ( 2004) Nina Schindler
A series of humorous and sarcastic letters, emails, scratchings on take-out containers, newspaper clippings and other inventive exchanges between two teenagers trace a romance. Each page spread is devoted to one message

Click Here: To Find Out How I Survived 7th Grade (2006) Denise Vega
Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her private blog, but when it accidentally gets posted on the school Intranet site, she learns some important lessons about friendship.

Gossip Girl (2002) Cecily von Ziegesar
Is Gossip Girl one of New York City's privileged teens? The answer remains a well-kept secret, but her Web page that opens each chapter (and that readers can visit) tells all about the in-crowd. (10 sequels)

Some new links

Thank you Hope! Some more great links and resources.

Teens and Online Stranger Contact -
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/223/report_display.asp
Cyberbullying and online teens -
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/216/report_display.asp
Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their
online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/211/report_display.asp
Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview -
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp

Thanks so much to everyone who made it to West Warwick this morning! If you didn't make it, the links and article below will give you pretty much everything we talked about! I will be adding more links, but that will probably be over the weekend.
If anyone has any other networks, articles, or ideas that they would like posted here, please let me know!

Some social networks

Some of the most popular social networking sites are linked below. I have made mock accounts for MySpace and Gaia, and have put the necessary stuff to get into said accounts there. I will delete those after the meeting, but if you have been wanting to explore MySpace or would like a gander at Gaia, go ahead! The others are either navigable without logging on or joining, like 43 Things, Flikr, Library Thing, and Wikipedia, or require a big commitment (MyChurch) or a purchase (Webkinz) to join.

· 43 Things

· Bebo

· Club Penguin U=Stargirlbleu P=Spinelli

· Del.ic.ious

· Facebook U=Stargirlieblue@yahoo.com P=spinelli

· Flickr

· Friendster

· Gaia Online U=Stargirlie Blue P=Spinelli

· Guild Café

· LibraryThing

· LiveJournal

MyChurch

· MySpace U=stargirlieblue@yahoo.com P=Spinelli1

· Orkut

· Neopets

· Second Life

· Shelfari

· Shutterfly

· Twitter

· Vampire Freaks

· Vox

· Webkinz

· Wikipedia

· Xanga

Links to handouts from meeting

YALSA Teens and Social Networking in School and Public Libraries : A Toolkit for Librarians and Library Workers

Forbes.com article: Why MySpace is Safe Space

danah boyd: Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

Seattle Public Schools builds social-learning site for its tech-savvy teens

Not available online:
Rapacki, S. (2007) Social networking sites: why teens need places like MySpace.Young Adult Library Services, 5(2), 28-30.