When Boomers were kids, playing in the stream meant just that. But now, it refers to a generation of kids “with the average preschooler now more able to play video games than ride a bike or tie a shoe, and with three-quarters of all middle school- and high school-age kids already owning a phone.”

So when, how much and from whom should our kids be learning about digital technology? After all, we can't leave it all up to Salman Khan.

Sara DeWitt, VP of PBS Kids Interactive, believes the transmedia approach to learning works best with kids today and comments on the ease of touchscreen technology in this video from SXSW 2012: "How Kids Learn With Technology."Continue reading...

“Alohomora!” J.K. Rowling's Pottermore website to keep the world of Harry Potter alive on digital has finally opened its e-bookstore.

While Rowling's books have sold an estimated 450 million physical copies and been translated into more than 70 languages, the author had retained the digital rights as part of her book publishing contracts, so the e-book editions weren't immediately available — until the Pottermore (think "Potter" plus "ever more") digital brand extension plan was announced last June. Already, Slate is calling it a game-changer for publishing.Continue reading...

The organizers of the Digital Media Summit today in Toronto tweeted the following question: "Are you guilty of 'social notworking'?"

Some new research spearheaded by Jeff Mancini, Interbrand's New York-based senior director of digital strategy, who's also a participant at the conference, reveals how companies are guilty of 'social notworking' — and what they can do about it.

Interbrand's just-released survey of 672 companies across 10 sectors — in a new report titled "From Digital Strategy to Brand Mastery" — takes the pulse of corporate social marketing efforts with some telling results:Continue reading...

According to the latest 2012 State of the News Media report from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 truly marked the tipping point for a new era of digital media consumption and sharing.

In the new "new media" landscape, Pew's landmark annual consumer research underscores the widening gap between the news and technology industries as a small, powerful group of digital behemoths increasingly consolidate and control our digital lives and become media titans in their own right.

“Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and a few others are maneuvering to make the hardware people use, the operating systems that run those devices, the browsers on which people navigate, the e-mail services on which they communicate, the social networks on which they share and the web platforms on which they shop and play,” says the study.Continue reading...

Launching Doritos' new "Jacked" product line via a giant vending machine isn't the only thing PepsiCo has been up to at SXSW. The CPG giant, and its brands, have been all over Austin this past week.

“What I love about SXSW is it’s a place where culture breaks — and specifically digital culture,” Josh Karpf, PepsiCo’s Global Director of Digital and Social Media, told brandchannel. “We get to see the latest technologies 12-18 months before they hit the consumer consciousness. We’re getting it earlier which makes it a key part of the calendar.”

It’s PepsiCo’s fourth year at SXSW and its corporate and brand presence is larger than ever with four of its "billion-dollar" brands on-site, including festival novice Doritos plus SXSW veterans Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Brisk.Continue reading...

In a milestone of digital dominance in the publishing industry, Encyclopaedia Britannica will cease publication in print and move entirely to digital.

It’s been a good (print) run for the Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for "British Encyclopaedia"), the oldest English-language encyclopaedia still around, first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland in three volumes.Continue reading...

Scholastic is going digital. The world's largest children's book publisher is digitizing the bulk of its titles and releasing its first e-reading app, called Storia. While many trade publishers are reaching 20% in digital revenue, the kids’ e-book market is stuck at about 5%, and Scholastic is eager to change all that.

The Storia app, free to download with a beta version available today, offers about 1,300 e-books and multimedia e-books with popular series including “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Ready, Freddy!” available in digital format for the first time. It's designed for children ages 3-14 and currently available for PC tablets, with versions for iPad and iPhone and Android devices coming soon.

According to PaidContent, Storia's titles can be sorted by grade level, reading level, age and character/series, and enriched e-books “use word games, story interactions, and animation to deeply draw your young reader in, further developing confidence and critical thinking skills.”Continue reading...

Look out, Gillette and Schick. There is a new razor on the block and it is cheaper and comes directly to consumers homes. The Dollar Shave Club, a new startup, has launched with more than $1 million in backing from such venture capitalists as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch.

The idea is that for only a dollar a month (plus $2 shipping and handling), a consumer can get all the razors he needs for the month sent to his door, saving him the walk into his local pharmacy or big-box store to snag them.

Of course they can spend more than that if they want. Another package goes for $6 a month while the “Executive” will cost you $9 monthly. Other razors have gotten overdeveloped with ““a vibrating handle, a back-scratcher, and all of that stuff,” said founder and CEO Michael Durbin to TechCrunch.Continue reading...