MyCBBC - an institutional social network
I am just not sure whether or not to laugh, cry or just wonder! I knew it was coming but reading through links in feeds yesterday alerted me to its imminence. Both the Mail and the Telegraph (and I suspect others) give warning of its approach and also hype up the anti by asking the questions 'should your money be spent on this?'.
The new social network site called MyCBBC will have a lower (?) age limit/range of six years. As far as my limited research goes I am led to believe that this is well catered for at the moment by Club Penguin.
So is this venture the institution of the BBC reaching out to a young audience in their space or is it an institution going out of its remit? Or... does the concept fulfill the idea of choice in all things?
From a user point of view, in the end, it won't matter. Children and their parents will have a look at both and will make up their minds what they want to do and which they want to use. I suspect it will not be an either or it will be a both and lots of others as well. Some will live on because their use will justify it, others will just drift slowly away ...a process of evolution. How many people already have 'lapsed' identities spread all over Bebo, MySpace, FaceBook etc. ? You stick with those that work for you and maybe dabble in some others. I really object to the idea that one size and site fits all ... to be honest, that is where I am currently having difiiculties with VLEs and LPs.
The BBC insists that the site is designed to encourage discussion of the Corporation’s shows and will help raise awareness among youngsters about the risks of using the Internet. ... it is being developed at a cost of £200,000 ( a mere drop in the ocean when you think of the money spent on BBC Jam) and will be available to some 1000 users from April. Is it a self fulfilled prophecy?
Let's just wait and see ...
Labels: web2.0
posted by Doug @ 12:38
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Well I wouldn't recommend crying Doug! The perennial argument about what the BBC should or should not do with its funding will never go away for as long as it remains in receipt of public money and as you say, the amount of money being spent on this is relatively small.
The BBC has already made big inroads in engaging with kids online, through their CBEEBIES and CBBC offerings, much of it with an educational bent, so a social networking site is pretty much an inevitable development. The big issue will be whether or not it is actually any good and only time will tell on that one.
Kids, as you say will decide what they want to use and they certainly won't hang around if it doesn't do it for them. Yes, they will want to try them all but personally, I won't be rushing to send my son to Club Penguin partly because I'm not a big fan of Disney and secondly because to access the best parts there is a monthly charge (with reductions for 6 month and 12 month subscriptions). That puts me off for starters (maybe because I'm mean!) and also I believe the money aspect changes the whole nature of the experience. When you pay for something you want to see it used. Very different from the lapsed identities, drifting in and out experience you describe. Kids in particular have very fleeting attention spans, going from best thing ever one day to not bothered the next!
I'd be more prepared to give the BBC a chance but in any case you can bet the BBC will make sure my son knows all about how good it is so that anything I may say to him will be rendered irrelevant!
But I'm interested to see what it looks like...
Excellent comment from Alastair. My daughter is a big Club Penguin fan and I won't pay for the additional content. If the BBC do a good job with this (and they usually do), then we might have a fun (and educational) space for children to use and communicate through - another small nail in the VLE LP approach?
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