YPulse at SXSW - getting the lo-down on teen webbing

Hello y'all,

Well, we're at the eve of Sex::Tech 2009 and all I can say is wow! Kickin' off this Sunday, March 22nd at the J.W. Marriott in San Francisco, California we here at ISIS are truly ready to rock the house! For those of you who want to show up prepared, I offer you this bit of blog to enhance and enrich your Sex::Tech 2009 experience.

Our friends at YPulse, namely Anastasia, headed out to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas last week to host a roundtable on "What Teens Want in a Website", and wrote about feedback from youth panelists. The youth talked about a bunch of topics, including the age old battle - MySpace versus Facebook, MS being for the "urban youth" and FB catering to "suburban youth". Turns out that neither of these social networking sites are all that "hot" right now, and that the youth have moved on to other, more relevant ways to social network via technology.

Which brought up the conversation about moving away from the computer screen and handlin' teen biz via texting, which has truly surpassed any of the social messaging networks. Teens get a phone, and wham-bam-thank you ma'am (ol' skool talk), it's On!! And these teens still text more than talk, remember talking??, which allows more privacy than MS/FB.

The panel also discussed brand sites, video, twitter, the whole mix of what y'all teens get yourselves involved in nowadays, when you have the spare time. It seems that all of these topics were of interest, but none of them really dominated the teen panel's time.

Overall, the article points out a few really good facts, based on the teen panel that is........teens are more interested in mobility than sitting in front of a computer screen. As far as being "techies" teens are workin' the text thing like mad, new tech is not something that these teens had a real passionate desire to explore.

Read all about it so that when you are sitting in the Sex::Tech workshops you'll be right on top of the dialogue and possibly add some of your own!

Enjoy the show and we all look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Blessings!

Announcing the new ISIS myspace page

Internet Sexuality Information Systems, Inc. (ISIS) is excited to announce the launch of our new MySpace page!




Definitely check out the site to hear and see the latest and greatest ways to practice safe sex and find answers to sexually related questions that you might not be able to ask any of your friends or family.



We showcase some of the winners of the Fresh Focus Sex Ed Video Contest as well as the winners of some of our latest contests and the messages are tight. There are photos from the 2008 Sex::Tech Conference held in San Francisco and the latest info on what ISIS is getting ready to launch in the coming months.



We hope you enjoy and visit often, tell your friends to log on as well.



See you soon!


Blessings,



AfroPeruvian Queen






























Blessings,







AfroPeruvian Queen

ISIS Animation

I thought it might be a nice change to do an ISIS process blog. We always have a lot of balls in the air around here. We're really lucky around here and get to work on amazing projects that tend to have creative and fun aspects to them. We are currently working with several partners on a research project that will live in Myspace. Basically, we are trying to harness and shape the power of web 2.0 represented by the communicative powers of Myspace to get people talking about sexual health and HIV. And the interesting kicker is that the research limb of this project will try to measure the effects.

For the project we are creating an animation that will be sort of a serial drama. So far the process of creating this has been a fun challenge for me. I started pretty green, with very little knowledge of the world of animation- don't get me wrong I love cartoons but I didn't know what we into developing them. We found an amazing company to work with Rudner Design Works and they are helping us put the pieces together. They are slowly pulling images out of my head and putting them on paper. I even got to write my first ever script! Check out the first images for the first installment of the series.

Search without belonging - Copenda

I just saw this on one of my favorite blogs, the Online Dating Insider. Copenda allows you to search multiple dating and social sites at the same time. Then you can click over to the interesting profiles on its native site. Pretty cool.

So far the site has indexed over one million profiles. You can search Myspace, Facebook, hi5, Friendster, Match.com and plentyofish. It's really surprising, as the Insider notes, that these sites would open up their networks to a third party. But the bottom line still remains, if you find someone you like, you need to sign up with the original service to actually message them.

It will be interesting to see what methods evolve for being "seen" or being ranked high on the Copenda search results. It's unclear at this point how one gets to the top of the barrel, aside from geographical proximity. Does updating your Match.com profile frequently help here? I dunno.

Also, the people you come up with on Myspace for example, might not be looking for dates. So, the sifting you may need to do is potentially more involved if you're looking for dating specifically.

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In other news, Jennifer Garner didn't get any sex education, and she's not the only one.

Social Site Aggregators - Useful?

Ever take a break at work to check your friends' blogs? Then take another minute to see if any of those new MySpace comments are real? Then another five minutes to upload a few photos of your weekend to Flickr...and before you know it you've forgotten whether your password on Twitter is hotdog1 or 1hotdog and you realize you really should get back to work. Does this happen to you?

I don't have the solution...and perhaps just more to add to the problem. But how can we begin to catalog the multiple profiles, tag collections, photos, podcasts, etc that we all love to consume into one place? And how can we start to realistically digest the media jumbles our friends create?

Well, there are some new options to try. Each has some strengths and some wussiness too. My friend Lauren from Object Adjective (they designed the Sex::Tech website for us) recently reviewed Plaxo Pulse.

Some others are Flock, FriendFeed, ProfileLinker, Fuser, Spokeo and MyLifeBrand.

Flock seems promising. You can access and update many social sites (the usual suspects plus Piczo, del.icio.us, Twitter, etc.). Flock even supports massive (up to 1000) picture uploads. One major downfall is that you have to download it. Alas.

What does this have to do with ISIS and sex you ask? Well, I'm not entirely sure, however, we have this contest called Fresh Focus. To promote the contest we have MySpace pages, a Flickr account, a couple of blogs, friends and colleagues that blog about us, press releases, emails coming in, emails going out, podcast promos, youtube videos...you get the idea. How can we manage all this stuff, even with a stellar cast of 6? We're working on finding the best way.

Happy Turkey everyone, if you do that sort of thing.

Trojan too sloppy for conservative-owned TV

Thanks to Babeland and NSRC for keeping us in the loop on this one. The new Trojan condom ads are not being aired on CBS and FOX because they are "inappropriate" and focus on pregnancy prevention rather than STIs. As far as I can tell, the ad doesn't address STIs or pregnancy - just not wanting to sleep with "pigs."


Sign this Planned Parenthood petition asking CBS and FOX to reconsider their stodgy position. Then send it to friends.

Here's another one, just for fun.


Update: The pig ad does run on Myspace however, which is funny considering it is also owned by Rupert Murdoch and friends.

Safe Sex Fridays - dry hump demo

Thanks to defective yeti and Tremble for introducing me to PeerPressure, their lovely safe sex example, and companion literature, Furniture Humper Magazine.



For more safe sex demos check out PeerPressure5 on Myspace.

Myspace to remove registered sex offenders

The New York Times today published a story about Myspace's plans to rid the networking site of known sex offenders. Myspace says this will hinge on whether state officials subpoena the names...something the said officials don't think is necessary. It seems that there are two different goals here. Myspace wants to keep the so called predators off their site, and the attorneys general want to find folks and prosecute them. Perhaps that's why there has been a cooperation lapse between the two parties.

Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal says, “We have a valid and viable need to know about convicted sexual offenders who may pose a threat to children.” The problem however is that using Myspace doesn't necessarily mean using it in a threatening way. And how do you suppose that will be proven? By eroding the privacy of everyone using the site for its intended purpose?

Check out Myspace's safety tips or tips for parents. It does seem like a better approach to educate the majority of users about staying safe, rather than booting every register offender who may just be connecting with friends after time apart.

In related news: U.S. soldiers worldwide can no longer use Myspace or Youtube to keep in touch with their friends and families, although the Marine core is using the networking site for recruitment. Pftt!

Fake friends really helped me get laid

A recent New York Times article titled "Too Few Friends? A Web Site Lets You Buy Some (and They’re Hot)" takes a gander at some grand/gross ideas for managing your online networks, which in reality (I guess this is reality) might make me sad if they ended up popular.

Bright idea #1: fakeyourspace.com lets you buy MySpace, Facebook, Consumating and Friendster friends for $.99 a month. You can even see which "friends" have been bought the most times...and are therefore more guaranteed to help you get popular. You can even have a fake friend pretend that they are dating you by sending all sorts of messages/comments. Hmmm. The last time I logged into MySpace there were three friend requests from fake profiles trying to befriendme for free. Are these services really necessary? View a few of my fake friends here: Autumn and Red Hot'n'Sexy Tommy's chicks. Or check out this great story about kicking some fake-friend ass by blogger Micheal D. If you really think that having hot friendsters will make you popular, why not create profiles of fake people by yourself and make them virtually fawn over you?...at least it would be more creative.

Bright ideas #2: MobileAlibi.com lets you select a time to be called so that you can exit unsavory situations. You can choose from Chris or Samantha's voice. The problem is, when I tried to test it out, it wouldn't work. Popularitydialer.com offers a similar service. They also suggest that recieving calls in public or while on a date can actually improve your popularity because others overtly or inadvertantly listen in. In their own words: "Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting." If my new date answered their cell phone during our date and chatted with someone else because they tought it would make me like them more...I'd go home and have a beer by myself.

And lastly, the same people that brought you Fakeyourspace.com, now offer Breakyourspace.com. Now you can easily break up with any or all of your online friends and avoid the pain of doing it yourself. My favorite part of the site is a little FAQ: "Can I break up with my significant other?" Answer: "Yes you can. While although we do not recommend using our service as a means for breaking up any of your real life relationships, we do provide the service." The redeeming quality about Breakyourspace is that you can choose a themed messenger to deliver the bad news. My favorites by far are: "I want a divorce," featuring a broken wedding band, "I'm suing your ass," featuring a little wooden gavel and "I blame you," with some lovely finger pointing.

KIDS Act of 2007 -- Pfft!

Of all the plans to weed out sexual predators in online spaces such as Myspace, this has got to be the worst idea. This Bill (called "Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007" or "KIDS Act of 2007") proposes that registered sex offenders hand over their email addresses, IM handles, etc to authorities so that they can be provided to network sites who will then give them the boot. The bill says that non-compliance could cost an offender up to 10 years in prison.

Another piece of the bill that seems randomly sandwiched in, is about misrepresented ages. If an offender is caught misrepresenting their age with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with a minor, it could get them 20 years.

So, I'm all about protecting kids, who isn't? That's precisely why these creepy plans can slip right through the do-gooder voters. My questions are: What idiot wouldn't submit one address and then use another? (Even sex offenders are smart, jeez) And, proving "intent to have sex with a minor..." come on, that's just one more thing in place to ensure that folks will never be rehabilitated or allowed to join society ever again (read: cruel). Did anyone see Little Children?