Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Global Awareness Through Gaming

Too often, the only news we hear about video games are the complaints about how the violence seen is warping children's minds, causing them to shoot up schools, and cause complete and utter chaos throughout even the most tepid neighborhoods.

The truth is that video games have joined a long list of cop-outs and scapegoats for parents and advocacy groups.

I'll hop down from the soapbox long enough to share a site with you. It's a video game sponsored by mtvU, and though it's no where near as violent as it could and perhaps should be, it is a game about Darfur built to educate, inform, and incite the mainstream through interactivity.

Check it out.

If you're interested in learning more about Darfur, but aren't into games, check out Eyes on Darfur, a partnership with Google Maps/Earth that shows how genocide travels from village to village.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Joost + AppleTV = enough reason to cancel my cable

Not that I need much of a push.

Two weeks ago, I was reading articles about how AppleTV was going to be Steve Jobs' only flop after a red hot winning streak of brilliant business decisions and product launches (iMac, iPod, iTunes, etc.). Last week, they announced a partnership with YouTube that would allow all video on YouTube to be viewed on your television via AppleTV (initially, it only allowed content that came from iTunes). In fact, YouTube is currently re-rendering all of its content in order to provide higher video quality specifically for this purpose (it's been reported that this huge project has actually been in the works for several weeks in order to be prepared for Apple's release of the iPhone in late June). Today, this interview with Joost CEO Mike Volpi points towards a potential partnership between his fledging internet video content network and Apple.

One big, big step closer to not needing to differentiate between a TV and a computer (and more importantly, pay for both services).