(Credit)

Pikifriends.  Sounds snobby. This innovative educational networking service can actually be seen as an extension of the classroom. Monitored by teachers, students communicate with each other by asking questions, sending notes, or posting a blog. Pikifriends attracts students because it is not strictly school, as it should not be, because it occurs outside the classroom. Students can commiserate over homework with each other!

Pikifriends is a safe and interactive environment for secondary students around the globe.  To join the community, Pikifriends verifies both teachers and students as a safety precaution, and is constantly monitored. Founded by an American teacher in Tokyo, Jeff Dionne, it was initially set up to benefit ESL (English Second Language) students, but has evolved into a positive social environment for all students who share similar educational goals.

Pikifriends adds a new dimension to the classroom. Students gain a hands on experience interacting with different cultures, which is a great benefit to social studies and history courses, and helps students maintain an enthusiastic approach to their studies in general.

Medieval World History teacher, Catherine Cabiness, has chosen Pikifriends as a valuable tool to integrate technology into the curriculum. She feels Pikifriends allows her to interact with each student in a different way, not possible in a regular classroom setting, or within a limited time period.  Catherine believes her students will continue with Pikifriends long after they leave her class.

There is no denying Pikifriends is a great innovation with lots of potential, but will it last? Jeff Dionne is confident it will. Will children be spending even more time on the computer? Will they be excused for it because it is educational?

Whatever you’re looking for, chances are it can be found on the web. This can potentially make things at home run much more smoothly. Say you’re looking for a recipe – to where do you turn? The following five sites are recipe databases online. You’ll find an overall review of their recipes, a featured or favorite recipe, the quality of the ethnic recipes listed (considered by some to be a good indicator of overall recipe quality), how easy it is to find qhat you need, and the social networking capabilities the site offers (if any). There are also ratings, ranging from one to four stars, the latter being the highest rating. Enjoy, and get cookin’!

Recipes: There are definitely a lot of twists on traditional dishes. Articles on the site will help you to pair wine with food or to put together a great meal, which is still pretty standard for all of the recipe sites.
Featured Recipe: Lime Marinated Grilled Salmon
Quality of Ethnic Recipes: There are only a limited amount of ‘ethnic’ or ‘world’ recipes, only a couple of which actually reflect the day-to-day cuisine of that region.
Search Functionality: AllRecipes has four different types of search. The basic search, the advanced search, the glossary search, and the collection search.
Layout/User Interface: It takes a minute of exploring to find the area of the site you need. Once you do, however, it’s fairly easy to navigate. The colors are bright and cheerful and the font is easy to read.
Membership: Free membership with limited features, full features (including ability to blog & custom url) come with sponsored membership. Sponsorship costs ten dollars for a half a year or seventeen dollars for a full year.
Social Networking: AllRecipes allows you to add other members to “cooks I like,” if they have a paid membership. You can blog with a paid membership for yourself, and have a personalized profile. However, if you choose to stick with the basic membership, there seems to be no way to contact other members.
Rating: Two and a half stars

Recipes: There are many interesting recipes ranging from easy to innovative to traditional.
Quality of Ethnic Recipes: Excellent international recipes are held in the Epicurious database. There is a good amount of recipes and the majority are true to their region of origin.
Featured Recipe: Quick Paella
Search Functionality: While there are only two types of search, basic and advanced, the advanced search is quite functional and has plenty of options to choose from to narrow the results down to the perfect recipe.
Layout/User Interface: This is a fully functioning web 2.0 website. The front page is easy to navigate and the drop-down menus in the top toolbar makes it easy to find what you’re looking for.
Membership: Membership is completely free. You don’t need to pay to get great features and to be able to use the entire site.
Social Networking: There is an entire Community section on this website, complete with a member search and groups.
Rating: Four stars.

Recipes: The Food Network recipes are mostly by professional chefs of the media network itself. There are also some user submitted recipes.
Quality of Ethnic Recipes: The international recipes on Food Network’s website are heavily Americanized to fit the palate of the general audience.
Featured Recipe: Grandma Maroni’s Meatballs
Search Functionality: It’s not so easy to find what you’re looking for. There is only a basic search available.
Layout/User Interface: The website has a nice, finished, web 2.0 look. There are lots of interesting media on the main recipe page, but none of which make it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for. This site is more for inspiration than function. Pop-up ads are an annoyance when navigating through the website, although they are limited.
Membership: Free membership is the only option (which is great, not to pay), but there is no benefit of membership other than a personal “recipe box” on-site.
Social Networking: There are no apparent features to network with other members.
Rating: Two and a half stars.

Recipes: The database is not so extensive, but there are very practical recipes within.
Quality of Ethnic Recipes: This is the place to go if you’re looking for country-specific recipes. The recipes are true to their region.
Featured Recipe: Jamaican Jerk Chicken
Search Functionality: There is an “advanced” search, which really isn’t enough of a difference from the basic search to justify a different title.
Layout/User Interface: RecipeSource, while containing some interesting food recipes, retains it’s old web look. It is not aesthetically pleasing, but is fairly simple to navigate.
Membership: No membership available.
Social Networking: No social networking system.
Rating: One and a half stars.

Recipes: RecipeZaar claims to have over 371,000 recipes. Amongst them, you’ll find a broad variety of interesting, tasty dishes. Nearly all are user submitted.
Quality of Ethnic Recipes: Very good ethnic recipes and a smart sorting system. They offer traditional recipes and a few with an alternative take.
Featured Recipe: Grilled Moroccan Chicken
Search Functionality: The search functions on this website are useful and usable. There are many options, which you can choose to select or not to select to find what you’re looking for.
Layout/User Interface: More pop-up ads. Besides that, the website is visually appealing and fairly easy to find your way through.
Membership: “Premium” membership is free. There are options to place your recipes in publicly, privately, and/or together as a menu. You can also keep notes and make a shopping list.
Social Networking: There is a separate Community area and forum. Also, there is the ability to add member chefs to a list of your favorites and contact them directly via private message.
Rating: Three and a half stars.

“Happy New Year Everyone!!” Boy, am I glad to be saying those words. After the year we’ve had, I am so ready to start fresh and create a new lifestyle for myself. But then again, who doesn’t say that at the beginning of every new year? If one of your goals for the new year is to live a healthier lifestyle, you simply must check out CenterNetwork’s annual Web 2.0 Fat-Off list for 2009………

“The Fat-Off is where we provide a list of tools to help you lose weight, maintain your weight or just keep your arse in check. Today is a great day to start a new lifestyle. Most of the tools we’ve listed below offer communities to provide a good support base. What I’ve found is that support from others is critical to the success of any program.”

From gadgets and scales to diets and calories, this list of 10 sites gives each a quick review of what it is and what it can help you accomplish. Social networking never looked so good!

Four companies are gearing up to address the needs of a younger generation of social networkers by presenting their ideas at this year’s TechCrunch50 conference. Here is a list, in no particular order, of social networks aimed at kids under 18, that will not only teach but entertain as well. CNET News reports:

iThryv was pitched as a banking site for kids. Like the game Spore, you start out small and things get more complex as you grow. When you’re younger expenses are tracked with big, colorful graphs. Later in life it gets more complex to include things like car and college payments, all the way to budgeting and savings.

Hangout.net is yet another virtual world. Kids can design their own virtual pad and adorn it and themselves with real-life products. These items reside in their online home, and all link back to online stores that sell them.

Blah Girls, in the words of its celebrity founder Ashton Kutcher, is a “dynamic, interactive, celebrity pop culture environment” played out through the eyes of three fictional characters. It centers on a Web video player with the three stereotypical children literally blahing about the latest celebrity gossip. Intermixed are asides the likes of Family Guy.

Tweegee is a virtual world that mixes e-mail, personal organization, and Flash gaming. It centers on an anime-like avatar that users build part by part. Likewise they can use a similar building tool to make their own hosted site that comes ready-made with templates based on what the kids are interested.

It sounds like TechCrunch50 is off to a great start with new and innovative sites being presented and obviously kids under 18 are no exception when it comes to a target audience. By tapping in to the content that a younger crowd commands, these companies will be able to generate advertising dollars that an already saturated, interactive, adult, market may not be able to offer.

In all honesty though, do we really need another celebrity gossip site? And one for young girls? Come on, Ashton, use those wonderful parenting skills that I read about all the time in People magazine and realize there is already enough gossip going on in school, do we need another website for that?

15 year old, Daniel Brusilovsky, is not your typical teen. While other kids his age are taking the bus to school, playing baseball and saying “no” to drugs, Daniel is taking his entrepreneurial skills and starting his own business that involves teens and technology.

Jason Kincaid, from TechCrunch had an opportunity to meet Daniel at their August Capital event last week and Jason reports that Daniel is a “bright kid” that seems to know everyone…….

“a quick glance at his Twitter account shows he gets around too, with recent visits to Twitter, Apple, and the TechCrunch ranch – all without a drivers’ license.”

Teens In Tech is a community for teenagers interested in producing and sharing new media content in a safe environment. The site launched Monday, August 4th, with a very limited private alpha, but they have plans to expand to a public beta by the end of the year.

Daniel is striving to make his site different from say….. “other” sites geared towards teens, by making it super easy for teens to get started posting content. Teens In Tech offers a simple, 3-step, sign-up process that will give its users a sub domain, Wordpress blog and limited storage. They will also have access to the Teens In Tech forum that will allow them to ask questions.

I will be really interested to see how this community develops. There is no doubt that teens today have the smarts to pull something off like this but without proper supervision, (as with anything having to do with teenagers) it could turn into a community with major hormonal imbalances. Luckily, with folks like Robert Scoble on the advisory board, some parental guidance will still be available.

One of the things I love doing on Plurk is posting song lyrics. Nothing brings more people out of the woodwork than a familiar song, tune or lyric.

Music gets people excited, stimulates the brain and is just plain social. The Internet is definitely the most utilized tool when it comes to music and social networking and Brian Wallace, over at Nowsourcing, has put together a great list of websites that offer the most unique features, have the biggest audience, or mix both aspects together most effectively.

My favorite is Last.fm………..

is a great music social networking site because it truly brings music and socializing together. It helps you find friends based on musical tastes and helps you find new music through your friends. Its hard to tell whether its more of a website for socializing or a musical haven. A great indicator of compatibility between friends is music, so why not make it one of the first factors when meeting new people. Last.fm is the best because it makes music the first part of your social networking experience and can link people with similar tastes as well as help you find new acts.”

Music is the one thing in life that breaks down barriers and connects mankind in a way that nothing else does, so check out the rest of Brian’s post and let me know what social music sites you prefer and why.

As you may know, one of the best social networking sites for moms has been the Digg-like site called Sk*rt. For a little over a year, the ladies over at Sk*rt have been bringing moms the best in news, products, stories and ideas and those moms have voted, commented and contributed in many ways. However, recently, due to some trademarking issues, those fabulous ladies have been forced to make some very big changes to their site; the biggest of these changes being a brand new name for the site, new location and new logo…….

“Much like Saul became Paul. Puffy became Diddy. Prince became an unpronounceable symbol. Sk*rt will now and for ever yonder as far as we can see in the future as we know it be known with a new name. A name that many many many voted for. A name that means giving honor, nods, props and respect to something. A name that looks freaking awesome in its logo form. A name that we now know as Kirtsy.”

What does this mean? In a nutshell….the site is better than ever. Kirtsy is still full of great information, new ideas and wonderful stories and women from all over the world can participate in the various conversations going on throughout the site.

So what’s it like over there? The Kirtsy logo is very much like the Sk*rt logo so you will feel the familiarity right away and the old Sk*rt address goes right to the new Kirtsy address so no worries there. Evidently trademarks and mommy bloggers have been a fairly big topic in the blogosphere as of late and by tapping into the very community that makes their site possible, the three owners, Gabrielle Blair, Laura Mayes, and Laurie Smithwick were able to get things changed over in a timely fashion.

Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself and check out their blog. While you’re at it, raise your skirt and Kirtsy!

I love the idea of reducing our carbon footprint on this planet, in fact, I’ve spoken about it before. Well, things have gone even a step further in keeping this planet alive and well and social networking is the latest to climb aboard, the proverbial, eco-friendly bandwagon……..

“What’s going to be the viral element that gets us to cut down on our collective carbon emissions? Who’s going to deliver us the iPod of cleantech? If we knew for sure, we’d be off building it, but these 10 web sites think they have the key ingredients to motivate their users to fight global warming and cut carbon.”

The Care2 Network is the one I am most familiar with. They were one of the first networking sites to focus on the mainstream green community. A Digg like network in need of a makeover, this site sits up there with the best of the tree-huggin’ communities. But that is only 1 in a great list that Earth2Tech has provided their thoughts on. Check out all 10 of these “Green Social Networks” that seem to be promoting “personal carbon fitness” and tell us which one you would use to fight for your cause.

I was invited by a blogging friend of mine to join Ximmy. Having never heard of it I thought I just better check it out and I found some very interesting things.

For starters, Ximmy is similar to sites like Digg, Mixx, etc. in that users submit content, video and photos that can be voted on and made popular. The unique thing about Ximmy, however is the fact that you can actually get paid for the submissions you make, comments you make, and posts that go “hot”……..

“We are the first company to reward you for your contributions to our community through points that you can redeem for cash. Just register for an account. (It’s free!) You will earn points for submitting stories and posting comments. When your story is published to the home page, you will receive 15 points. Once you hit a points bracket, you can redeem the points for cash at any time. Payments are made via PayPal.”

It breaks down like this:

Points Earn:
1 point – Story Submitted
1 point – Comment
15 points – Popular (homepage)
Points Rewards
1,000 $10
1,800 $20
3,200 $40
6,000 $80
12,000 $160
20,000 $300

Seems like a lot of work to me just to get a couple of bucks. This also brings up that same old question of “quality content”. Are people submitting stuff just to get paid or is it quality submissions? I understand the idea and I think they are trying to find a way for users to actually benefit financially from a social news site but honestly, this really opens the door to all of those that quickly learn how to abuse the system.

Social networking is definitely not limited to adults. As you can see, there is a wide variety of sites that are geared towards our youth and while the idea is to get kids participation by playing games, it is already setting the foundation for the next generation of social media users.

If you know of a site that your kids participate on that is not listed here, please leave a comment as this list will be updated throughout the year.

Must be at least 16 years of age:

Friendster PR 4 Online community connecting friends

Must be at least 14 years of age:

MySpace PR 8 A Place For Friends

Must be at least 13 years of age & in high school:
Facebook PR 8 Social Utility that connect people with those around them

Must be at least 13 years of age:

Hi 5 PR 6 Who’s in?
Xanga PR 7 A weblog community
IMVU PR 6 Chat with friends in 3D
There PR 6 Online virtual world
Chamber of Chat PR 6 Harry Potter online role playing game
Second Life PR 8 3D Virtual World
Runescape PR 6 Online adventure community
Pownce PR 7 Create a network of friends and share files, links & events
Jaiku PR 6 Share your activities
Tickle PR 5 Social networking through personal development
43 Things PR 7 Microblogging site to share with community
Bebo PR 7 Social network for sharing and entertainment
Gaia Online PR 6 Virtual community with games, message boards & economy
vSide PR 6 Virtual music community
Windows Live Spaces PR 7 Community of friends for sharing and blogging

No Age minimum but must have parents approval:
Imbee PR 6 Social Networking designed for kids 8-12
Active Worlds PR 6 3D virtual world chat
Boom Bang PR 4 Chat, make friends and explore a virtual world
Dofus PR 6 Mulit player online role playing game
Awol PR 3 Chats, games, diary, friends, & cribs
Sanriotown PR 6 Hello Kitty games, community, blogs and forums
Webkinz PR 6 Virtual pet community for plush pets
Club Penguin PR 6 Virtual world for kids
Marapets PR 3 Virtual pet site with games and chat community
Shining Stars PR 5 Chatting, naming stars and virtual star worlds
Neopets PR 6 Virtual world for pets
Endless Online PR 4 Community role playing games
Eternal Lands PR 5 Community role playing games
Furcadia PR 5 Community role playing game
Graal Online PR 5 Community role playing games
Guild Wars PR 6 Community role playing games
Hero Online PR 4 Community warfare games
Millsberry PR 4 Home building community

There are hundreds more of the community role playing sites for kids, they are all very much the same so I decided not to list them all here. These types of games are not may favorite nor are they the “best” as far as networking sites for kids goes. However, they do allow certain features such as chats and interactive situations with other kids online. You can see a larger list of these Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPGs) here.

The important thing to remember when it comes to kids and social media is that parents should always have a very good idea of the games, people and sites their children are involved in, no matter how old the child is. The terms and conditions of these sites are set for a reason, abuse of them only creates problems. I’m also a firm believer in having access to all passwords for my kids accounts. Kids will argue about the invasion of privacy but let’s face it, their privacy is not nearly as important as their safety.

For more information on just how radically the internet is transforming the experience of childhood, check out Growing Up Online by Frontline. Frontline has created a great conversation by taking families into the very public and private worlds that are being created online. They are raising important questions and giving parents a chance to talk.