Relationships, the xbox and birthdays

matt deacon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:44:00 GMT

Over at Microsoft SAF this week in San Francisco and among many great conversations was one I had with a delegate about how the xbox is allowing him to engage more deeply with his teenage son.

When my wife gave birth to our first daughter my wife’s father said “ah, one of the benefits of having a daughter is that you’ll always receive a birthday card”. This thought has stuck with me as when I look at myself and males in general our ability to communicate and stay in touch is often very poor and underdeveloped.

The xbox and more generally the world of internet gaming as a whole has received much bad press in recent times being blamed for breeding a generation of kids who are “locked in the bedroom” and unable to communicate other than through the actions of some online avatar.

However, the discussion last night changed that for me as it became clear that through the common platform of gaming this father was forging a much deeper and stronger relationship with his son of 16, just at the point where many parent-child relationships are starting to break down. Such that he is in messenger contact throughout much of the day here using his windows mobile and his son with his xbox.

The key thing here for me was that the relationship here is very much different to that of their physical parent-child one. Their virtual relationship is more of equals, friends. The style of chat is casual, whitty, about the moment. The type of stuff which creates strong and lasting friendships that then has the opportunity to re-enter the parental “real world” relationship, strengthening that too. Such that, maybe, just maybe, the father will get to benefit from at least some type of virtual nudge, wink or IM on his future birthdays.

Social networks and saving the planet

matt deacon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:22:00 GMT

I got the following link to Obama's campaign from a friend over the weekend and while I am not sure how true this example really is it made me think about the web is driving behavioural change in relation to the environment.

Everywhere I look environmental issues are taking centre stage across the events I attend, the analysts I talk to and the web sites I visit. It maybe all too late, or it might not change the way we behave ... or could it?

There are many names I keep hearing repeated some of which are reasonably obvious like that of Jonathan Porritt whom I remember idolising as representative of Friends of the Earth while I was a student. He's now Programme Director of Forum for the Future and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and his blog is a must read IMO. However, the guys that have got me most interested are Rob Hopkins and Ben Brangwyn who together set up the Transition Towns which describes a model for responding to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Now Peak Oil is worth further exploration (excuse the pun) and if you don't know the concept then it's worth reading up on. According to wikipedea since 2006 the number of towns taking part is now at over 50 and not just limited to those in the UK. What I like is that the program encourages communities "to seek out methods for reducing energy usage as well as increasing their own self reliance" - all of which plays to the power of social networking and collective intelligence in finding real and practical ways to make a difference rather than waiting for the inevitable but lethargic response of government.

Matt Deacon's digestive blog : Social Networks

Relationships, the xbox and birthdays

Social networks and saving the planet