The question would seem a no-brainer: Is it better for kids to read a book or be glued to the computer? Well, if kids log onto www.bookadventure.org, the computer could be the first stop on the way to a summer full of good books.
The site tempts kids by offering small prizes such as printable puzzles to those who pass quizzes on the contents of thousands of books. And surprise: The site doesn’t sell the books but tells kids how to get them out of the library.
Beth Smythe, a library aide at Channahon Middle School in Will County, says the site has proven itself with her own kids. Fourth-grader Ian thinks just going through the process is cool, while worldly-wise 8th-grader Austin was won over by a $5 Barnes & Noble gift certificate.
ELBOW TO E-ELBOW
MAGAZINE MADNESS
Tech stocks had their big shakeout this spring. Can cool e-commerce magazines be far behind?
The field was already bursting with such hip players as The Industry Standard, Red Herring, Upside, Fast Company and Ziff-Davis Smart Business for the New Economy (which must have been named by a committee). Now there are two new players from savvy companies: Time Inc.’s E-Company Now and IDG’s Darwin.
The significance of the name Darwin surely won’t be lost on the leaders of old-line companies struggling to survive in the new economy.
INCLUSION
WEST OF THE WALL
It won’t fall as suddenly as the Berlin Wall did, but last week the Chicago area’s digital divide took a couple of solid hits.
In Evanston, Mayor Lorraine Morton opened the new offices of Evanston Inventure, a non-profit group working to wire every resident of the city into a network called e-Tropolis Evanston. Five percent of the revenues of wiring the better-off citizens will go to getting computer access for the elderly, poor and disabled.
And three Chicago groups each scored roughly $100,000 from the AOL Foundation to spread the digital word, among them the venerable Erie Neighborhood House, a Chicago institution providing settlement house services.
The other winners: The Coalition of African, Asian and Latino Immigrants of Illinois and the Metropolitan Planning Council, which will develop model Web centers in poor neighborhoods.
HOAXES
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD …
Before you get all excited about that free Ericsson phone you’ll be getting just for forwarding promotional e-mail, take a gander at the new ZDNet e-mail hoax site at www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/ehoax/
Dr. D. Bunk bursts the balloons of hoaxes old and new, from appeals for cards for dying children, to the frightening but fictitious Klingerman virus.
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