Not for profit family website receives AUD$4.4m grant from Australian Govt
Here’s the info – lets hope the Family 2.0 space can be ignited with some grant or funding our way. The only problem for Family 2.0 sites that are based in Australia that are for-profit is access to this kind of funding. I will, in the coming weeks begin to highlight the differences between RaisingChildren (non-profit) and Minti (for-profit) and why the Government of Australia should consider developing this sector not only for one non-profit website but for all of us aiming to provide a free service and support.
Raising Children gets more Govt funds
$4.4 million for parenting website
11/05/2009
The Raising Children website will be expanded to include parenting information on pre-teen and teenage years with the help of a $4.4 million Australian Government grant.
Funding will also enhance the site to target people with low literacy and numeracy levels and the Indigenous community, through the addition of new and innovative visual based and interactive information resources.
Celebrating Families Week, the Minister for Families Jenny Macklin said this funding will enable the expanded Raising Children website to be a valuable tool to help parents with the day-to-day raising of their children from birth through to their teens.
The Raising Children website already offers up-to-date, research-based material on more than 800 topics spanning child development, behaviour, health, nutrition and fitness, play and learning and sleep.
The site, which currently caters to parents of newborns to eight years, is a valuable resource for Australian mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else who cares for a child.
Parents have found the website to be informative, interesting, well-researched and user-friendly. The site also helps connect people through discussion forums.
A recent survey confirmed the benefits of Raising Children, with 97 per cent of users agreeing the website was useful, clear, comprehensive, credible and easily navigated.
Ninety-one per cent felt the website could make them more confident as a parent and 95 per cent would recommend the website to parents or carers.
The Raising Children website has received more than 9.5 million visits since it was launched in May 2006.
The Raising Children Network is a consortium made up of three early childhood organisations Smart Population Foundation, the Parenting Research Centre and the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.
Raising Children website: www.raisingchildren.net.au <http://www.raisingchildren.net.au>
Enter Clay Cook CEO of Minti
I am handing over my beloved blog to my husband (oh no) until I come out of my self-imposed maternity leave. Mind you I am loving my little 5 month old and the blessing I have been given for a second time. This doesn’t mean my mind isn’t turning a hundred miles per hour. Quite the contrary, I am planning a re-birth, with video or a show, new hosting, revamped design, and with me showing myself in full color (which means I need to hit the treadmill and not the chocolate bars). Until then, my capable and intelligent husband will ignite the pixels and add some flavorsome text to this already interesting project.
So grab your surfboard and come for the ride….although I can’t help but let him only be a ‘contributor’ for now, otherwise I’ll check back and the theme would have changed to something black – lol
Taking some time off
Howdy all, I haven’t blogged for a while. However, being only two weeks away from my due date, I felt I needed a break from work/blogging, so I guess I will be back to my blogging after baby number two is born (Due April 2nd)…Minti is soon to upload some pretty cool features very soon, we’ve just added youtube embedding, Greatschools.net community is now live on the vibEngine platform and Gooruze is pumping along well. A few new mommy sites have appeared, nothing that has jolted my enthusiasm (yet) but I am keeping an eye out for really important launches that impact the Family 2.0 space.
Take care and keep continuing to enjoy Web 2.0!
Particls – News alerts for mom and dad (LIVE in Public BETA)
The news feed made simple. Particls is now available for use. They have just come out of private beta and available for all those to try. Founder Chris Saad has done a great job of simplifying how RSS content is distributed to your desktop.
Give it a whirl it won’t disappoint. Download Particls…
Tags: ChrisSaad, particls, rss, content, richmedia, family2.0
Particls – News alerts for mom and dad
Particls has a really great look and feel. There is something that draws you in, not only the look of the website but it’s proposition…that you too can have the resources Particls is offering, to have news and alerts delivered to you, without any technical ability needed. I was particularly drawn to a number of call to action points on the homepage, but one did stand out to make me want to sign up to receive a beta invite.
What was that you say?
It was “Got a Mom?”
Now how many techie, Web 2.0 leading edge sites are calling this out? It signals a smart thing to me…going beyond the “innovator mode” and reaching out for your own mom to try…I will need to set it up for her, mainly because I want to, but the power of the older generation with your dad far away at the breakfast table not interacting but reading the paper will be gone! (okay, I am going to let go of that)
With Particls, I am sure they will go mobile and dads you can read your news on the commute to work and if you drive, I am sure your news will be delivered by voice.
I am just spelling out my wishlist…but who knows…I’ve signed up to get an invite, but I am willing to bet I will have fun with Particls, sorry netvibes, but my attention span is waning.
Check out Particls and sign up for beta…I also realized that the founder Chris Saad is a fellow Aussie, howdy Chris…and thanks for stopping by.
tags: particls, chrissaad, web20, family20
efamily – everything family matters
efamily allows contributors can add links to content that parents will find interesting to read about, the same concept that Digg allows contributors to seed or add news content in areas such as Technology, Science, World&Business, Sports, Entertainment and Gaming. However, efamily is a niche site that only provides content related to the family. Netscape provides something similar on their “Family News Channel“, although it seems with efamily you can seed articles that don’t necessarily need to be news content, article information is also allowed. Contributors can rate and content that is popular rises to the top. efamily provides many family related categories from which you can add content to. I think this will be a great parenting resource as content builds and the community grows.
Netscape’s – Family ‘news’ Channel
Netscape’s Family Channel has some good family news, the service is realitively new, however is this a channel of the main news site that operates on the similar model as Digg, with the only difference is that editors anchor interesting stories to the top. However, if you are a parent, it is very specific to your needs and encourages participation and your comments.
For example the news I found out today, that I didn’t know was that “Play-doh celebrates 50 years!“
It will be interesting how this channel grows and what parenting news rises to the top, and how active parents contribute.
Rachel Cook’s Talking Tech Family 2.0 – CNet: Introducing the ‘Family 2.0 sites’
Great news for the Family 2.0 space. Stephanie Olsen, a staff writer at CNET, talks about “A new generation of sites…taking a cue from the cutting-edge social networking sites” like myspace and Wikipedia.
I contacted Stephanie and informed her of my blog on Family 2.0, as well as information on Minti. I was interviewed along with a number of Family 2.0 founders (whom sites are profiled here at Talking Tech on Family 2.0), such as the JotSpot’s founder (and well known Excite co-founder) Joe Kraus…what makes me happy to envangelize this space is that social niche sites are applying new technology to help families (roughly 30 million moms online alone in the US) connect, share and manage life easier. Hopefully, increasing the unity and meaning of families in society.
Interacting with these sites may also aid in crossing generation gaps…as well as enriching the lives of kids and their interaction with their own family content. Potentially shaping their experiences online for parenthood in the future.
Press is helping to let families know what is available out there for them right now…
Where did the the term “Family 2.0″ come from? I stumbled across the thoughts of the name from Julie Leung’s Blog, called “Family 2.0” which I found in March after a search. Julie posted this back in October 05 after a Web 2.0 conference and I have just been able to ‘re-find’.
The name “Family 2.0” was coined by Ryan in a post here, there is also a great blog who’s entry page is a humourous pictorial play on the term “Family 2.0” (very funny, if you click on anywhere on the image it goes to Blog Outer Court’s tech blog) and it’s the top result in Google at the moment for Family 2.0. I felt that someone needed to profile these sites, so I started “Talking Tech on Family 2.0“.
Techcrunch also talked about the niche sites coming way back in March…Minti – Web 2.0 Niche stuff coming. Mike wasn’t too happy about our “walled garden”, but we knew how hot this space could potentially be and wanted to be the first parent-to-parent advice-opedia, so we launched with really bare bones. Shortly after we provided RSS and a bunch of other stuff. I was impressed (I would say that as co-founder of Minti) with our search technology in handling the download of “all” of Wikipeda in private alpha trials, if that is anything to go by?
Learn more on Web 2.0, here is a great (very funny) youtube video that has had over 71 million views..My Space on the Daily Show the Trendspotting segment, brought to The Daily Show by Comedy Central.
*Feel free to contact me or visit My Minti member page…
***Source for this article above was from this “Talking Tech on Family 2.0” blog.
Here come the ‘family 2.0′ sites
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
