Ok TIGer's, as the leader of Youth Media Exchange, hear my plea, my yelp, my cry of excitement and hope and SUBMIT YOUR BLOG ENTRY TO THE DEMOCRACY BLOG CONTEST ON YOUTH MEDIA EXCHANGE before US ELECTION DAY, NOV 4th!!

You've got nothing to lose and only a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate and 15 minutes (or a few weeks) of fame to gain!

In light of the upcoming elections in the United States, we have extended the deadline to November 4th 12pm GMT. And I am so curious to hear what you have to say. We have one submission so far from Nancy of Kenya, titled "Democracy is when the power of the vote is real" and she speaks her mind clearly, so if you'd like an example to go on, hers is a good one!

Democracy is the concept, and distilled down to it's most fundamental meaning, democracy means "of the people, by the people, for the people" so, speak up people! Let your voice be heard and exercise your right to speak out and say what you will.

Actually what Abe Lincoln was actually expressing with those words in his Gettysburg Address in 1863, was something very dramatic. He was asking the people to be certain that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

He didn't imagine at that time that young people around the world in 2008 would be writing short blog entries to express what "of the people, by the people, and for the people" means to them but I am sure he would be proud!

So, go to www.ymex.org for more details, but it's pretty simple, write your blog, submit it to ymex and tag it with "democracy" and you've entered the contest.

Onward, ho!!

Immediately upon arrival at the YPulse National Mashup in San Francisco this week I realized the brightly lit backdrop and short spurts of rock music playing while the participants stepped up to the stage were going to keep it lively. These aesthetic details also reminded me why I was thrilled to be at a youth-centric conference. The focus on targeting products and services to youth means that those product or services should be cool, colorful, dynamic, fresh, and well ... not too serious. Who wouldn't want those aspects integrated into their work? The Mashup presented a captivating blend of panelists and participants ranging from directions in mobile technology to "Leveraging User-Generated Content to Reach Youth" and included quite a few youth participants who had started their own successful websites. There were some definitive points that were reiterated throughout the entire couple of days, reverberating in my mind still. Although they weren't new information necessarily to most people present, they were amplified enough to provide a through-line to the various work that we are all doing in the realm of youth and media.

On almost every panel, three words were uttered: KEEP IT REAL. Well it actually ranged from "Make your message real" according to the folks at Premise Marketing to "Authenticity is important... girls can smell a rat" from Ashley Qualls of Whatever Life.com to "Be honest, authentic, sincere" by Nikol Hasler and Guy Clark of "The Midwest Teen Sex Show". Vu Nguyen of Crunchyroll.com advised the audience to be as transparent as possible. YouthBeat's research shows that although humor draws young people in, authenticity keeps them there. MC Hammer of DanceJam.com acknowledged the fact that this phrase "Keep it real" was floating around quite a bit, and reminded the audience that even though the hip-hop community coined this term way back, it still frequently used because of its relevance and importance. He explained it this way: "Keeping it real means keeping it real to what is real to you ... or in other words, sticking to what matters to you".

Many of the above mentioned panelists plus most of the rest of them also mentioned to LET THE COMMUNITY DRIVE THE WEBSITE. Respond to what the youth want. Don't be afraid to tweak, revise, revisit, and reshape your goals based on your community's wishes and requests. Chloe Spencer, a teen entrepeneur and the Founder of NeopetsFanatic.com broke it down by telling the audience to communicate directly and personally with the youth participants. She has learned in her experience that they want to know the person or people behind the website. Scott Tilton of Loop'd Network presented the idea like: Don't try to get the community to conform to the ideal or model of the company but go to where they are and what they're already doing.

Humor was addressed throughout (also contributing to the fun and lively factor) as super-important when marketing to youth or trying to get them interested and involved as well as the need to keep your product or service always evolving and offering something new and fresh. And of course the point that viral marketing is absolutely the number one way for teens to learn about the coolest new thing was repeated constantly. YouthBeat's syndicated report corraborated the fact that teens are finding out about music, videos, games and cool websites from their friends more than any other way. Another interesting tidbit from their research shows that although those of us in the industry are always talking about how busy kids are today, they actually perceive their reality otherwise. Most tweens and teens do think they have a good deal of free time to play and experiment with digital media of all kinds.

Coming from TakingITGLOBAL, I was missing any discussion (other than a lunch breakout session) on the global reach that much of this technology beholds and how these emerging technologies and marketing practices are affecting the global community, bridging the divide between continents and cultures. Fair enough, it is called the YPulse National Mashup, but the reality was that there was a compare/contrast effect happening anyhow in moments such as Antti Ohrling's presentation of Blyk (which is a particularly cool premise of providing free mobile service to 16-24 year olds in exchange for a minimum number of mobile-based advertisments, only in Europe at this time). One of the brilliant youth entrepeneurs, Jared Kim, of WeGame.com (hails from Korea, was educated in China, and now owns his third start-up in the US) was a fascinating example of global connectedness. But his story only really emerged in the Q&A and was a side-note to the rest of his presentation. My suggestion would be to add the global reach aspect to YPulse Mashups in the future. Everyday it is becoming more difficult to keep it as a footnote in this industry.

Friday July 11 was World Population Day. Ymex.org members from Peru, Norway, Madagascar, the US, and Mexico submitted their original media. Many thanks to all who entered!
The winners of the contest are: "Family Planning and the Digital Divide" a mashup, featured above, by Mariel GM (FaerieGirl) ~ "Women Empowerment in Lima" a blog by *ViCtoria (lapikiorej) ~ "The Lake of Shame" a video blog by Patricia Rakotomalala (foko) ~ Check out the media and don't forget leave comments and rate the global connection! Continue the conversation of what World Population Day means to you in the discssion section and make comments on the award-winning media!

Calling all youth activists, bloggers, video producers, photographers, or podcasters who want to make a positive impact (or even those of you who are aspiring to do so!):
PARTICIPATE IN OUR LATEST MEDIA CONTEST ON ymex.org!

A little bit of background
The United Nations has established July 11th as World Population Day. This day is especially important because it brings together so many issues our global community faces in this moment such as poverty, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, empowerment of women & young people, and sustainable development. Go to UNFPA's website to learn more.

What is the contest?
We are accepting all digital media entries (writing, videos, audio, games, or mashups) from ymex.org members that fit the theme, could educate the public or offer solutions on the issues around World Population Day. Entries must be youth-produced and fit into the ymex.org guidelines (found on the FAQ's page under the Community tab). Any ymex.org member can enter - just make sure your media is in English language (or provides obvious English translations). Two prizes will be awarded to media created by members under 18 and one will go to any member 18 or older. (Hint: If you have a Global Gallery submission that would fit the theme, you can easily submit it right from your Global Gallery entry!)

Why would I enter this contest?
Amazon.com gift certificates will be awarded to the top three winners! You will enjoy the fame as you and your media are in the ymex.org spotlight. Best of all you will raise awareness on important issues & make a difference in this world!

How do I enter the contest?
It's easy! All you have to do to enter is submit your media to ymex.org before or by 11:59pm GMT on Friday JULY 11, 2008 and include the tag "wpdcontestentry" on your final submission.

Cast your vote!
If you don't have media that you want to submit to this contest, you can still help us choose the winners by viewing and rating media across the website with the globes rating system as well as commenting on media by answering the question "How did this media affect you?" The winners will be chosen based on comments, ratings, number of views, and the likelihood that the media piece, when shared far and wide, will raise awareness on population issues in a creative way.

Still have questions?
Send an email to memberservices@ymex.org. We'll respond as quickly as possible. Also, we're sorry if you run into any technical difficulties while working on ymex.org. If you let us know what happens by sending an email to broken@ymex.org, it will help us work out all the kinks. Thanks!

After much ado, the ymex.org team is very excited to announce that we are finally live and open to the public! The best way to experience Youth Media Exchange, also known as www.ymex.org, is to go sign-up (or simply log-in if you are a TakingITGlobal member) right now! But if you’d rather get an idea of what ymex is about, then read on…

Youth Media Exchange is what it sounds like: a space for youth to exchange digital media on global issues that they have created or that exists elsewhere on the web, but the fun doesn’t stop there and neither does ymex.org’s raison d’etre.

What do we mean by “Youth”? Ymex.org was created for young people in the age range of 13 to 18 years old. But we are open and inclusive to all who want to join, so if you are reading this now, you are invited to join us.

What do we mean by “Media”? Practically any digital media creation about global issues which can fit in the following categories can be submitted:
writing - essays, blogs and citizen journalism news articles, etc.
images - photographs and digital art like collage, posters, 3D, etc.
audio - podcasts, music, interviews, radio documentaries, etc.
videos - interviews, documentaries about community issues, student events or performances and service projects, educational animations about an issue, etc.
games – socially-conscious games played on a computer
mashups - re-mixed-media creations of any kind like a slide show of photos with audio captions, annotated Google maps with information about an issue, etc.

Ymex.org does not host any media other than images, mostly because plenty of other websites do, but we do offer suggestions for where you can upload your media which can then be shared on ymex.org. You can find these suggestions both in Resources under the Share tab and step-by-step tutorials of how to use a few of them in the FAQ’s.

What do we mean by “Exchange”? Well, actually, this word is loaded with meaning. First it means the exchange of knowledge through the medium of digital media, submitting the media that in some way raises awareness on a global issue and what others around the world are doing on that issue. The next level of exchange comes when other members of the community around the world respond to that piece of media with another piece of media. Commenting on how that piece is effective or could be effective in eliciting positive change, or how that media opened up the observer's eyes to the issue, also adds to the exchange. The exchange also happens in the Resources section where members submit online tools and free open source software that could help others figure out how to make, edit, convert, and upload to the internet the media that contributes to the knowledge pool of understanding the issues. Finally, exchange could refer to the "Youth Guides" who are soon to be mentors on the website, and those they are guiding to learn more about both digital media and the global issues.

So, finally, what do we mean by “global issues”? Well, whatever matters most to the members of the ymex.org community and what emerges based on the media that is submitted. Those issues that have a social context to them, ones that make us realize how interconnected we are as a global community, the ones in the mainstream as well as those that aren’t. We thought some good issues to tackle in kicking off the website would be: global health & hiv/aids, migration, access to education, environment, and poverty. Of course, many other issues are connected with these and even many of these issues are interconnected. But that's the point: let's uncover, discover, and discuss this interconnectedness with media and with youth from other parts of the world we can learn from ... which brings me to my final point.

Of course, what anyone would expect from a collaborative effort between TakingITGlobal, Global Kids,, and the Asia Society, ymex will be at its greatest when there are youth from multiple continents meeting, discussing, and collaborating on media productions. The next ymexgroup blog will be focused on the targeted outreach countries in North America and Asia and will introduce our Regional Online volunteers from those countries.

One quick note for closing: the word “change” is hidden in the title of the website: Youth Media Exchange. Ymex.org will be most successful when it elicits real change, positive social change through increased interconnectedness and cross-cultural dialogue and action on difficult issues that our global community must face in this time. For the members that are involved on a regular basis, change will also take the form of improved and enhanced digital media literacy skills and the ability to discuss the impact of digital media in their lives.

So what are you waiting for? Join us at www.ymex.org and be part of the exchange!