NOS and the public library: the new school of journalism?

A few months ago I talked about the new developments in libraries. The age of just lending books is over. Libraries are looking for new forms of service in addition to the existing services. Possible new services are an art library, a place to meet for several target groups or a central information center. The library is getting some help from an unexpected corner. The NOS (Dutch broadcast association) has announced to cooperate with the public libraries. The newsarchive of the NOS will be merged with background information from the libraries.

Tagged with: social media, library, nos, young people,

Library 2.0

When I was younger than I am today I went to the library many times. The main reason I came to the library was to search for summaries of the books we had to read for our exam. But it was also a place where it was nice and quiet, where you could smell the books and where you could escape the turbulent life of school. Strange enough these visits stopped after I was graduated. All the literature I needed could be found in the library at my university, and therefore it wasn’t necessary to go to the public library anymore.

Tagged with: digital information, library, young people,

Another social network website for young people: will it work?

Two weeks ago my eye fell on an article about a new website called me and EU (www.me-eu.eu). The website was launched by European Commissioner for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes. Me and EU has the following purpose, and I quote: “me & EU is a new independent network and lets you easily discover what’s up in your area and even in other countries. Through me & EU you can meet new friends, share your ideas, dreams and projects. Or post about your favourite local snack. ;-) It’s all up to you”. The intention of the website is to reduce the distance between younger and older European generations. There have been many initiatives to bridge this gap, and many failed. Although this website is in the air for only a few weeks, I already can say it will fail. I will explain why.

Tagged with: europe, social network, young people,

Youth congress: H2O and acronyms but no crossmedia

I visited the congress on trends in youth marketing (www.kidsenjongeren.nl) last week in Nemo, Amsterdam. Quit interesting. The congress took two days but I only visited the second day because the topic of the second day, youngsters (teens), has my interest, more so than the very young kids. As usual, a score of presentations and workshops overloaded the day. So, what have I learned? Well, again like almost always, if you are critical, not that much. The topics dealt with during the day were ‘as usual’ and not a word was spoken about crossmedia, apart from the numerous citations that teens are multi-tasking. And again, generation Einstein was not just mentioned as the capturing of our crossmedia savvy younger generations, it still seems to be a sort of religion for youth marketers. Hmmm.

Tagged with: congress, young people, youngsters, branding, levi's, crossmedia, Marketing,