I find this very touching, what do you think about all this?

Just a quick shout out to Digital Dads. Great discussion going on over there about kids and video games. Check it out!

(via @cc_chapman)

PS: I put in my 2 cents in the comments as well.

“Can you put on music for the target?” One person asked me this weekend at a show (I still subsidize my income as a sound guy – my formal profession). The show was a free promo event from Nestea (Coca-Cola). I didn’t quite get what she was talking about until I realized she was talking in advertising terms.

Lets not just see our kids as targets anymore. Our children are not just some statistic on legs, not just an average dollar amount that they will spend in life. Lets become more human and listen to each other. Become friends and help communities.

Photo: Shawnigan Lake Backroads http://www.snorrigunnarsson.com/

I just found this picture on flickr. The photographers comment was “I thought clear cutting was a thing of the past.” It is sad, but still there. Please help in making a difference. Start by buying FSC products, and stop buying Kimberly Clark products (Scotties, Kleenex, etc.)

I was listening to Ideas on CBC last night. It was very interesting. This is the synaptic of the show. As soon as they upload the audio to their website (I hop they will), I will link to it too. You’ll be able to listen to the show.

“In 1981 a new book called The Hurried Child warned us that children were being pushed too far, too fast. Dr. David Elkind‚Äôs book became an instant classic. Today it seems the process has only intensified. There are pre-natal stimulation kits to induce fetal learning. Baby Einstein toys. There is also much discussion of how to smart-wire baby‚Äôs brain to expand cognitive powers, foster language abilities and improve sleep patterns. IDEAS producer Mary O‚ÄôConnell explores this new terrain of Super Babies.”

This totally resonates with me. I hope the audio comes online so we can all listen to it. We need to take things a bit slower again and just pend some goo quality time with our kids.

Tonight on CBC – Ideas: “THE BRAINS OF BABES, Part 1 CD”

One thing that I struggle with on a regular basis is that we have so much stuff in Canada/the US. Worse even, we think we really need the stuff that we have. Have you ever thought of what you REALLY need? It’s not very much. A bed, some clothes (not many), a stove, a few few pots and pans, and cutlery. Clean water and some food. Really that’s pretty much what we need to live. Well, I’m exaggerating, but when it comes down to it, not that much more.
You probably all know that I used to live in Africa as a kid. As kids, we didn’t need a lot of things. I used to mainly tinker around outside, building my tree house, playing with friends, just wasting time away and loving life.
This also reflects what I want to create for Ukoonto. Simple toys, that are valuable. Toys that don’t just break in a few months, and especially not those that make our children have ADD or other disorders. Don’t get me wrong, I love design, and a love really fun toys, but it’s certainly no Mattel.
I’ve always loved the company TOMS Shoes. Do you know them? In 2006 Tom did a trip to Argentina. He found people that were getting sick, and preventing those diseases is so simple: a pair of shoes. So for every pair of shoes that we by at TOMS Shoes, they will give an equal pair of shoes to people that really need it. Watch the story about TOMS Shoes:

Where does this all tie in with Ukoonto? I like the idea of “One for One”. Buy one computer, a second one is given away to a child in need (does that ring a bell :-) “One Laptop per Child”. I don’t think kids in Third World countries need the toys that we make though. They have such fantastic ways of playing and making their own toys. I would still love to give children in Third World countries something that they need. Something that we take for granted. Maybe books, stuff they need so they can go to school, food, or how about just clean drinking water.
What do you think?

Hi everyone,

Thanks to GET (Green Enterprises Toronto) and the City of Toronto (that sponsored the ISO 14001 seminar) I can now officially announce to you that Ukoonto is now ISO 14001 compliant.

ISO 14001 is an environmental management system that enables us to become an even greener company over time. It also enables us to show you that we are not greenwashing our company or our products.

For more info on what ISO 14001, please visit this (very formal) site.

A few days ago I found the blog of Charlres Roring. Charles lives in West Papua and he witnesses personally how deforestation is affecting him and his country and the people within it. I really would like you to have a look at it, because I don’t want to be the guy that always “preaches” these things to you.

This is right from the frontline of how illegal (and corrupt legal) deforestation hurts people. And guess where the wood is being shipped to? A lot of it goes to China and I’m pretty certain it ends up in toys and furniture that we buy, thus supporting those business practices.

Here are two posts that are very interesting by Charles Roring:

The leasing of Papuan Tropical Rainforest, too low for compensation, too stupid for conversion

Irresponsible Logging the Main Cause of Rapid Deforestation in West Papua

Hi everyone,

this morning a large national news publication called me, and they had some tough questions for me. It was all about business and how Web 2.0 changes and enhances business. I thought I would share some of the things that I told them. I assume that most people will know a lot of this, but for those who don’t know this, I think there is some valuable information here if you are starting off in the web 2.0 field.

Starting off, here are some facts

(I didn’t actually check how true they are, so don’t hold me to them):

• Only 18% of TV ads generate positive ROI!
• 90% of people switch channels if they can
• 78% trust recommendations of other people
• 32% trust a bloggers opinion
• Tomorrow’s consumers are today’s Digital Natives!
• The Digital Natives DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR AD!!!
  

Ukoonto is all about trust, parents and grandparents need to trust us and the product that we sell. In this time of “Made in China Scandals” people need to trust that what we are offering is not going to hurt their little munchkins. Ukoonto does a huge effort to educate online and offline, so that people are comfortable with our toys. The facts above show that marketing in the traditional media field is pretty redundant to Ukoonto.

Question: How does Web 2.0 affect Your bottom line?

Ukoonto operates using the so called tripple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit. Web 2.0 really helps us put the word out. Apart from trade shows and some newspaper articles, we use only the web to put the word out about us and our product, and word spreads by word of mouth (digitaly and in real life). We believe that Web 2.0 hugely affects our bottom line, but it’s a very long term investment. The web is not a golden nugget, but is invaluable over the long run. If you are not online, or don’t have a blog, you pretty much do not exist for the digital natives.

Question: What are the mistakes that you have made?

There is many of them, and I think I’ve done most of the ones you can make. You will make mistakes starting out online, so the sooner you start, the faster you have them out of the way.

My biggest mistake was probably to just jump into conversation of other bloggers, without having a meaningful relationship with that blogger. The key is to listen first, then to join the conversation and engage.

Question: What different tools do you use?

Ukoonto is currently only using a few tools. We were using a lot more at one point, but fanning out into to many places at once, takes a lot of work. The short list of tools that we are using now is:

• Blog: You are reading it right now :-)
• Facebook fan page: we had two groups on facebook before, but switched over to a fan page.
• Twitter: I (Hans) am using it mainly personally, but Ukoonto has it’s own twitter account as well, we are just not using it heavily right now
• Youtube and Podcasts: In the beginning we used these more than now. They are very time consuming tools, so we had to stop using them. Most Youtube videos are down and I don’t think you’ll be able to find any podcast episodes online anymore.

I think this is the just of it. I also told the reporter about the tools I use to analyze what is going on:

• Google Analytics: This is a no brainer, and it gives a lot of insight of what is happening on your websites, but it also takes some time to really start understanding what you are seeing
• CrazyEgg: This helps you to understand what people think about your website graphically and how they navigate your page
• 4Q by iperceptions: this tool is absolutely critical. 4Questions asked to a fraction of your website visitors, that will help you enormously in understanding what people are doing on your webpage and if they are succesful

More Resources

At last I want to share some good blogs/podcasts and a book that you should read. There are a lot more than just these, but this is a start:

“Meatball Sundae” by Seth Godin: A great short book comparing traditional and new media and marketing
“Marketing Over Coffee” A really educational podcast about Marketing in New Media
“Gary Vaynerchuk’s Blog” Please study what he does at the WineLibrary with the Wine Library TV. A traditional business on absolute Web 2.0 steroids!
These are the tools that I was talking about, that make it possible for you to listen in on what people are saying about you online:

“Google Analytics” The tool to track what is going on on your web page
“Google Alerts” Very helpful tool to hear what other people are saying about you online
“4Q by iPercetions” Ask your website visitors if they are happy with you site. A very useful tool by iPerceptions and Avinash Kaushik

So, when are yo jumping on the wagon? The train is leaving, weather you are on it or not!

Let me know what you are thinking about this post by leaving me a comment. Let me know if I am full of it, and what tools I am missing and overseeing.

Hans