Tech Digest: Microsoft prefer education to legislation in keeping kids safe "Microsoft is launching a campaign across the US, and possibly beyond, in a bid to educate parents about how to protect their children from digital content that they don't want them to see, such as violent and explicit games and certain online content."

This is by far the better option than the idiocy that is trying to become the law in the US DOPA. And on the same note, the same goes for the moral dilemma with advertising on school sites. Kids need to be taught how to protect themselves from the evils of desire, and to decode the lies.

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 12/10/06; 8:21:39 PM to the Education news dept.
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Microsoft prefer education to legislation

Again, the school advertising media pack is moving forward. I've been looking deeper in the statisics as saw that a fair sized proportion of the traffic an individual site receives can be from search engines and other bots.

Advertisers wouldn't want to pay for these ad impressions, since they're non-human. Though, from my research, other sites that offer ads don't mention them, likely they charge for these void showings. I think that's a bit of a cheat. In fact it can be a big cheat.

So playing fair, I've begun monitoring these void viewings, and will not count them as an ad impression.

This is a financial shock to schools who were expecting a large sum, likely that only half of the views I've been working from will be real people. Also, on very high traffic days, when kids from within school are posting, so too will the ad impression hit count be lower than expected, since now, we'll also not be showing ads to working children.

It is then an unknown, how many paying impressions there will be. Suffice to say the often repeated adage, more traffic, more income, still holds true. Averaged out over a year, I'd still expect a site like Craig y Don to make £10-30k, while the less viewed/used sites, like Bodnat should clear £2-5k easily—providing they can sell their inventory. (I believe many, many businesses would kill to advertise on such a prestigious local site.)

Of course, Bodnant can double, even triple their traffic or even more. They could become the central focal point on the web for their catchment area's community. Perhaps spreading wider to the whole of Prestatyn.


# Posted by Steve Hooker at 12/10/06; 1:41:03 PM to the Ads for schoools dept.
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Not counting search engines and other bots

Guardian: Severely troubled boys 'soothed by fish oils': "Experts on omega-3 fatty acids said yesterday there was an urgent need for properly conducted scientific research on the impact of diet on the brain, amid claims that fish oils have dramatically improved the behaviour of boys with some of the UK's most severe emotional and social problems."

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 12/10/06; 9:53:45 AM to the Psychology dept.
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And thanks for all the fish

I'm busy adding to the media pack One of the important items is the morally contentious issue of kids seeing ads.

Demographics

You know where we are. You know the area. Your business is here. Predominantly you're talking to grown-ups: parents and staff and all who have something to do with the school, be they neighbours or civil servants. Our local reach is good and growing deeper.

Children do not see ads while they're working on the site at school. That would be like having ads on their text books, distracting.

Another important recent addition is the risk companies with bad reputations have in advertising on a blog. And the rewards for good companies.

Also, plenty of content, editoral and promotional ideas that need to be edited or achieved by the school. Like:
These would need to be crossed off or happening. The document is meant to be fluid, were it on a school's site, and the Head logged in, there'd be edit buttons everywhere.


# Posted by Steve Hooker at 12/10/06; 12:20:59 AM to the Ads for schoools dept.
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No ads on kids' text books