Please take a few minutes to to complete the new survey from Microsoft.

Microsoft Ireland has launched an online survey intended to build a better understanding of the attitudes and experiences of 14 – 18 year olds to online bullying and online privacy.

The survey is exclusively for 14 – 18 year old respondents.

You can take the survey here.

Microsoft will not collect or use any personal information and will use the responses to the survey for statistical purposes only to create a small report on the topic.

Here’s your chance to have a voice and to tell us what you know and what’s important in understanding your concerns.

Thanks

Tom Jackson

For all of you budding movie directors out there, here is your chance to create a video about safe internet surfing.

Cut-off date is midday January 20th

Young people aged between 15 and 19 years olds are invited to take part in the “Surf the Net - Think Privacy” competition organised to celebrate Data Protection Day (28 January 2009). The competition will run from 15^th November to 15^th January.

To compete you simply have to create a 30-90 second video (maximum 10Mb) and submit it to www.dataprotectionday.eu The video must illustrate your ideas and approach to privacy and data protection on the Internet. This could illustrate how respect and/or lack of privacy can affect you and your family, friends and community. Contestants may submit individually or as a group. We offer a special prize if your school or team would like to partner with a school or a team in another country to create a joint entry.

The public is invited to vote for their favourite entries as they appear in the project gallery at www.dataprotectionday.eu and check ratings on their own video. Winners will be selected from the most highly rated entries by an eminent jury including education and data privacy specialists, a member of the European Parliament, a youth representative and a representative of the technology industry. Members from the winning team will be invited to spend two days in Brussels to attend a special Data Protection Day award ceremony on 28 January 2009. Winners and runners up will receive prizes including equipment and cheques for their school or organisation.

You can find the Rules of the Competition HERE

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you entries

Yesterday, Steve Ballmer gave the keynote address at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. You can see a video of his keynote on the Microsoft at CES 2009 website. I was especially interested in 2 of the presentations that were part of the keynote.

The 1st was the presentation by Robbie Bach, Microsoft President of Entertainment and Devices Division, and the new Xbox programming tool for children called Kodu (formerly called Boku). Watch as 12 year old Sparrow showcases her skills. What a terrific way to introduce younger students to the world of computing. Makes you want to be 12 again.

The 2nd presentation that was really mind blowing was “The Future of Computing” where Janet Galore of Microsoft Research shows a conceptual demo of how Microsoft’s technologies of the future will radically change the way find, share and use information. It’s amazing to see how far technology has advanced over such a short period of time.

(Be sure to scroll down to see the video)

Stay tuned for more news at CES and BETT.