As I mentioned in a previous post, Xbox Live is dropping three new services before Christmas: Twitter, Facebook and the Zune Market Place. Before Microsoft drops these new services they would like to give some of us a preview of Twitter, Facebook and Zune. Now, I am going under the assumption that we have all at least heard of Twitter and Facebook? The Zune Market Place may not be as familiar to many of us.
As a point of education or clarification here you go:
- Twitter is a free service that enables its users to send and read messages. These messages are text-based. They are then displayed on the author’s Twitter profile page and delivered to the author’s friends.
- Facebook is a website where users can add friends and send them messages and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region.
Zune Market Place
- The Zune Marketplace is an online music, video and podcast store.
If your kids have not signed up already then the preview is closed – at least for now. Larry Hryb, Director of Xbox LIVE Programming, explained that Wave 1 of the Preview Program is well underway. Those who don’t receive invite in a day or two can expect to receive it in later waves. There is no word yet when those next waves will begin.
So why am I taking the time to explain this? Well first I wanted parents to be aware of these new services. Second, I wanted you to be familiar with the new services. As responsible parents we want to understand what are kids are doing and who they are doing it with. Today’s technology makes it so easy to communicate and share information. It’s our responsibility to monitor each of those communications channels and make sure that we are comfortable with context.
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