the kids are alright2 min read

yesterday i went to the swiss thinkquest awards, a project i had done some work for this last spring. it was simply amazing. always good to be reminded, that: the kids are alright! thinkquest being an international internet contest for 12 – 19 year olds, this of course would be the swiss localised version.
many great projects have been submitted this year, and as usually it is very inspiring to have a look at some of the contributed websites. because: the kids really know where its at.
the whole afternoon there were some workshops and entertainment, but all the contestants present only really wanted to know who had won. all their creativity and hard labour culminated in this afternoon. then finally the awards ceremony, the room bursting with energy, some 500 kids trembling in expectancy, the winners about to be revealed. so far so good…
big disapointment with the choice of the jury though. it was one of these typical “adults” wanting to be educational – and i would almost call it patronizing – choices. only websites with political, social or educational content in the top 3 places. and this while everyone knows, that e./n. websites are the hottest thing happening right now on the web. a trend where content and message are declared strictly secondary to technical wizardry.
it was scary to see how the leftist babyboomers, the people we, in german, call post-68ers, who made up the better part of the jury, try to manipulate yet another generation in to the narrow frameset of political correctness. but: the kids are smart. even though they are not really interested in “message”, more so in gaming, interface, flash, technical stuff, they ll just adopt a political or educational theme, because they know it will help them win… but: thinkquest will lose its credibility, if they continue along this path!

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