Danwei FM

Danwei FM interview with Bill Bishop of Red Mushroom

A conversation with Bill Bishop, CEO of Red Mushroom, producers of 宝宝蹦蹦 (Baobaobengbeng), a virtual world for children.

Last time your correspondent's Mac was parked at the service center, I had to spend a week at a local internet cafe. When one reads about 网瘾 (Net addiction) in the Chinese press, you often feel the problem is being exaggerated. But when an early bird like me gets to the cafe at 5:30 and sees grown men glued to the screens, smoking frenetically, and cursing into their headsets, he realizes that these guys didn't just get here.

Chinese parents are caught behind a rock and a hard place; either forbid their to play Internet games, which means indirectly restricting their access to valuable educational tools and impeding their information age education (or even worse encouraging them to sneak of to seedy internet cafes), or risk their child getting addicted to battling scantily clad elven vixens or fragging terrorists with assault rifles.

Bill Bishop has the solution. 宝宝蹦蹦 is a "green game"--no sex, violence or anything not fit for a nine year old. Players control cute animal avatars that move around the virtual world playing games that help them memorize English vocabulary, Tang poetry, and Olympic trivia. As founder of CBS Market Watch, Bill's online media track record is a strength for Red Mushroom. However, the virtual world faces many challenges, most importantly getting buy-in from both children AND parents.

Listen

Subscribe to Danwei FM: Outside China, Inside China

Watch this video for a preview of Baobaobengbeng.

There are currently 0 Comments for Danwei FM interview with Bill Bishop of Red Mushroom.

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The Dazhai Spirit gets religion (2007.10): In a Window of the South (南风窗) feature on model village Dazhai (大寨), Li Xiangping (李向平) writes about the role religion, in the form of the Pule Temple, plays in the village's changing identity.
+ Will the Boat Sink the Water? a review by Göran Leijonhufvud (2006.11): Göran Leijonhufvud, former China correspondent of several Scandinavian newspapers, is now researching village elections in minority nationalities areas in Yunnan.
+ One Country, Two Versions (2005.02): CEPA eases co-productions between the mainland and Hong Kong, but does it undermine creativity?
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30