The Teens in Tech Official Blog

From time to time here at Teens in Tech, we like to spotlight companies and initiatives that share our views – be it on starting a company and the entrepeneurial spirit or the activities of teens worldwide.

Logo for Digital Open Initiative

Digital Open is a free and open-source technology project. Blah, blah, blah, we’ve all heard that before. So what’s the catch? Digital Open is only open to youth 17 years or younger. It spotlights teens who go above and beyond in the world of technology, and there are a variety of prizes that go to the winner in each category.

For more info, check out Digital Open at http://digitalopen.org and help spotlight teenage involvement in free and open-source technology!

Many of you have seen the news that Teens in Tech has acquired the Youth Bloggers Network (YBN) run by 15 year old, Patrick DeVivo (@patrickdevivo), I just wanted to take a moment and explain why we decided to take this route.

Teens in Tech is all about empowering teenage media content within a community. Patrick originally emailed Teens in Tech in February wanting to learn more, etc. We started talking about how Youth Bloggers Network and Teens in Tech could integrate to bring our communities together. From that, we had the idea of merging and being one big network. Patrick and I went back and forth to try to figure out how this will work, and we finally decided on bring YBN in as part of the Teens in Tech Community. After a few weeks of negotiations and calls with lawyers and advisors, we started working on plans for how we will approach this and how we will make it happen.

YBN will remain it’s own site and forum, but under the Teens in Tech name and brand as a property. We are combining Teens in Tech with YBN as one big community because we are staying true to our message: empower teenage media content. We haven’t really focused too much on the community aspect, and we hope that with the addition of YBN and Patrick on our team, Teens in Tech will rise.

One issue that has come up is revenue. Many have asked, how will Teens in Tech ever make money. We currently have two ideas. The first is what we call Publisher Advertising. Basically, we will split advertising with our publishers so Teens in Tech makes revenue, as well as our publishers (it’s a win-win situation). We are working with partners right now to establish this system. The second route is pro services. Pro services seems to be the easy way out these days, and we’ve thought hard on how to differentiate. We’ve decided that we are going to offer pro features like custom domain names (EXAMPLE.teensintech.com), more storage space (we added 250 MB last night for each user adding to 750 MB for each user), and more. YBN will also be making revenue through advertising, and we hope to extend Publisher Advertising to both networks after our pilot program. Changes to this will be occurring as we focus more on the this subject, but as of right now, these are the plans.

As Teens in Tech works more and more on new features and ideas, I always would love to know what you think. Feel free to get in touch with me directly at or Twitter me at @danielbru.

I hope you understand our choice, and continue to support Teens in Tech.

Thanks,

Daniel Brusilovsky
Founder/CEO, Teens in Tech

P.S Teens in Tech is open to new registrations this weekend! If you don’t have an account, register now!

Redwood City, CA – March 27, 2009 – Teens in Tech, an online community where teenagers produce and distribute media content, has announced that it has acquired the Youth Bloggers Network (YBN).

The Youth Bloggers Network is a destination site where more than 100 young bloggers and teenagers collaborate and network. The Youth Bloggers Network was founded in May 2007 by Patrick DeVivo, who will now join Teens in Tech as Director of Youth Bloggers Network and will oversee YBN’s integration with Teens in Tech.

“We are very excited to welcome Patrick and the YBN team and community to Teens in Tech,” said CEO Daniel Brusilovsky.“We are all about teenage media production, and blogging is our number one source of content.”

“On behalf of our members, I’m very happy that Youth Bloggers Network is joining Teens in Tech to create one central service for youth that will promote teenage media and community,” added founder of YBN, Patrick DeVivo.

Youth Bloggers Network will continue to run as its own service under the Teens in Tech brand.

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About Teens in Tech

Teens in Tech is a media platform and community for teenagers wanting to produce media content, and distribute their content via the internet. Teens in Tech was founded in February of 2008 by Daniel Brusilovsky. Teens in Tech launched into private alpha in August of 2008, and currently hosts and distributes over 300 blogs with media content. In early 2009, Teens in Tech acquired the Youth Blogger Network extending the Teens in Tech network.

About Youth Bloggers Network
The Youth Bloggers Network is managed by Patrick DeVivo, a fifteen year old blogger. The goal of the Youth Bloggers Network is to provide a place where young bloggers can collaborate on projects and communicate about their blogs. The Youth Bloggers Network has over 100 members, and an active forum. YBN was acquired by Teens in Tech in March of 2009.

Press Contacts:
Daniel Brusilovsky
Founder & CEO
daniel@teensintech.com
650-539-4017

Neil Vineberg
Vineberg Communications for Teens in Tech
neil@vinebergcommunications.com
631-377-1494

Just hours ago, a new business book hit the market. It happens every day, we know, but this book is more than just how to manage your 401(k) or make sure you’re not affected by the housing bubble. Those are inherently important topics, and we know, but it’s safe to say they’re not exactly original.

However, one original business book has hit the market with an emphasis on businesses like Teens in Tech.

Mike Michalowicz’s book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is in stock and shipping as of today at ToiletPaperEntrepeneur.com.

Wait, what’s a toilet paper entrepreneur? For more info, read on below the jump. Read the rest of this entry »