delicious

The organizations will work to harness the excitement surrounding computer and video games through a series of STEM-related video game design competitions. "Computer and video games are one of the most effective ways to reach America's children and encourage them to stay interested in vital STEM principles. We are honored to have President Obama recognize the unique ability of games to act as a catalyst in generating new areas of growth in education," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers.

the paper has doubled its circulation in just a month. Not bad. But what's more interesting is that it's also slashed its distribution costs massively. It used to cost about 30p, and now it's just 4p per paper.

Patient Opinion's *got* the tone right. Interesting to watch MyPolice *getting* the tone right in a different domain http://bit.ly/3qXVwF

There is no national plan to make the police use social media, but its use by beat bobbies and many other officers is about to get a boost with the creation of the MyPolice website. Set up by designers Sarah Drummond and Lauren Currie, it hopes to become a central point on which members of the public can relate the good and bad of their experiences with the police. "Its creation stems from my friend getting robbed," said Ms Drummond. "She didn't have a terrible experience but there were aspects of her case that she was not happy with." In a similar way the site will log these problems, funnel them to the police and find out what happens to put things right. Ms Drummond said the plan is to run a closed pilot with a couple of forces before rolling it out more widely. The two designers are working on data visualisation tools to ensure that the site is easy to use for both the public and police.

A fabulous new Edinburgh website written by locals on things to do, where to eat and what's on in Edinburgh

The Essay Writing Wizard app from Niles Technology Group is "fully interactive and allow[s] students to organise and input notes, ideas, research and even writing samples directly into the phone", according to the company. In a trend which could transfer to the UK, American students are using the new app to check their essays on the school bus before handing them in.

RockYou Like A Hurricane - If 2007 is considered the year of social networking, 2009 might be the year of social gaming. Companies that make games for social networking sites are already proving their worth - Playfish was just acquired by Electronic Arts for at least $300 million, Zynga is making tens of millions of dollars in revenue and Playdom raised a hefty round of financing. Now there’s news that RockYou, one of the earliest developers of so-called widgets on social networks, has raised a giant-sized $50 million round as it also moves deeper into social-gaming. SoftBank was apparently the only investor in this round, meaning previous investors DCM, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International and Sequoia Capital curiously did not re-up.

Bio Owner and Strategic Design Director at DesignThinkers, lecturer and chairman of the Service Design Network Netherlands