On Friday, March 12th, Aneesh Chopra, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, addressed the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He delivered a letter from First Lady Michelle Obama via video. The goal of her message was to inspire game developers to help fight childhood obesity and win the $40,000 prize.
The 2010 conference was held in San Francisco and attracted around 17,000 attendees. Last Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the “Apps for Healthy Kids†challenge. This is a way to call upon innovators to create digital games and tools that incorporate nutritional and informative data to parents and their children.
In the address, Chopra said “It is our hope, through the Apps for Healthy Kids competition, that you will take full advantage of that information and build into new games online, new programs that are built within games you’ve already established, and to have those in the audience today participate in new and creative ways to help advance this national priority.â€
The First Lady’s message was clear: we need all hands on deck to fight childhood obesity. She was reaching out for creative games to help empower children to live active, healthy lives and stay fit. Her message included details of how participants can share their ideas and “most importantly – the chance to help give kids the healthy lives they deserve.â€
The full letter of the address can be found here
This is one of the dumbest ideas that I have ever read.