While having a profound impact on the development of values is surely an important job of a good parent, force-feeding opinions to them is not.

As more ad spending shifts online, the ability to have expertise and to innovate quickly will become critical.

It's not all silliness, as interactive SXSW is filled with aggressive learning, discussing, and a whole lot of futurizing.

One of my favorite vacation memories was the Thai foot massage and Internet access salons in Bangkok, followed up by my testing cellphone coverage while wading in Provincetown Harbor on Cape Cod.

I have so many e-mails from people who are like, 'I never knew a family could be happy like this... My parents hate each other. I hate my brother. We fight all the time. I never wanted to have kids before I saw your family.'

My parents were early converts to Christianity in my part of Nigeria. They were not just converts; my father was an evangelist, a religious teacher. He and my mother traveled for thirty-five years to different parts of Igboland, spreading the gospel.

I think it's a very dangerous game to play when you assume that just because someone's an entertainer, they're automatically a role model. Entertainers are there to entertain. They aren't there to teach your children the lessons that you haven't bothered to teach them at home yourself. They're just doing their own version of entertaining.

As a child, I loved to sing. When I was 8, my mother sent my brother and me to a summer music theater program in Texas. We did 'Guys and Dolls' at the camp, and I was so depressed when it was over. That's when I realized that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.