If you’re a media mogul, you might note the symbolism of a Google (GOOG) co-founder boosting a group dedicated to overhauling intellectual property law.

If you’re a cold-hearted cynic, you might note that at least this is a bonafide donation made by private individuals, as opposed to the $6.5 million that Brin’s company has invested in his wife’s “personal genetics” start-up.

But since I don’t fall under either category, I’ll just make this note, directed at other nonprofits looking for a billionaire’s donation: It helps if you can leverage family ties.

In this case, very close ties–Wojcicki’s mother, Esther Wojcicki, chairs the Creative Commons board of directors.

What’s one of the ways you might attract a lot of attention online?

Here’s one possible equation: Celebrity + Mom + Tips Galore.

That’s the formula behind a new site relaunching today called Modern Mom, which is backed by “Dancing With the Stars” winner Brooke Burke and partner Lisa Rosenblatt, wading into what the pair hopes will be a lucrative market.

In an unusual twist, they have bought an existing site, redesigned it and then turbocharged it using both original content and stuff pulled from Demand Media (which was founded by Rosenblatt’s husband, Richard Rosenblatt).

It’s an interesting effort to watch in online publishing, to see if the pair can attract both an audience and advertisers without a big brand name in the mother space and by leveraging Burke’s online and offline popularity.

She now has, for example, 562,522 followers on Twitter alone, a huge fan group on Facebook and is an active social networker.

Whether that can be turned into a real business is a good question.

“I think I am passionate about this and want it to be organic,” said Burke, who noted that she and Rosenblatt have seven kids between them. “There are a lot of places for moms to go online, but they tend to cut up the experience, while we’re focusing on information and tools from pregnancy to the teen space, since being a mother does not stop at any one point.”

Rosenblatt, who said that the effort has been backed by several million dollars in angel investment, added that the key was trying not to overwhelm readers with content that was not relevant.

“We wanted to be a place for people to feel involved easily, so they could feel comfortable,” she said. “We’re the audience for what we are offering, so we think we know what people want.”

That means, no surprise, nothing too heavy–with lots of tips, buying suggestions, health and beauty, food and home, videos, blogs, as well as an area focused on celeb parents, called Mommywood.

Of all the evergreens online, celebs are almost always a hit (witness the big wet kiss the New York Times recently bestowed on Wonderwall, which BoomTown wrote about a while back), and so are sites aimed at mothers.

Some of the many include BabyCenter, iVillage, Momlogic and Mommy Track’d, among others. Still, the packed category has a lot of potential, given it’s often an advertising-friendly environment.

Burke and Rosenblatt said Modern Mom already had such relationships and that they would be combined with Burke’s endorsements and her existing e-commerce business, called Baboosh Baby.

Here’s a screenshot of Modern Mom’s new homepage (click on it to make it larger), as well as a welcome video from Burke:

Several years ago, my longtime friend and colleague Amy Dickinson suddenly became, well, Ann Landers.

Well, not exactly Ann herself, as that would be weird–but she took over the famous syndicated advice column in the Chicago Tribune, which changed the name to “Ask Amy.”

So, BoomTown did just that on my recent visit to Chicago, interviewing Dickinson about what questions she gets about the Internet from readers.

While they now mostly send her emails instead of letters seeking help for their troubles and tribulations, the problems still are mostly about relationships, jobs and similar issues.

But, as the Web insinuates itself into people’s lives, there are also sticky situations galore, digitally speaking. To friend or not to friend, for example, that is the question.

Dickinson gets a lot of questions about Facebook and social networking, in fact, and uses a lot of such tools herself, including Twitter.

In other words, this is not your grandmother’s advice columnist!

Here’s the video interview I did (and you should also click this link to learn more about a marvelous new book by Dickinson called “The Mighty Queens of Freeville,” a memoir about raising her daughter as a single mother with a little analog help from her family and friends):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090509/boomtown-asks-ask-amy-for-some-web-advice/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080711/kara-and-her-mother-visit-the-flagship-apple-store-in-manhattan/ http://allthingsd.com/20080711/kara-and-her-mother-visit-the-flagship-apple-store-in-manhattan/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:38:19 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=2325

BoomTown landed at New York’s JFK Airport this morning and, of course, could not resist visiting the flagship Apple (AAPL) store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on iPhone 3G Day.

That’s right! JesusPhone 2.0 is nigh!

(Well, was nigh, I guess, and apparently unable to be activated due to system overload.)

In any case, I did a particularly jumpy video of the doings at one of Apple’s most famous stores, as legions of New Yorkers waited in line for their cheaper, faster, prettier iPhone.

Added bonus: it includes an appearance at the end by my unimpressed-with-Steve-Jobs-worshipping-geeks mother, who goes by the name of–I am not kidding–Lucky.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

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