Those wacky folks at the CBC are at it again. After the folly of Arts Canada comes CBC Infomatrix, described as “a fun and informative environment for children aged 8–12.”

Like Arts Canada, the CBC Infomatrix uses non-standard metaphors for navigation; indeed it hijacks the entire screen with a giant orange window. It doesn’t work like the rest of the web works. And I have no idea why. Isn’t the web good enough for the CBC?

Worse, though, is that it trys to be a “cool” website and in doing so is so obviously dorky as to be insulting. Why doesn’t anyone realize that when you try to talk to kids by adopting a thin veneer of “with-it-ness” you almost always come off looking like a boob?

There are a lot of smart and interesting people employed by the CBC (some of them are related to me); they can be equally as interesting to 8 to 12 year olds as to adults, and to do this doesn’t require a big orange window and faux hip. What an unfortunate waste of time and resources.