Sharing Hope. TV is hosting its first ever user generated video contest. They are looking for your personal videos that showcase your thoughts and creative skills. In true style they have put together a video about their video contest. Hold onto your hats ... it is fierce!
A study from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego appearing in the May 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine finds smoking cessation occurs in network clusters. The idea of getting help to achieve a goal is nothing new but here is empirical data that supports the support group. The primary finding of this study is that smoking cessation tends to be contagious, i.e. people tend to make the decision to quit smoking based on the influence of their social networks.
The study is important because it points to the fact that legislating out smoking via taxation and smoking bans push smokers to the fringe of their social networks, and it is clearly important to have a 'quitting network'.
The American Cancer Society Coaches vs Cancer program is going super high technology, producing widgets for fund raising. CvC is a fantastic program that combines the passion of basketball and cancer awareness and fund raising into one fantastic activity.Coaches vs. Cancer is a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) that empowers basketball coaches, their teams, and local communities to make a difference in the fight against cancer. I am so proud of the income development team for helping to produce such awesome fund raising widgets - such as the one in the left sidebar for Coach Izzo.
The premise of this program is that it is possible to look at structure and understand the potential for performances. When the aggregate constrains of a group is low the person individual has many advantages in terms of connectedness and the reputation that goes along with it especially in smaller groups. In the French Cancer research arena there are only 165 researchers. The metric of analysis (Impact Factor) was the number of published articles, reviewed manuscripts and presentations. Interviews asked whom you asked for advice and who asked you for advice.
The most telling metric was when the researcher combined the in and out ties based on recruitment and research conversations. When the aggregate Scarce resources was higher than 40% (you were doing a good amount of recruiting and research connections) you were in a good position to succeed in producing papers and presentation. Moreover depending on the size of your research clique and your access to scarce resources there is a graph that plotted your success growth.
I will say that I am very impressed with the article in yesterday's Washington Post about the Frozen Pea Fund (login is required but you can use bug-me-not with Fire Fox for access). The article looks at why the Twitter viral event for the Frozen Pea Fund worked and helps to shine some light onto the nature of technology mediated human connectivity. I particularly like the quote from Susan at the end of the article, it is telling about the importance of support throughout the cancer experience. Reality is that support is support no mater who gives it and in what form and this is a great study in support of that assertion. "There's nothing good about getting cancer," Reynolds wrote on her blog. "It helps [to] start conversations, though."
Susan Reynolds, bloger and breast cancer survivor, took some time to talk about the various cancer walks that she is interested. She discusses the various aspects of Relay For Life, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, and The Race for the Cure. I am impressed with the amount of time and consideration she is giving to the decision of which event to participate in. In the meantime the Frozen Pea Fund continues to raise money to support Marking Strides.
The concepts surrounding the flash that is Frozen Peas Friday are rooted in the intricate interpersonal web of connectivity and communication. The question I have been asked a number of times in the last week is, "So why is it that this groups of people care so much about frozen peas and cancer?" The answer has many facets and I will try my best to break them down as I see them.
#1. They may 'care' about cancer but they do not CARE about cancer. They care about Susan Reynolds and her personal situation and want to help and support her. As a fund raiser we know the fundamental truth is that people give money to support the causes important to those they care about. I care deeply about cancer, but if my mother asked me to take up a fund raising drive for AIDS awareness I would do so quickly.
#2. The rapid adoption of the project is two fold - one the communication web between the first adopters is dense and fast. Communication today is multi layered via social network spaces blog posts, twitter feeds, profile updates, direct messages, instant messages ... chances are we all got at least three contacts about this project from the same person. Viral word of mouth information distribution followed.
#3. We like to try new things, and trying to raise money and awareness on a micro blogging site like Twitter is a challenge. We like Twitter, and this was a chance to show some real value in the system beyond letting the world know what I am doing right now.
#4. It is fun and it feels good. People spent real time photo-shopping their Pea-based avatars and it required a bit of creativity. It was fun coming up with an image and making it as good as the next guy's or girl's. And it feels good to do good things. Each donation to support the fund deals good to us and we are happy to give and participate.
#5. The American Cancer Society was
sharp enough to pick up on the project and support it. Often
technological memes such as these are overlooked by other organizations
but in this case the positive energy had a place to be focused - the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer program.
So in the spirit of fun here is a frozen pea video from the Social Media Club in Florida here is a very nice video in support of the Frozen Pea Fund.
frozen peas
Originally uploaded by randalcmoss.
What happens when you combine frozen peas, The American Cancer Society, Susan Reynolds - new media consultant and Twitter? Technology driven awareness and fund raising... that and a very cool campaign. I am changing my avatar on Twitter and am making a donation to the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer program at the Frozen Peas fund website. The event has been covered by the BBC, Tech Crunch, and even the Twitter Blog. It is a very cool meme flynig through the tech space. Insider 411 says that as of this afternoon we have 88 donations and well over $2,600 collected from all over the world including Canada and as far as the Philippines.
The Washington Post reports that Mckinley High School in Washington DC is getting ready t o run a Teen Grid Second Life Relay For Life. They school is a unique learning institution that has specail science and technology focus. Students apply for admittance and spend 4 years in intensive classes in Computer Animation and Design, Biological Sciences, and Forensics. We have been working with them and their Assistant Principal Rick Kelsey for a while now that the kids are back in school it looks like they are ready to go!
Web Md has opened up a comments section on its site under each of the medicines that it categories. It is allowing consumers of the medicines to comment on how they felt the drug worked, how easy it was to use, as well as if they found any specific side effects. Although a bit cumbersome to use the site is allowing people to really make extended comments on their experience with the drug.
Some would think that the drug companies would have conniptions that their drug is being negatively reviewed, while others would take the opportunity to look into the concerns of the users and view this as an open product review session. If there are side effects that did not show up in the clinical trials, but are emerging for certain populations here is a great way to find out. Patients tell doctors, who tell drug reps, who send the message up the chain. Lots of chances to get that message lost in translation. Here on this site you get (hopefully) honest feedback straight and unfiltered which in my book is the best thing you can do.
