Community Mobilization

Fitness on your Cellphone

Computational power continues to shrink and the eventual reality is that  our computing devices will follow suit. To a point we will be able to cram a movie theater, a home stereo a camera and a telephone into one ... But even more important is when we begin to include our health monitoring devices into the cellphone / smart phone package. The Micoach is a all in one device in conjunction with Adidas that incorporates fitness training programs into a fully loaded cell phone. The brains of the system is a Samsung phone that gets linked to a pair of shoes through rfid or blue tooth for tracking exercise. Available only in Europe at this point, look for Micoach and other integrated devices to help keep us healthier longer.

Vote for ACS in the Mashup Challenge

The American Cancer Society is a finalist in the NetSquared Mashup challenge. We would really appreciate your vote. It is a bit of a process to vote but I can assure you that it is worth it 100%! Thank you for your support.
1. You must register with NetSquared's site to vote. NetSquared is cool so it's a good idea anyway.

2. Once you've logged in go to the bottom of the page where you'll see the PROJECTS tab. Click on the N2Y3 Mashups Challenge Project Gallery Link.

3. You'll end up at the project gallery which has a big tag cloud in the section "Explore Project Ideas By Cause Area." Click on Health in the tag cloud.

4. You'll end up on the Health section. Go down the bottom of the page and click "page 2."

5. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page. We're "US Cancer Data and Care Disparities Map." (Right below the SexINFO project proposal. Ya can't miss it.)

6. In the light green field at the top of the proposal space click "Add to my ballot." That gives you a chance to vote for it at the end.

7. You must vote for 4 more. It won't let you confirm your ballot if there is less than five projects on it. Just go to others and follow the same process to get them on your ballot.

8. In the upper right-hand column you'll see the your list of ballot items growing. When you've got 5 or more you can check the "vote" link at the bottom of your list.

9. The ballot list comes up with check-boxes to the left of each project name. Click the check boxes and click "submit" at the bottom.

10. You're done. Next time you log in you won't be able to generate a ballot. But do read some of the other proposals. There are some pretty interesting ones.

Nutrition Education in Second Life

The Ohio University has set up a fairly innovative experience inside Second Life focused on educating residents about food choices. The experience asks residents to choose 3 meals and then it tells them about the amount of calories, fat and the long term impact of their health if they continue to eat this way.The below video give a real nice overview.

Virtual Eco-Tour

Some friends at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars have put together a nice article on the Eco-tour of Second Life. Developed by UC Berkley Graduate Student Stephanie Gerson, the tour looks at how some virtual spaces are examining real world ecological issues and developing solutions. I have always maintained that one of the best uses for this virtual spaces is as a 3-D collaborative platform for big problem solving. I am glad to see an issues such as the ecology being tackled.

SXSW Schedule released

SXSW released their schedule recently and I am happy to tell everyone that we will be presenting Monday afternoon at 3:30. I am overly excited about the panel we have put together with speakers from the March of Dimes, National Geographic, and the American Cancer Society. It is going to be exceptionally interesting and entertaining, focusing in on where are we as organizations supposed to go to attract and retain volunteers. The Future of Volunteers; Adapt or Die!

Student Preferences for Online Discussion ALN

Shawn Kildea is presenting on Blackboard vs. Facebook for asynchronous learning networks (ALN)in a class room setting. ALNs provide a number of opportunities for presence, interaction, and a space for people to post carefully thought out responses. ALNs are prospering from a long term increase of social computing capacity in computers and students. The question is what is value of ALNs from the student perspective.

12 students found Blackboard useful for keeping in touch with classmates in specific classes and keeping track of class-centric topics. However un-uniform use by professors is confusing for students. Intermingling of social and academic networks was a theme from a number of student responses.

In crating a facbook profile the goal was to increase pre-class communication and facilitate discussion. Unique was the concern was that the use of the technology was a diferent and use over a semester time (acclimation) proved to have students feeling comfortable in using Facebook as an ALN and letting their professors into their Facebook space.

Web Playgrounds of the Very Young

It is no shock to me that youth wordlwide are being drawn into graphically based virtual world environments. The medium captures attention like no other as it engages us in sight, sound, hearing, and touch (keyboard). As parents encourage their children to stay inside more often then venture outdoors for unstructured fun and free time, kids are making semi-structured play online.

The article in the New York Times captures the exuberances of the youth entertainment community but it fails to represent the potential for outside marketers to engage participants. Will these spaces be breeding grounds for the next wave of consumerists who are cultured to 'purchasing' as the only means to enhance their avatar? I applaud the CDC's efforts in engaging the community of Whyville, where avatars are catching the flu ... that is unless they get their vaccination. Rez Nation recorded a session given by Erin Edgerton and John Anderton from CDC on their engagement in virtual worlds.

Twitter, Frozen Peas, and The American Cacner Society

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 Great Box Debate; Get out or Stay In

I know I am late pointing to this WSJ article 'thinking out of the box is a waste of time'. One of the big catch phrases I heard when I got into the area of Futuring and Innovation was 'think outside of the box'. Of course this often came out of the mouths of the people asking for ideas not the ones developing them. I did read Rushkoff's book 'Get Back In The Box' and it really put some much needed perspective on ideating and creative solution solving.

The problem with innovation as a practice being done by internal constituencies is that we tend to think there is no more fertile ground internally for ideas to grow in. We HAVE to look out of the box because we assume we have exhausted everything inside. If there were good ideas and innovations left we would not have created this department ... duh! Not so - patience and perspective are key to pulling out the most valuable ideas and innovation from inside the organization. Honestly, who knows your company better than your employees? So why not count on them to speak up on the process improvements, major strategic goals, and even product design and construction. Innovation is about application of technology 
to solve problems and trust me, our employees know more about your problems than you do!

McKinley HS to run Teen Relay For Life

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!