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August 30, 2007
College Athlete Recruiters Seek to Persuade via Text Message
College coaches, using a loophole in NCAA regulations, have turned text messaging into a vital tool of the recruiting process. Players have come to expect the messages so much that if a recruiter is not sending them, he's not doing a good job.
The NCAA limits college coaches to one phone call per week to a recruit during his senior season. Text messages, however, are not considered phone calls and are not restricted.
Given the close relationship many high school athletes have to with their cell phones, text messages have, according to a Washington Post article "turned recruiting into a 24-hour-a-day process and have allowed coaches to shower a prospect with unlimited persuasion -- away from the presence of a recruit's parent or high school coach -- right up until signing day."
For the full article including pros and cons of this new recruiting tool, see the Washington Post article
We at the lab would be interested in hearing from coaches or high school athletes about what makes a text message persuasive. Any thoughts would be more than welcome.
--- Adam Tolnay
Posted by Dan at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2007
Increasing Facebook Engagement
As Facebook surpasses 30 million active users, they continue to emphasize engagement through new applications and greater e-mail ability. Each day Facebook will measure how many times an application is engaged and rank according to a new score called Daily Active Users. As the company continues to persuade users to function through its platform, a Facebook operating system does not seem far away.
Posted by Enrique at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2007
Embodied agents in China's online panopticon
The AP reports that China's existing surveillance and restriction of Chinese Internet use will be augmented by persuasive (and frighteningly cute) embodied agents designed to remind surfers of the potential of being constantly watched.
The animated police appeared designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that authorities closely monitor Web activity. However, the statement did not say whether there were plans to boost monitoring further.
It is worrisome, but expected, to see the idea of a panopticon -- a prison in which inmates each might be under surveillance at any moment -- continue to be applied in interactive technology designed for controlling citizens.
Bentham's panopticon
In Discipline and Punish, Foucault uses the panopticon as an important element of his genealogy of Western penal systems. At the second Persuasive Technology conference this April, Julie Leth Jespersen, Peter Ohrstrom, Anders Albrechtslund, Jorgen Albretsen, and Per Hasle from Aalborg University presented a paper which addressed the concept of a panopticon in interactive technology.
-- Dean Eckles
Posted by Dean Eckles at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
Pervasive Health Conference, January 30-February 1, 2008, Tampere, Finland
In searching for conferences on the use of mobile phones for health I came across the second annual Pervasive health conference to be held next year in Helsinki. The conference looked so promising that I wanted to spread the word to potential speakers or attendees.
As defined by the organizers "Pervasive healthcare is an emerging research discipline, focusing on the development and application of pervasive and ubiquitous computing technology for healthcare and wellness... Pervasive healthcare may be defined from two perspectives. First, it is the development and application of pervasive computing (or ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence) technologies for healthcare, health and wellness management. Second, it seeks to make healthcare available to anyone, anytime, and anywhere by removing location, time and other restraints while increasing both the coverage and quality of healthcare."
Some of the topics that will be discussed are:
- Wearable, ambient and home based health and wellness measurement and monitoring technologies
- Mobile and wireless technologies for healthcare information storage, transmission, processing, and feedback, including devices, systems and applications
- Sensor networks for pervasive healthcare
- Information management, processing and analysis in pervasive healthcare
- Networking support for pervasive healthcare (location tracking, routing, scalable architectures, dependability, and quality of access)
- Citizen portals and electronic citizen-managed health records
Last year's conference papers are available here.
The official 2008 conference website is: http://www.pervasivehealth.org/
Paper Submission Deadline is: September 14th, 2007
Best of Luck with the Conference!
---Adam Tolnay
Posted by Dan at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2007
We're going offline this weekend
Hi, everyone . . .
Our Stanford building needs to shut off power this weekend. That means the servers running our web sites will be down, and you won't be able to access our blog, our site, our videos . . . well, you get the idea.
See you again soon.
--BJ Fogg
Director, Persuasive Technology Lab
Stanford University
Posted by BJ Fogg at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
Persuasive Solutions for Demanding Times
Richard Sedley, Director of the Customer Engagement Unit for cScape reviews the fundamental tenants of persuasion during a briefing with clients ranging from the Ministry of Sound to Barclays. Sedley presents research, including previous work by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, while targeting how to achieve customer engagement.
Listen to the brief podcast
Posted by Enrique at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2007
Fancy name tag motivates you to attend sessions (just one more surveillance technology)
Alarm:Clock ran a story recently about a new high-tech name badge designed to motivate conference goers to attend sessions and more.
Alarm:Clock says . . .
The badges automatically record brownie points for attendees when they accomplished a task such as going to a session, completing a survey, or visiting an exhibit booth.
As much as I love persuasion, this sounds too heavy handed to be a successful product. Who wants to be subjected to surveillance at a conference, even if you do get points?
Perhaps nTag has figured out a nice way to sugarcoat the surveillance. The tag apparently does things besides track your location. To be sure, with persuasive technology the details make the difference between "love it" and "hate it." When it comes to nTag, the VCs apparently "love it": The company has just raised another $8.3M, bringing their total to $21M.
That's a lot of cash for wearable surveillance. But we shouldn't be surprised: surveillance has long been big business. The nTag product is a small data point in a pattern of surveillance. (A huge data point is those new mobile phones we're buying that can pinpoint our location, all in the name of 911 safety.)
The 2007 Gold Medal for Surveillance should go to the Chinese government. Earlier this month, the New York Times ran this lead:
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9 — At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.
Unfortunately, we're becoming a surveillance society. We're creating technology to track people's location in order to change their behaviors. But here's the weirdest part: Most people seem okay with the growing level of surveillance in our lives. Well, I'm not.
Some forms of persuasion are good, some are bad, and some can be both. Surveillance is almost always bad. In writing my book on persuasive technology I looked hard to find an example of helpful surveillance. I found one. But it wasn't easy. Using surveillance to change behavior should always raise red flags.
BJ Fogg
Director, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by BJ Fogg at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2007
The Persuasive Technology Lab has been trying to understand how methods of persuasion can be used to improve health using text messaging (SMS) as the interactive platform.
The majority of applications of SMS for health have been created in developed countries for local use. Yet very interesting efforts are under way in the developing world.
Warren Kaplan's paper is a good starting point for diving into this topic. It spells out challenges and points to the need for more rigorous evaluation of health information programs.
The next resource we recommend id to take a look at Justin's posting of the Technology, Health and Development blog entitled "SMS and Text Messaging for Health" where he lists a few services used in developing countries.
DocVia.com - a pilot project with the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) in Soweto, South Africa to provide drug and appointment reminders.
SIMpill - On-Cue Compliance Service - drug and appointment reminders among others. Their TB work in Cape Town, South Africa is described.
Mobile for Good - a program in Kenya delivering health, employment and community content. Users can access health info and ask HIV and breast cancer related questions.
Frontline SMS - a downloadable SMS platform for NGOs. Looks great for testing the utility of SMSing before scaling up.
The South African Depression and Anxiety Group has launched a program that enables teens to communicate with counselors
Kenyan National AIDS Control Council - HIV information program.
I will be posting about this topic for a while, so if you are interested or have suggestions as to topics to be covered, please comment on this entry or write to the lab.
Thank You,.
Posted by Adam at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2007
Over 150 Examples of Text Messaging for Health
Dr. Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, London have carried out a systematic review carried of the use of text-messaging in the delivery of health care.
An Economist review of Prof. Atuns study points to some very powerful effects. For example text-message reminders in the UK have reduced the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39% and missed hospital appointments by 33-50%.
Also as the review takes pains to document, "Text messages can also be a good way to disseminate public-health information, particularly to groups who are hard to reach by other means, such as teenagers, or in developing countries where other means of communication are unavailable. Text messages have been used in India to inform people about the World Health Organisation's strategy to control tuberculosis, for example, and in Kenya, Nigeria and Mali to provide information about HIV and malaria. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a campaign to vaccinate nearly 5m children against polio." See the entire review on: http://globaltechforum.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=rich_story&channelid=3&categoryid=7&title=A+text+a+day...%0D%0A&doc_id=8355
Prof. Atun is the man to watch in the field of mobile health. Anoter ofProf. Atun's studies featured by BJ Fogg on this blog on August 14 with the kind assistance of Ken Banks.
Prof. Atun's academic profile is available on: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.atun
Posted by Adam at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2007
eHealth Broadband
According to the U.S. Internet Industry Association (USIIA) recent report Download file consumers should not be limited to a "one-size fits-all" broadband service for medical operations including transmission of patient records. However, net neutrality advocates do not want network operators like Verizon (USIIA's principal sponsor) to prioritize consumer communications over others depending on health care provider contracts. How this will effect emerging medical technology remains in debate.
Related Article:
Report: Net neutrality could kill 'eHealth' plans
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9759570-7.html
Posted by Enrique at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Answers for Italian book on Web 2.0 - BJ Fogg's audio
An Italian colleague writing a book about Web 2.0 asked me to answer some questions so he can include an interview with me in one of his chapters.
He sent me 11 questions. My time was tight, so I didn't practice the answers; I just started recording. The answers I gave are possibly quite boring. But in case you want to torture yourself by listening to me ramble about persuasion and Web 2.0, you can go to the three audio links below.
--BJ Fogg
Audio Answers to Questions 1-4
Audio Answers to Questions 5-9
Audio Answers to Questions 10-11
Posted by BJ Fogg at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
New Forms of E-Learning Among US Teens and Tweens
Beyond just mobile persuasion, our lab is also interested in new forms of communication and how these new tools can enhance learning. We're interested to see how persuasion will play a role in the future of online (and mobile!) learning.
A new study released today by the National School Boards Association and Grunwald Associates LLC explores the online behaviors of U.S. teens and "tweens". The study shows that:
- 96 percent of students with online access use social networking technologies (chatting, text messaging, blogging, and visiting online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Webkinz)
- 60 percent report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education.
- 50 percent of online students say they talk specifically about schoolwork.
- 50 percent have engaged in "creative activities," including uploading photos and video
Full study here: http://www.nsba.org/site/view.asp?CID=63&DID=41340
From NSBA.org
Posted by Dan at 01:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Health & Mobile Phones - Vodaphone's overview in 48 pages
Ken Banks sent me a link to Vodaphone's recent report on mobile phones and health care.
http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_searchdetails.php?id=352
I've posted a snapshop of the contents below.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 10:27 AM
August 10, 2007
Good new content on our landing page
We've (finally) updated the landing page for our lab's Persuasive Technology website. You'll find some good new stuff there.
Some info was a few months out of date (ouch). Time just flies by, especially as we've been busy. Now we need to go deeper into our site and update the rest. Stay tuned.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2007
iplato Public Health Information via SMS
After successfully launching an innovative population-wide SMS based mobile healthcare services information system to cover 165,000 patients in the Hammersmith & Fulham district of London, iPlato has gone national in the UK!
In the words of Medical News Today, a respected UK medical blog, "Mobile healthcare specialist iPLATO has developed a new text messaging service which provides Britons travelling abroad with free travel health information regarding malaria. The service, funded by GlaxoSmithKline Travel Health as part of the Malaria Awareness Campaign, allows travellers to text in the name of their destination country to receive relevant information about the malaria prevalence in that country.
Despite the fact that malaria is a preventable disease every year approximately 2,000 British travelers return home with malaria, making the UK one of the biggest importers of malaria among industrialised countries. Travelers using the service are charged their standard operator rates and the service is available over all networks.
Malaria is a risk for British travelers as people increasingly visit countries where malaria is common; there has been a 150% increase in travel to malarious destinations amongst British travelers in the last 10 years"
The question now is to how to entice travelers to seek Malaria information before getting on the plane. Perhaps a bit of creative thinking along the lines of persuasion may be in order!
iPLATO is truly innovative, and through their iPLATO Patient Care Messaging service they cover 165,000 patients will be able to interact with their doctors on diverse health related subjects such as appointments, periodic reviews, smoking status, immunization and invitations to specialist clinics directly via mobile text messaging.
For more information in iPLATO and their work, see: http://www.iplato.net/
ps- A final question: When are we going to see such applications in the United States?
Posted by Adam at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2007
The FTC listened (perhaps) to our lab's insights and takes action
Last fall I testified at an FTC hearing about how technology will affect consumers over the next 10 years. One topic I addressed was what I call "persuasion profiling" - using computer systems to test and store our psychological vulnerabilities to different persuasion strategies.
Did anyone really listen?
Maybe . . .
The FTC recently announced an event to examine targeted advertising, including the issue of selling profile information about individuals (which was one of my points). The FTC announcement says this new event is a direct result of the hearings from last fall. They write:
The Town Hall is a follow-on to a dialogue on behavioral advertising that emerged at a November 2006 FTC forum, “Tech-Ade,” which examined the key technological and business developments that will shape consumers’ core experiences in the coming decade.
Certainly, I was not the only person last fall talking about targeted advertising. But it's nice to think I did my small part to start this larger discussion.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2007
Health Info, On the Go
TauMed Health, a social network centered around health, just launched a mobile version of their site. The idea of staying tapped in to a mobile health network 24/7 is compelling. As it is now though, TauMed's mobile service is focused more on information-gathering rather than social networking, which makes it less interesting from a persuasion standpoint.
There are a lot of players in the mobile health space, and here at the Captology lab, we're excited to watch as mobile health evolves.
from Mashable
Posted by Dan at 09:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack