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November 30, 2007
Web Apps Increasing Access to Aid
ParentHelp123 is a wizard that determines your eligibility for programs like food
stamps and basic health, you can choose to apply for the programs and go
through the application process. The system generates an auto-filled pdf
using a Ruby-Java bridge. Lead developer Kara Chanasyk aims to scale the platform to increase access to aid for communities worldwide.
Posted by Enrique at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2007
Pervasive Health Conference in Finland January 30-February 1, 2008
In searching for uses 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 on: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=4205140&isYear=2006
The official 2008 conference website is: http://www.pervasivehealth.org/
Best of Luck with the Conference!
Adam Tolnay
Posted by Adam at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2007
Persuasion in Games for Third World Development
Over the past few days Free Rice has taken the world by storm. Free Rice is a simple online word identification game with a twist, namely the supporters of the game claim that for every word the player gets right the advertisers on the site donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for distribution to areas of hunger.
The unlikely twinning of vocabulary practice that improve the English vocabulary skills of people in the Internet enabled world with the donation of food to those in need has been a very effective mobilization tool. In just over a month the grains of rice donated daily rose from 800 on October 7 to 136,236,930 donated yesterday. The persuasive elements that make Free Rice so potent are the simplicity of the message (highlighted by visuals that graphically sow the grains of rice to be donated in a stylized bowl), the ease of use of the site (ie simple multiple choice questions one after another), the transparency of the transaction (you play, you learn, advertisers on site donate, hungry people get rice). Yet above all else I believe the persuasive technique that drives the success of Free Rice is the link of micro action (playing a game) to a macro cause (world hunger) via incremental steps (words for grains of rice).
It is this last link that is the persuasive engine of Village the Game, a casual game currently under development, whose goal is to educate players about the practices of social enterprises working together with local people to improve social and economic conditions in the Third World. Demoed for the PersuasiveTechnology Lab lastweek by Founder, Darian Hickman, Village the Game aspires to be SIM City meets Third World Development. The "grains of rice" in Village the Game are cheap, practical, and eminently usable technologies such as Kick Start Pumps, Mighty Light Solar LEDs, etc., technologies that bring a qualitative leap in te economic conditions of its users. By incrementally playing Village the Game, individuals in the developed world not only become aware of these potent new technologies acting in a third world village setting, but gameplay will also allow them to generate the buzz so as to allow advertisers to get these tools to the villages who can make use of them.
Three Cheers for Persuasion, Games and Third World Development!
Posted by Adam at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones
Demand for cell phone jammers is increasing according to oversea exporters who ship hundreds to cafe owners, hoteliers, public speakers and even bus drivers. “If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. The F.C.C aims to prosecute distributors and detect usage in order to maintain multi-billion dollar contracts with cellphone carriers and address public safety concerns.
Posted by Enrique at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)