A hunch..

“Look. Getting good recommendations is difficult, yet most of us rely on recommendations to guide us.”

“What should I be for Halloween? Do I need a Porsche? Should I dump that loser? Is Phoenix a good place to retire? Whom should I vote for? What toe ring should I buy?

It’s a cruel world out there. Coin-flipping, I Ching consultation, closing your eyes and jumping, postponing the inevitable, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and asking your sister are all time-honored means of getting a recommendation — and yet we think there’s room for one more: Hunch.

In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great recommendation to address your choice, problem, or dilemma, on thousands of topics. Hunch’s recommendations are based on the collective knowledge of the entire Hunch community, narrowed down to people like you, or just enough like you that you might be mistaken for each other in a dark room. Hunch is designed so that every time it’s used, it learns something new. That means Hunch’s hunches are always getting better.”

The theory behind using collective knowledge for decision making

“Researchers have documented how decisions made by diverse and independent groups of people are often superior to those made by individuals – even experts. The reason is that knowledge is often spread among many people. The challenge is to identify it, collect it, and effectively use it.

Take, for example, expertise about colleges or cars. In a random, large group of people, most probably know something about a few examples (say, the college someone attended or the car they currently drive) but are not experts on the topic as a whole (as a college guidance counselor or auto executive might be). If you were able to collect and organize all the various bits of individual knowledge that the large group possesses, you’d have a pretty complete picture of the topic overall.”

So, in other words:

“Hunch is designed to soak up collective knowledge and then organize it in a useful way to offer you smart recommendations. Hunch proposes custom recommendations for you that it wouldn’t necessarily give to somebody else. But at its core, Hunch’s recommendation algorithm is just a mathematical framework. It’s the users of Hunch who give the algorithm proper training and personality by contributing to it and making it clever, funny, and nuanced…. but most of all very useful in helping everyone to get smart, efficient recommendations.

http://hunch.com/

Gaming for change

HOW DO I GO ON QUESTS?
Every hero has an origin story. It’s time for you to discover yours.
Where do your powers come from? Who inspires you? What set you on a path to change the world?
A new quest unlocks every Wednesday at midnight.
Each quest is a question that only you can answer.
Answer all ten questions, and write the story only you can tell.

HOW TO GO ON A QUEST

1. Find a quest.
2. Tell your story to the world.
3. Track your completed quests on My Page.
4. Change your story any time

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/01/evoke.game.africa.poverty/index.html?hpt=T2

http://www.urgentevoke.com/

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motivation, ability and triggers ftw.

GE “take a new look at health”

“What are the major health issues facing Americans today? What are some of the most common conditions, and how are they related to one another? What can we do to improve our health?”

Found at http://www.ge.com/visualization/health_visualizer/

Looking at health from a disease-perspective is thus not new, but the data is visualized in such a simple and elegant manner, and playing with combining demographic datasets are extremely interesting and fun.

(thanks to S. for sharing)

with love

^ This made me smile far more than average: Mysterious letters is a project by Lenka and Michael where they are going to write to everyone in the world. -Just to make them feel happy and appreciated. It’s such a brilliant and sweet idea and I really love the naive look of this letter.

mysteriousletters blog.

a product review (part one)

1. Reminders Ramp from Subtle to Insistent
GlowCaps use light and sound to signal when it is time to take a pill. GlowCaps sense when the bottle is opened and wirelessly relay their status to Vitality’s secure network. If the bottle is not opened after two hours, the user is automatically reminded with a telephone call that states: “It’s time to take the pill in your green GlowCap.”
2. Social Support
Each week, a report summarizing progress is e-mailed to the GlowCap user. If the
user chooses, a family member, friend or care-giver may also receive the report.
3. Refill Coordination
GlowCaps can even call with refill reminders and connect the patient to their pharmacy as pills deplete.
4. Doctor Accountability
Each month GlowCaps mail you a printed report. The report may also be sent to your doctor. and your doctor a printed report with incentives for exceeding your adherence goals.

Copy-paste from here

Thoughts: Again I find the tiny bit of social interaction (or the effects of it) the most interesting. Would you want anyone of your closest to know that you forget your medicine? Being reminded by your son that you are becoming forgetful because your pill-bottle told him might not solely be a good thing.. I believe the levels of trust and maybe anonymity will determine how well this fit with a patients experience of self. -It is possible to chose a person of trust regardless of relation ..I love that part, but it makes me ever so curios towards what trust-persons clusters of users choose. Further more, I believe the report  you get after some time can do a lot to reinforce a good feeling about the product and your self.

(All praise aside, I would like to see less drugs rather than better ways of taking them.)