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.
Healthy Imagination
“We’ve partnered with media sites to make it easier for you to find a snapshot of the most talked about issues in health, helping you take the first step in creating a healthier you.”
this seems like a great niche-browsing/bookmarking site. ..but what impressed me most (immediately) is the gorgeous visualization of what has been shared the most this day! Sure its blue like all health products / services are.. (Angelikis remark) -but it makes up for a rather close link to snowflakes. /pretty, polite etc.
MORSEL
“With health and wellness, a little can go a long way. With this in mind, we’ve developed Morsel, a mobile application that helps people get a little bit healthier, every day. By suggesting simple, daily tasks that anyone can do, Morsel empowers you to take control of your well-being, one step at a time. With fun, achievable goals, Morsel makes a healthier lifestyle accessible to everyone.”
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
- Find a quest.
- Tell your story to the world.
- Track your completed quests on My Page.
- Change your story any time
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/01/evoke.game.africa.poverty/index.html?hpt=T2
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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)
Why so worried?
Susanna is also behind the why not?-photo, posted on this blog some time ago. (I love this graphic representation.) wondering how actual and perceived health would look like.
Your average day
Mr. Jones Watches : Your average day
“This watch eschews the conventional division of a day into 24 hours, instead it divides into units of median daily routine. The dial shows a breakdown of what average people do on an average day, so you’re able to see what you yourself should – on average – be doing at any time. The outer loop on the dial represents the AM and the inner loop the PM.”
technology and algorithms
-very short example on how we shape technology and how it shapes us:
an extremely well told story of human experiences without showing actual people.
The Future Well
: Jay Parkinson from Hello Health and & Grant Harrison from Humana
Jay Parkinson I just briefly met at the Service Design Conference at AHO a couple of months ago when he was in town presenting Hello Health He held a very inspiring presentation as he talked a lot about ideas around ways of designing for conversation (between patient and practitioner) -as well as how peoples adaptation of social media create disruptive technology just by using online tools in a unintended way, or simply differently. Simon Clatworthy (who is my tuor/mentor at my master alongside Mosse Sjaastad) told me of his newest project called The Future Well as something I might be interested in. I can only say it makes me smile and trying not to go over the top /playing with words here I can only say I really hope they do well.
Stolen from their site:
“Social networks exist both online and on the ground. Whether in family units, friends, interest groups, or cultures, no one makes health decisions in a vacuum.”
Ingrid
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