Personal Informatics Post Seven: Facebook Feeds

I'm probably putting this in a bit out of order, but your feed and your friendfeed on Facebook are close kin to the specialty informatics offerings, albeit an extremely public one. But being public is not counter to this phenomenon -- almost the opposite.

While most people don't populate their feeds with EVERY ASPECT of their lives, like they would with a service like Daytum (see post six), the principle of placing such a high level of personal information out there for large number of people to see is, through Facebook, an extremely popular activity.

Again, the feed feature is a rather polarizing offering. I admit that I am in the camp of having total indifference to what you ate today ("Paul is EATING BACON...), but others tell me that this is their favorite part of using the site. It enables those of us who have difficulty keeping up with people a way to have a sense of what they are doing on a daily or even hourly basis.

Was this tendency in all of us before Facebook? Did they really launch the concept? The ability to add updates through mobile, particularly through iPhone apps, is only going to expand the audience of fact exhibitionists.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post Six: Daytum And Our Lives of Factoids

OK, this is simultaneously an odd and thought providing site in the personal informatics category. Daytum allows you to track pretty much anything you wish to in your life, from how you discover music to movies you've seen to weight fluctuations, to the type of beverages you drink each day. Here's an example of a profile of the site:



Here's how they describe their raison d'etre:

Daytum is a home for collecting and communicating your daily data. Begin tracking anything you can count and display the results immediately... or just look around and see what other members are recording.

So, at this very instant, I am guessing that half the readers are logging on immediately, intrigued. And the other half are wondering...why?

Whatever you think about the idea, it's plain that this site is beautiful, with a host of approaches to visualization that really hit the mark.In fact, founders Ryan Case and nicholas Felton have the most impressive backgrounds in information display I have ever seen.

In fact, the service offers a variety of ways to visualize data. Here's a mini screen of the array:



You can also add text fields to enhance your content when pictures alone won't cut it.

No word on how they will monetize, but one can see a variety of marketers that might love to have this information about users if those same people were willing to share it.

If you want to read more about them, check out this WSJ article that features founder Felton and his profile.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post Five: Bedpost

The tagline of this site says it all:

Ever wonder how often you get busy?

Bedpost helps you keep track of your sex life by counting your acts, time spent, partners, time started, and other measures. It is not a social site -- the idea is to keep this information private, between you and your partner(s) if you wish. I am assuming that's for married folks -- I dunno a lot of people that want to know that they are one of a list, whatever the type of relationship hey have with you. Would you really want to look at the partners tab of your partner's report???

Anyway.

The site is in private beta and I am waiting for an evaluation invitation -- but from what I can see in this screen shot it seems very easy to understand and populate with data. Though the mind reels at what sorts of "charts and reports" are available in tab two.

Now, don't ask me how I know, but this service was predated by several years by free online services that helped highly promiscuous people track the whos and whats and wherefores of their sex lives. The site iTrick is an example of a gay service that that's been around for some time. Note: The site is rather explicit.

Though I don't know anyone straight or gay that used(es) one.

But let's be clear, the intent of this service is different. However much the idea of this site makes me wanna giggle, helping people better understand their sex lives can be quite valuable. It can help track the health of the physical side of a marriage or relationship, and can help single people make the choices about their lives that are right for them. Both are important -- and our tendency in this society is to simply ignore or consciously avoid examining such issues.

So there you go. And I will admit it. I am dying to know what the color coding means on the calendar charts -- expect a full report when (if) they let me in.

;-)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post Four: Mon.thly

Mon.thly.info is a service that helps women track and anticipate their menstrual cycles. The service is simple -- you input the sates of your cycle and the service sends you an email two days before your period begins.

The service is easy to use, and based upon the fictional dates I put into my profile, I found that I begin my period today!





Anyway, this sort of service -- and the sheer simplicity of it -- is bound to appeal to a large number of busy women who might lose track of time owing to their busy lives. Here's what the Jezebel website says about Mon.thly:

So, for those of us not really organized enough to keep track of our periods, resulting in monthly surprise periods, pregnancy scares or embarrassment when the gyno asks you to list the date of your last period and it takes a really long time to work it out… Comes this nifty site, mon.thly. You give them the date of the first day of your last cycle (I know, but you're at home so you can take your time), and they then calculate the date of your next period and e-mail you a reminder. Oh, and it's free. This is why the internet was invented.

And now, if you will excuse me, I need to call Maury Povitch and secure my slot on "Ovulating Men! Talk About Mr. Mom!"

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post Three: Personal Media

The mission of Personal Media is to improve the health of customers by offering tools to continuously track, monitor, and analyze bodily functions through wearable devices. Currently they offer two such devices:

1. MWS: A weight management system that monitors calories burned, dietary intake, duration of physical activity and sleep

2. BMS: A body monitoring system that tracks energy expenditure, activity and sleep.

Naturally, just collecting such data isn't a 360 offering, so the monitoring devices are supplemented with a comprehensive data platform. Here's how their web site describes that:

Solution Platform
The SenseWear® platform is a marriage of three basic components – a wearable monitor, a personal feedback device and software. Working in concert, these three components deliver the data and insight that enables healthcare professionals to provide true behavior modification guidance and patient adherence.

SenseWear® Armband
The armband collects real-world metabolic data

SenseWear® Display
Shows up-to-the-minute patient feedback

SenseWear® Professional Software and SenseWear® Website
Allows for armband data uploads and (website only) manual input of nutrition intake and health indicators such as weight and blood pressure

Detailed Reports
Detailed reports are generated providing easy-to-read activity profiles and trends

Physician Insight
Physicians and patients can review the data and progress to gain insight into sleep, nutrition and activity patterns to evaluate adherence to doctor-prescribed behavior therapy programs

The target here can be consumers, but doctors and corporate wellness programs are also sales foci for the company.

I would imagine that the model here is direct payment -- that advertising is not part of their revenue program. But as a tool to offer more accurate and comprehensive assessment of patient health, lifestyle, and well being, this is clearly a serious component of the personal informatics landscape. shaving even a fraction off the costs of diabetes treatment would make this company very rich, indeed.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post Two: Dopplr

Designed to help frequent business travelers keep track of the whereabouts of their friends, families, and colleagues, Dopplr offers an entirely private way to stay in touch geographically. You log in, identify or invite your friends, input business trips (or migrate them from an online scheduler) and you are set. Here's an excerpt from a highly favorite Time magazine feature of the outfit:

Passing through Manhattan a few years ago on my way to Miami, I left a voicemail for friends whom I'd hoped to see while I was in New York City. Two days later they left a return message saying: "Sorry we missed you. We're in Miami. Here's our hotel number." They were in the same hotel as me, one floor up. "Wow," said my friend, "that's karma."

For those who don't believe that some spiritual force throws people together, however, there's Dopplr, a website for frequent flyers that takes the luck out of meeting up. Dopplr — which launched its free public service in December — allows you to plug in all your travel plans for months ahead, and see at the click of a button which friends' and colleagues' journeys will overlap with yours. "We're against lonely travel," says Lisa Sounio, one of Dopplr's co-founders. While working as a business consultant in Helsinki, Sounio grew tired of trying to arrange meetings with peripatetic colleagues. "We found we were traveling from conference to conference, spending weeks trying to get together," she says. "Only later would we find out we'd been in the same city."

So Sounio and four other founders built the Dopplr site early last year, and invited about 500 heavy travelers from technology and media companies to road test the software. Since the Dopplr users were logging thousands of air miles a month, the site quickly became an élite spot for hyper-wired globe-trotters, many of whom are now hooked on checking each others' movements.

Although these days anyone can join that high-flying club by plugging in their travel itineraries on Dopplr, the site remains exclusive — permission to view another member's itinerary is by invitation only. "This is a high-value market, with a particular kind of lifestyle," says chief technology officer Matt Biddulph of Dopplr's membership. "This is for people who travel a lot."

Naturally, Dopplr offers both social, networking, and business benefits. By knowing people's whereabouts, you can enrich your relationships of whatever type.

I think we've all had those moments of opportunities lost -- when paths almost crossed and whatnot, and having a business solution geared toward selectively disclosing information serves to eliminate these missed opps.

No word on how they will make money, but I see a couple of logical streams, including a monthly fee for membership, potential intros a la Linked In, or highly targeted behavioral ads geared to what people are doing when. Whatever they select, Dopplr clearly offers the business traveler a way to mitigate one of the biggest challenges of her lifestyle -- getting and staying connected.

Dopplr is Helsinki based. Here's an interview with Lisa Sounion, CEO, from CMA:



She's right: the site is Nordic gorgeous.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Personal Informatics Post One: Introduction

There has been an explosion of new websites of late focused on helping people track and monitor personal information through digital media. A recent WSJ article, entitled The New Examined Life, alerted me to the scope of the phenomenon, so I thought I would spend some time this week examining a cross section of such offerings and attempt to understand their significance.

Which is, of course, enormous from a marketing standpoint. Since personal informatics services are by their very essence opt in, the range and quantity of such data, and its marketing implications, are enormous.

It would be very useful for a packaged goods company to understand the exact menstrual cycles of prospects.

It would be of tremendous value for hospitality companies to understand where, when, and why an individual travels.

Similarly, understanding the most mundane patterns of our lives, like the places we walk when headed to work, for example, has solid implications for a variety of commercial concerns.

Of course there are massive potential privacy issues in this space. Personal informatics companies will need to be at the forefront of user disclosure in order to be viable for the long haul. But if consumers are indeed interested in sharing these sorts of personal life details with the world, its easy to see why we marketers can be excited about the development.

Through some rapidfire posts I want to introduce you to 7 or so of these companies over the next two days.

So let's get my fingers typing, and your eyeballs reading, shall we?

Wait, one more piece of business. I want to make the following PowerPoint available here to you as well. It is entitled Polite, Pertinent, and Pretty, and is a discussion of personal informatics. From Matt Jones (of Dopplr) and Tom Coates of Yahoo! Brickhouse. It offers a range of really powerful insights to shed even mroe light on the topic.

Polite, Pertinent, and... Pretty: Designing for the New-wave of Personal Informatics

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dopplr fireeagle)

So on with the show!