Maybe a million users, enthused/baffled/addicted. Business infiltrates. Maybe a legit interlinked social media platform. But where’s money?
n.b. The article itself is so full of show-offey, high-concept, meta-media hyperlinks it’s nearly unreadable. The above is my public service.
Oh, geez. Deb21 wants to chat again.
Here I am, trying to look up some information about tinnitus–a k a ringing in the ears, a condition which has recently afflicted a member of my family–and Deb21 [I've changed her handle to protect the innocent ] wants to chat. A little photo box pops up on my screen, with the icky solicitation “I’m online! Chat with me now!” There’s even an audible little ping whenever she implores me to spend some time with her.
Welcome to iMedix, a “social search” site in the personal health space.
In concept, social search is powerful: Combine the algorithmically valid but brain-dead health search results of a typical search engine with the “wisdom of the crowds”–the aggregated opinions of real humans who can validate the information they found worthwhile when dealing with the same issue. Add to that the ability to connect with those people, and (goes the theory) you’ve got something good.
Like any 2.0 community, iMedix faces the challenge of creating critical mass: A community with nobody home is in a death spiral from Day One. But building critical mass from scratch is no small task in mid-2008: Early adopters are oversubscribed to social networks and the mainstream hasn’t figured out what all the fuss is about. Every business based on network power needs people. A lot of them. Fast.
Which brings us back to Deb21. iMedix seems to be trying a bit too hard to get people to join the party, dispatching its youthful crowd to flag folks into the front door.
First it was Ann, a comely 29-year-old community manager interested in fitness and lifestyle. I acquiesced to her friend request but haven’t heard from her since.
I accepted friendship with a fellow calling himself neurosurgeon_55, figuring it’s never a bad idea to know a brain surgeon. But then I discovered he’s a 17-year-old guy in India, whose personal statement reads, in part:
Then we will ve a lots of chat (humourous)but valuable beniffitng both of us in the long run so what r u thinking of? Hmmmmmmmm..lets go ahead and chat.Yo man!!
An unsettling number of people who have set up profiles in iMedix are attractive and young and look, at least to these middle-aged eyes, like the happy-go-lucky group with cool haircuts and great teeth you see in ads for premium liquors.
Here is the problem: People with health problems have, well. . .health problems. They want to see that people like them, people who have something valuable to share, are in a community.
You will certainly find these people at iMedix: There’s a 53-year-old woman whose college age daughter has bipolar and is an abusive relationship. Good lord, the woman needs help. Call me too fast to judgment, but I don’t think neurosurgeon_55 is the guy to offer her support and guidance.
To be fair: iMedix is in beta. It appears they’ve seeded the site with the folks they have around–their young staff and (it appears) their social network contacts.
Building a 2.0 health community is hard. Not many people have gotten it right, and the very concept is fraught with danger. But social networks are based on the company they keep. And no matter who that company is, in the health space I’m not sure they should jump onto your screen saying “I’m online! Chat with me now!”
As for the search part of the social search: The information on tinnitus was really pretty good, better than what Brother Google served up on page one. Link number one was a direct hit.
Along the way I found the profile of someone named Niroo. She is 24 and says she has hearing loss and is interested in tinnitus. She lives in Iran. I sent her an e-mail. Haven’t heard from her yet.
Recent trouble, trivialities and triumphs from the wild world of 2.0:
Doesn’t the Salvation Army Still Take Old Magazines?
“There’s more of a need for this magazine than ever, given the explosion in the number of TV channels,” said Debra Birnbaum, a TV Guide editor who was promoted to editor in chief [of the ink-and-paper version] on Tuesday.–from a New York Times article explaining that the new owner of TV Guide/Gemstar wants to sell the ink-and-paper magazine and keep only the electronic products.
End of an Error, Cont’d
Dying Newspaper Trend Buys Nation’s Newspapers Three More Weeks — from The Onion
WASHINGTON—A recent glut of feature stories on the death of the American newspaper has temporarily made the outmoded form of media appealing enough to stave off its inevitable demise for an additional 21 days, sources reported Monday. “People really seem to identify with these moving, ‘end-of-an-era’-type pieces,” Washington Post editor-in-chief Leonard Downie, Jr. said. “It’s nice to see that the printed word is still, at least for now, the most powerful medium for reporting on the death of the printed word.” Downie added that the poignant farewell Op-Ed he recently penned was so well received that he will be able to hold onto his job for up to six more days.
The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse (sm) On His Weekly Ride
$3 million raised for 2.0 software that creates communities around PowerPoint presentations — from TechCrunch
I was tapping out another tedious SMS on my cell phone when I had a sudden retro brain-surge.
When I was a very little kid, my parents would recite phone numbers beginning with a word. Our phone number, for instance, was rendered “KE1-6752.” The KE stood for KEnmore, the “exchange” assigned to our unpleasant little corner of east Cleveland.
From old newspapers and whatnot, I know Washington, D.C. had DUpont, KAlorama, and CApitol, among others.
This geo-mnemonic was used because it was thought that seven numbers were too much to recall. The word at the beginning was a way to ground the number in a familiar local reality rather than leave it hanging like a string of digits in darkest space.
Fast forward [another dated metaphor] 40 years and my head is damn poppin’ full of strings of inane digits–passwords, credit card numbers, PINs, nine-digit ZIP codes, those death-march Microsoft product keys, and of course phone numbers, which are now (just like us!) outfitted with 10 digits.
Thanks to texting, we are all increasingly familiar with the relationship between cell phone keypad numbers and letters.
So I’m wondering if it’s time to reinstate the word-based mnemonic system for phone numbers. As a way to aid memory, and add a whiff of carbon-based life, to our increasingly digitized experience.
Let’s take 240, the first three digits of my cell number. Depending on what the owner fancies, it could be rendered several ways. The owner could say, “Just give me a buzz at CInnabon0-426-5555.”
Or “Leave a message at AGnostic0-426-5555.”
If someone you meet at a bar writes “AIrhead0-426-5555″ on a cocktail napkin, throw it away quickly.
“BIsexual0?” Depends on your preferences.
You could, if you wish, do both three-digit sets this way. Have your business cards printed up with “AImless0-GArgoyle6-5555.” Or not. Maybe “CIrcumspect0-GEneralist6-5555″ would be better.
Anyhow, I think it’s a cool idea, a small way to rehumanize 21st century life. If you have any great ideas, feel free to share them as a comment below.
Or just give me a buzz at BIlious0-HAck6-5555. I’ll be there a long time.
Scott Karp, CEO of the news aggregation/journalists’ social bookmarking service Publish2, has a post on his blog that has finally allowed me to identify the disease that is killing mainstream journalism.
Karp reproduces a horrifically detailed snapshot of the volume of news stories generated after the Microsoft/Yahoo talks fell apart. Karp reports a total of 2,000 stories and counting. Suffice to say that the list appearing on his blog is about 40 screens deep and many items link out to yet more stories.
One look at the images and I made the diagnosis: The news business, due to both genetic and environmental factors, is dying as malign matter reproduces in an out-of-control way, destroying healthy tissues nearby and threatening the survival of the patient itself.
This is, of course, the definition of metastatic cancer. Let me belabor that metaphor just a bit.
The malign matter is poor and mediocre news.
The genetic factors are the deeply imprinted DNA of the news business; the environmental factors are obvious.
The reproduction of the diseased matter is out of control because people who run news organizations believe they need to create “their” “branded” versions of news events for “their (!)” readers. (They also operate in packs and lack the courage to ignore what the competition is doing and try to find something more important to do.)
The disease process is destroying healthy tissues nearby and threatening the patient’s life. If the reduced number of writers and editors who truly can add value to a particular news event–and can be economically sustained by emerging business models–are all sent lurching after the same big stories, the institution of journalism becomes weaker and loses value. Who would fight to sustain such a low quality of life?
Karp lays out the case against undifferentiated news content fully, so read his entry for a master class on the matter.
His recommended treatment: What he calls “link journalism”–having writers and editors curate the best content on a topic regardless of source, and focus their energies on the few stories where they can make important contributions.
But that, unfortunately, is what might be called “alternative medicine”–a technique so far out of mainstream practice that it is ridiculed and dismissed by conventional practitioners. [If you doubt this, ask any mainstream journalist sititng nearby what he or she thinks of curating the best links for most stories and pursuing the few stories they can do their best work on.] No, the conventional practioners prefer the protocol they are currently pursuing: surgery, poison and radiation.
You know: Killing the patient in order to save him.
I am who I am. And I have the document to prove it.
What I have is a credential that verifies I’m the person they call Craig Stoltz. I’m not someone pretending to be me, and I am not traveling under an alias. Oh, and I haven’t committed any crimes, including any of that sex crime stuff. Absolutely clean.
I got this seal of approval from Honesty Online, a web service that verifies people’s identities and provides basic background checks. It’s tailored for use on social network sites, especially online dating sites, where people are known to play unsavory games of “pretend.”
It’s designed to let people show the world they are who they say–and invite others to infer they are honest, forthright and diligent people.
It’s not like VeriSign or GeoTrust, which are designed for commercial operations. And it’s not like those digital private-eye, security clearance or job background check services. Honesty Online is more like verification of good personal identity hygiene.
The online certification process is far cooler than I expected.
I provided name, age, address and credit card number. Ten seconds later the system had verified that a real person has a record of existence under that name.
The essential second step–verifying that I, the guy at the computer, was that existing person–came after a five-question quiz appeared on the screen. This was the wicked cool part. The multiple choice questions, which I had two minutes to answer, asked me to identify two addresses I’d lived at, a city I’d owned property in, one place I’d worked and (a bit unsettlingly) the age range of one of my kids.
I had this weird and wonderful swoon of data-driven nostalgia. Remember that basement apartment I’d lived in when I was in grad school? That lousy job I held for just one year? Our first house! (Um, how old’s my kid again?)
I’m sure this system, like any ID service, can be spoofed, its credentials somehow counterfeited by someone with enough time on his hands and some sinister motivation. But I did come away convinced that only I could have answered those questions within two minutes, and that the credential had real value.
As for the business prospects: I suspect that if a dating site can achieve a critical mass of people who display this credential with their profiles, not having the credential could become a liability for individuals. [What, you couldn't pass? Don't want to spring for the 10 bucks to prove your bona fides?] This could lead to broad adoption.
[Actually, price will vary with each partner.]
And sites that provide the service for all members could gain a competitive advantage for having a social group cleaner than most.
Other uses? People could verify their Facebook profiles or other social network personas. LinkedIn professional sites? Possibly.
Now that I’m certified, I can stick my badge on my blog, to prove to the world that I am who I claim to be and have not committed any crimes other than those I commit in writing.
But I could post a picture of me that made me look like Patrick Dempsey–or Curly Howard for that matter.
Honesty Online can’t verify photos. Yet.
Another week, another sniff through the last seven days of messes, miracles and muddles from the world of Web 2.0.
Crowdsourcing the VPs
Congressional Quarterly has launched a wonderfully loopy site called “VP Madness”–an NCAA-bracket-like game in which 32 potential John McCain running mates go head to head. Users vote on their preferences for each pairing. Results are tallied and the next round begins. Sweet 16, Round-of-8, Final Four…eventually the “wisdom of the crowds” will have picked a running mate for the Arizona septuagenarian.
The first round of voting ends May 6. (A Tuesday, of course.) The Democrat contest will begin…well, whenever they decide who’s on the top of the ticket.
Speaking of Doomed Efforts. . .
This week Advertising Age launched its Newspaper Death Watch feature. Its first column is a lengthy woe -is-they autopsy-from-the-hospice. It’s illustrated with this poignant graphic, showing how newspapers’ share of total ad dollars has been halved since 1980, from around 28 percent to 15 percent. (Newspapers got almost 40 percent of all ad dollars in 1940.)
N.b.: Ad Age isn’t the first to perch themselves at the hospital bed. Veteran technology journalist Paul Gillen has been chronicling the decline of an old friend (of his) in his Newspaper Death Watch blog since 2007.
And finally, our Fifth-Horse-of-the-Apocalypse Headline of the Week:
MySpace launches Karaoke
–from The Social Times
