Will the public “buy” Blippy?
by Jillian Ketterer
Today I stumbled upon a really strong example of how certain subsets of consumers are willing to sacrifice privacy in exchange for what I'll call "social convenience". Blippy, which is just in beta and was recently highlighted in a New York Times article, is an online social network that lets you share your recent credit card purchases with your friends. I haven't actually used the service, but from the description, it seems to do this automatically in a "Twitter-like" microblogging fashion - a type of passive, social information-sharing. There are, of course, ways to restrict what is shared with whom, but in general I think this is a step in the direction of transparency. The question is: will people find benefit in sharing where they are and what they are buying (and for how much) with their friends?
My guess is yes, but I am very curious about what the early adopters will look like, since users of this service will need to have, for example, (a) access to the internet, (b) a credit card, (c) available funds on their credit card, (d) an interest in shopping and purchase-related information, and (e) friends who possess characteristics "a" through "e". I look forward to seeing how this one pans out!
Hey, Miss Manners, welcome to 2009.
by Amber Montanano
I heard a segment on NPR the other day about mobile device technology etiquette. (As a side note, I notice that most of my posts are inspired by things I hear on NPR. What would I do without you, public radio?) It basically laid out some ground rules for when and how it's appropriate to use mobile devices when you're dating someone. In this new and strange age of technology, I suppose rules about this kind of thing were bound to happen. For me, this is a really interesting area to get into.
Slides
by Jillian Ketterer
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Have at it!
Scouting Themes
Research
- Content analysis of patient complaints
- Changing physicians' competence and performance: Finding the balance between the individual and the organization
- Individual Differences and the Development of Perceived Control
Bookmarks
- Tech Start-ups Cope With Data Flood - WSJ.com
- Pre-Grade Your Paper!
- Doctor Leads Quest for Safer Ways to Care for Patients - NYT Interview with Dr. Peter J. Pronovost
- Popular Science puts its archives online for free - awesome!
- amednews: National Practitioner Data Bank expanded beyond physicians to other healthcare professionals