Noticing that flaxseed oil improved my balance led me to measure its effects on other tests of brain function. It also made me wonder what else in my life affected how well my brain works. Eventually I measured the mental effects of flaxseed oil with four tests, but each had problems: Balance.
Douglas Mason didn't know who the Beatles were until he went to grad school. As a classically trained musician, he was blown away when he saw their unique chord choices. He started to investigate why the Beatles' music sounded so good.
With the explosion of microblogging, tweeting, and status updates, it is clear that embedding personal metrics in social tools is on the tips of our fingers and is a natural extension to the personal toolbox. This post explores the opportunity of OHME (Open Mobile Health Exchange), a first-mover in the new world of Microsyntax, and a new entry into the microsyntax. org working group.
This is a guest post from Marc Smith, an expert on analyzing social media networks. Thanks Marc! -- I am very interested in the Quantified Self conference to be held in Mountain View, California, May 28 and 29. While I have attended just a few of the in-person meet-ups, which were engaging and intriguing events, I have followed the blog and tweet stream closely.
One of the benefits of long-term self-tracking is that one builds up a toolbox of investigatory methods that can be drawn upon when medical adversity hits. One year ago, when Mark Drangsholt experienced brain fog during a research retreat while on Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest, he had to draw upon the self-tracking tools at his disposal to figure out what was behind this troubling symptom. Watch this invaluable talk on how Mark was able to combine his self-tracking investigation with his medical treatments to significantly improve his neurocognitive condition.
We experiment on ourselves and track the results to improve the way we work, our health, and our personal lives. This rational approach is essential because there are few guarantees that what works for others will work for us. Take the category of sleep, for example.
While talking recently with my QS fellows (thanks Alex, Eri, Seth, and Rajiv) I realized I've been using the term "citizen science" rather loosely. Expanding on my short section in Wandering minds, self-tracking, and citizen science, I'd like to use this post to explore how the expression is used, sketch a little vision of where it could go, and get your thoughts on what it means to you. Current usage: Citizen-as-helper In looking around the net I've found that the general meaning of "citizen science" is that of individuals who help with scientific research by contributing time and resources to projects organized and run by professional scientists.
Some people may be wondering how I find all the amazing people conducting neat self-tracking experiments and creating jaw-dropping personal data visualizations. Well, for the most part I just listen. I'm constantly paying attention to what's being said on twitter about #QuantifiedSelf.
On September 11, Lindsay Meyer was hiking with a group of friends when she suddenly lost all hearing in one ear. In the video below, she compares her experience with the California medical system to her own independent investigation through Google searches and apps. Lindsay draws a startling conclusion about the relative time and cost of a QS approach to medicine.
Quantified Self Labs is dedicated to the idea that data access matters. Moving forward, we're going to be exploring different aspects of how data access affects our personal and public lives. Stay tuned to our QS Access channel for more news, thoughts, and insights.
