Blog

What is in My Gut?

March 5, 2015

This past fall we learned about a unique study, conducted at Stanford University, designed to contribute to the understanding of the human microbiome. This study also has a component not common to academic research — data is being returned to the participants. Intrigued, I contacted the principle investigator, Les Dethlefson, to learn more. Ernesto: Tell me about…

Gordon Bell: Every Beat of My Heart

March 2, 2015

Gordon Bell has been involved with self-tracking for over a decade. From his ground-breakign MyLifeBits project to his popular book on the possibilities of a fully digital life he is constantly thinking about new ways we can understand ourselves through the data we collect. We are always excited to see him at our QS events…

Meetups This Week

March 1, 2015

There will be eight great Quantified Self meetups happening all over the world this week. The group in Stockholm will have show&tell talks on sleep tracking, using the Scanadu Scout and using personal data to identify cause and effect in one’s life. Our exemplary QSXX Boston group will be getting together as well. To learn…

Greg Kroleski: Six Years of Tracking My Time

February 27, 2015

Greg Kroleski has been tracking his time for the past six years, starting when he was 20-years old. Using a spreadsheet he designed himself he collects how much time he spends in eight different categories: Survival, Labor, Social, Spiritual, Mind, Expression, Body, and Distraction. In this talk, presented at the San Francisco QS meetup group,…

QS Access: Data Donation Part 2

February 25, 2015

In our Access Channel we’re trying to expose ideas, efforts, and insights about personal data access and it’s role in both generating personal and public insights. The last time we wrote about data donation we mentioned a few different projects that allowed you to collect and/or publish your self-tracking data for others to view and…

QS15 Conference Preview: Julie Price on Long-term Weight Tracking

February 24, 2015

On June 18-20 we’ll be hosting the QS15 Conference & Expo in San Francisco at the beautiful facilities at the Fort Mason Center. This will be a very special year with three days of inspiring talks, demos, and discussion with your fellow self-trackers and toolmakers. As we start to fill out our program we’ll be…

Meetups This Week

February 22, 2015

This week will bring four fascinating Quantified Self meetups. St. Louis will have a “quantified romance”-themed meetup including a toolmaker talk with the creator of a service that helps with romantic decisions.  In Ashland, they will be getting together to discuss n=1 study designs. This is the same group that started the Individual Metabolic Research…

Introducing iMeRG: The Individual Metabolic Research Group

February 19, 2015

Here at QS Labs we take great pride in supporting a worldwide network of meetup groups. From Bucharest to the Bay Area, we have over 100 groups meeting to discuss self-tracking, share experiences, and learn from each other. We wanted to highlight a new group, based in southern Oregon, that is using self-tracking to expand…

Do It Yourself Diabetes

February 17, 2015

Dana Lewis and Scott Leibrand are the creators of the amazing “Do-It-Yourself-Pancreas-System,” also known by #DIYPS. We had a few question for them.

Quantified Homescreens

February 16, 2015

Betaworks recently announced that they had collected data from over 40,000 users who shared their iPhone homescreens through their apptly named #homescreen app. As they stated in their announcement, the apps people keep on their homescreen are often the apps they use the most. Being a data-minded individual I thought, “I wonder what kind of…

Meetups This Week

February 15, 2015

There will be six Quantified Self meetups occurring in two countries this week. Thessaloníki­ in Greece will be having their very first meetup. New York is a must attend event for they always have excellent talks. Chicago will have a toolmaker talk from the maker of an under-desk elliptical trainer that tracks usage, while southern Florida will have two meetups…

Fitbit vs. Moves: An Exploration of Phone and Wearable Data

February 12, 2015

Like many people paying attention to the press around Quantified Self, self-tracking, and wearable technology I was intrigued by the many articles that focused on a newly published research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The letter, Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable Devices for Tracking Physical Activity Data, authored by Meredith A. Case et al.,…

QS Access: Personal Data Freedom

February 11, 2015

We are happy to welcome this guest post by Madeleine Ball. Madeleine is the Senior Research Scientist at PersonalGenomes.org, co-founder of the upcoming Open Humans project, and the Director of Research at the Harvard Personal Genome Project. She can be found online @madprime. The digital trails we create are becoming thick and personal. Increasingly, people choose to collect meaningful data…

Richard Sprague: Fish Oil Makes me Smarter

February 10, 2015

Richard Sprague is interested in understanding peak performance. Inspired by self-experimenter, Seth Roberts, Richard decided to test if consuming fish oil affected his response time. In this talk, Richard explores his data and discusses what he found out when he ran his analysis.

Meetups This Week

February 8, 2015

This week will bring six Quantified Self meetups in four countries! In Cambridge, they will have a toolmaker talk for Emotion Sense, a mood app developed by the University of Cambridge. Zürich will have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) session, where everyone will have some hands-on time with the QS tools in use by their…