In 2013 Eric Boyd started using a Nike FuelBand to track his activity. Not satisfied with the built in reporting the mobile and web applications were delivering he decided to dive into the data by accessing the Nike developer API. By being able to access the minute-level daily data Eric was able to make sense…
Cors Brinkman is a media artist and student. In June of 2013, he started a project to keep track of himself. He decided to start with LifeSlice, a tool to have your computer keep track of your behavior by taking a picture, screenshot, and location data every hour. After experimenting with that system Cors added…
All over the world, people like you are getting together and talking about what they are learning from their personal data. This upcoming week, there are three such events. To go see when the next meetup in your area is, check the full list of the over 100 QS meetup groups in the right sidebar….
What We Are Reading Newsletter from Aug 16, 2014
Philip Thomas is a software engineer at OpenDNS. He’s been collecting a lot of personal data since college, first starting with his custom built beer tracking system. He then moved on to slightly more sophisticated personal data. As the data started to pile up in services and systems he started to explore what it would…
Natalie Melchiorre wanted to work on her upper body strength so she decided to start a 100-pushup challenge. Using a popular iOS app she followed a plan and tracked her progress as she increased her strength. Along the way she encountered some hurdles, but continued on. In this talk, presented at the Phoenix Quantified Self…
Amaan Penang was faced with a life change when he moved from Texas to California to start a new job. While preparing for the move he started to examine his financial health and was surprised by what he didn’t understand about his spending and income. Using the popular financial tracking software, Mint, he started to…
Today’s Tidings dispatch comes to us from Phil Goebel, organizer of the QS Melbourne meetup group. Recently, they held their sixth Show&Tell meetup, which focussed on discussing new self-tracking tools. They also announced a new project – The QS Device Library. Read below to learn more about this exciting idea and what transpired at the…
We’re always interested in the way individuals with chronic conditions use self-tracking to better understand themselves. A great example of this is our good friend, Sara Riggare. Sara has Parkinson’s Disease and we’ve featured some of her amazing self-tracking work here before. At the 2014 Quantified Self Conference, Sara gave a short talk on what…
There is one QS Meetup this week. Check the full list of the over 100 QS meetup groups in the right sidebar to find the next upcoming meet up near you. If you don’t see one near you, start your own! Tuesday (August 12) East Lansing, Michigan Should be a great discussion in Michigan. If…
What We Are Reading Newsletter from Aug 9, 2014
Vanessa Sabino was curious about how well she was sleeping. By using the Sleep as Android app, she was able to track a year of sleep data. Before she was able to dig into the data she ran into a problem with the data export format and had to write her own custom data parser…
Paul LaFontaine was interested in understanding his anxiety and negative emotional states. What was causing them? When were they happening? What could he do to combat them? Using TapLog, a simple Android-based tracking app (with easy data export), Paul tracked these mental events for six months as well as the triggers associated with each one….
Jenny Tillotson is a researcher and fashion designer who is currently exploring how scent plays a role in emotion and psychological states. As someone living with bipolar disorder, she’s been acutely aware of what affects her own emotions states and has been exploring different methods to track them. In this talk, presented at the 2014…
Today’s post comes to use from Freek Van Polen. Freek works at Sense Observations Systems, where they develop passive sensing applications and tools for smartphones. At the 2014 Quantified Self Europe Conference Freek led a breakout session where attendees discussed the opportunities, pitfalls, and ethical challenges associated with the increasing amount of passive data collection…
Natty Hoffman was interested in learning more about how she spent her money. Not satisfied with just categorizing expenses, she dove deeper into two years of transaction data to understand where here money was going and how well her spending habits reflected her ideals. In this talk, presented at the Boston QS Meetup group, Natty…
This week there are five QS meetups planned all over the world. Follow the links below to learn more. You can also find the full list of the over 100 QS meetup groups in the right sidebar. Don’t see one near you? Why not start your own! Monday (August 4) Oxford, United Kingdom This show&tell has…
What We Are Reading Newsletter from Aug 2, 2014
Stefan Hoevenaar’s father had Type 1 Diabetes. As a chemist, he was already quite meticulous about using data and those habits informed how he tracked and made sense of his blood sugar and insulin data. In this talk, presented at the 2014 Quantified Self Europe Conference, Stefan describes how his father kept notes and hand-drawn…
Today’s post comes to us from Floris van Eck. At the 2014 Quantified Self Europe Conference Floris led a breakout session on a project he’s been working on, The Imaging Mind. As imaging data become more prevalent it is becoming increasingly important to discuss the social and ethical considerations that arise when your image it…
