cnewmark

Help Seva Foundation fight blindness

Hey, for decades, Seva has served people around the world who are struggling for health, cultural survival and sustainable communities. They call it "compassion in action" and just had a big announcement:

For the first time in history, the number of blind people in the world has decreased.  This is important because there are still 39 million blind people around the globe.  90% live in the developing world, and a staggering 8 out of 10 could see again if they simply had access to an eye doctor.  Check out Seva and learn about how for only $50 you can restore sight to a blind person in places like Tibet, Cambodia or Bangladesh! 

The Thank You Economy (a book recommendation)

Sometimes we forget that we really do live in civil society, where people generally get along, and that's to everyone's benefit. In particular, people use the Net and social media for mutual benefit in a big way, something I've observed every day for sixteen years doing customer service online. (Sometimes we need a reminder after dealing with the sensationalism of people who profit by trying to scare us.)

The Thank You Economy is about how the reality of our online lives reflects everyday values, like treating people like you want to be treated. It discusses how this applies to online business, how social media facilitates people geting along, and how that's really good for business. It provides real life success stories where people use social media for business, where the usual result is that everyone wins.

The Thank You Economy shows us the evidence that "business as usual" is changing in lots of ways, like showing that throwing money into advertising isn't as effective as just engaging people genuinely.

Social security customer service

Hey, the folks at the Social Security Administration are moving head, providing increasingly better customer service through the Net.

Think Social Security is just for your grandparents? Think again!  You probably didn’t know that, in addition to making retirement payments and issuing Social Security cards, the program offers other types of coverage – for people of all ages!  To find out more, as well as get answers to questions like “what’s that FICA tax that comes out of my paycheck?,” and “why should I worry about planning for retirement now?, “check out this webinar, “Social Security 101: What’s in it for me?” The broadcast starts at 3 pm EST on Thursday, March 10th and will feature a brief presentation followed by an interactive question-and-answer session.  RSVP and watch the webinar at this link.  There’s something in it for you!

Millenials reimagine America’s future

Okay, it's time for young Americans, millenials, to figure out what their version of the American Dream is, and to figure out how to get there.

The folks at the Roosevelt Campus Network are getting maybe 8000 young citizens to get involved with www.think2040.org to reimagine America’s future and take action to realize that vision in their local communities:

Already, Roosevelt Campus Network has engaged over 2,000 young people in these conversations online and in person.

This interactive web space allows young people to match their values and priorities to ongoing
student-led local projects that are moving America toward a grand vision.

Additionally, Millennials are encouraged to consider how to translate their visions for America
into a concrete Federal budget, through the Budget Hero game. Online grassroots engagement of this type is unprecedented on this scale.

The World Wide Web Foundation

Hey, there are a lot of good groups advancing the cause of the open net, and also extending that to people who need a break. One particularly effective group is the World Wide Web Foundation, and it has notable credentials. One of the principals is Tim Berners-Lee, who pretty much invented the Web.

In the more nerdly circles he champions the "semantic web". Oversimplified, to me that means that stuff on the web has sophisticated tags that says what an item is and how it can related to other stuff. Programs can then connect the dots to get real info that's too hard to figure out currently.

They're doing a lot more, including:

first assessments of implementing open government data programs in Chile and Ghana

and

mobile entrepreneur training program in Ghana

with more to come!

 

SeeClickFix gets local gov't stuff done

Hey, if you see some kind of local problem that the city should fix, the folks at SeeClickFix really do have an app for that. You can report the problem with a photo and geotagging, informing local gov't. In San Francisco, it's tied into the 311 system.

Here's a problem along with a little of what it looks like in both the app and web contexts, real impressive:

 

An open source approach to Veterans Affairs medical info

For years, the VA has run the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), which is their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Turns out it was written by clinicians themselves, and has served well over years. However, the VA believes it might be time to use open source methods in a kind of public/private partnership. This is a really big deal, novel in government, which might also improve the health record systems we all use. This could become the basis of a jointly developed health records platform.

Here's the gist:

VistA’s capabilities evolved endogenously over the many years it has been in successful production, and are the result of the contributions of many innovations, including those that came from within VA itself. However, today’s health care environment – in which new models of care are continuously developed and deployed – is utterly dependent upon the accelerating technological development of new medical devices, improved IT infrastructure, services, and wireless communications. In order to sensibly benefit from these advances, VA must address fundamental structural constraints that will inhibit its ability to keep pace with health services delivery. Specifically, VA believes that a structured, deliberate, and predictable migration from our custom and proprietary EHR software to an openly architected, modular, and standards-based platform will achieve five crucial objectives:

1. It will unleash EHR innovation inside and outside VA.
2. It will release VA’s captive dependency on any particular component or service and give our clinicians access to the best available tools andsolutions.
3. It will reduce the costs and risks of reliable implementation (andintegration) of new functional modules that improve VistA’s capabilities.
4. It will measurably improve health outcomes for our nation’s Veterans.
5. It will enable other providers in the public and private health caresystem to benefit from, contribute to, and interoperate with this national asset.

Industry innovation for veterans from Veterans Affairs

Okay, the deal is to work with private industry in the spirit of "public/private innovation" and to figure out new tech to better help vets in the field, in areas including medical tech, housing for homeless vets and tools to help veteran entrepreneurs

Those were the themes of the third phase of the VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2). In one part, vendors proposed new tech for patient monitoring, mobility and wireless being a big part. The judging was performed by VA rank-and-file workers for the most part. (I was also involved, but my contributions were not significant compared to the people who really know stuff.)

Details: VA Announces Award of First Industry Innovation Competition Projects

The first award is to mVisum, Inc., based in Camden, N.J. It funds a pilot project at the Washington DC VA Medical Center that enables health care providers to wirelessly review, share, and respond to cardiology data on mobile devices, increasing the ability to respond more quickly to patient needs.

The second award, made to Agilex Technologies, Inc of Chantilly, Va., funds an alternative pilot project at the same Washington DC VA Medical Center. This pilot intends to explore the ability for extending elements of VA’s Electronic Medical Record to electronic devices. The pilot will allow patient search, demographics, laboratory data, medications, allergies, appointments, and problem lists to be displayed. Agilex will also integrate clinic schedules and secure messaging onto the device.

MedRed, LLC, based in Washington, D.C., was awarded a project that VA will implement at the McGuire VA Medical Center’s Polytrauma Clinic in Richmond, Va. The project will field test a software tool that helps healthcare providers to more easily share new and innovative treatment strategies to improve the care of Veterans being treated for traumatic brain injury.

The fourth award, made to Venture Gain, LLC of Naperville, Ill., funds a project at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The project will pilot a next generation system of wearable sensors combined with software analytics to predict and prevent complications for patients diagnosed with heart failure.

Springtime in Cole Valley

Townsend's Warbler, flowering tree already losing petals.

(click for larger)

Funding for public service media in trouble

It turns out that large and small stations alike along with NPR and PBS are in danger of losing the public support that they've received since 1967.

There are already three bills before Congress to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting entities.

If you feel that's wrong, check out 170Million Americans for Public Broadcasting

I feel that public service media is a big deal, and that NPR will be a dominant force in news media, but the end of this decade, making this important.

VA Blue Button moves ahead with vets health records

The Blue Button is a way for a vet to download their personal healthrecord, maybe to bring to a doctor or clinic. It's a moving target, abig step toward getting more info available and accessible. It's one of many efforts across government to provide better medical care at lowercost for everyone.

Blue Button draws mostly on data entered by the vet, but also has aconnection to health information from the Department of VeteransAffairs. DoD has one too. Because they coordinated so closely they arenearly identical. You don't see that every day in large agencies.

The deal is that Veterans Affairs has greatly accelerated the rate atwhich they serve vets, with lots more to come.

Vets can access their Blue Button records at myhealth.va.gov

It includes the following now, more to come:

• Emergency contact information
• Medications
• Allergies
• Medical conditions and personal
• medical history
• Family medical history
• Test results
• Military health history
• Health Care Providers
• Treatment Facilities
• Health Insurance
• Immunizations
• Labs and Tests
• Vitals and Readings
• Family Health History (Self and Relatives)

Again, it's a moving target, more to automation to come, which will benefit us all.

Smoke-Free Super Bowl help

Hey, the folks at American Legacy Foundation are the real deal, set up by lots of states as part of a settlement deal with the tobacco companies.

They run the Truth campaign, trying to prevent addiction among the young.

Here's a SuperBowl udpate:

Hey, with Super Bowl XLV right around the corner, fans from coast to coast are gearing up for game day, with parties packed with friends, food and fun. While the game may be relaxing for some, for others, it could throw a monkey wrench in their New Year’s Resolutions to quit smoking. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Legacy, 63 percent of sports fans surveyed are current or former smokers. Of them, 76 percent have smoked while watching or attending sporting events. The stress of football bets, endless snacks and beer, and being around friends who smoke, all trigger fans to light up a cigarette. Having a game plan in place to overcome these triggers is a great way to handle the pressure. I've talked about this group before, they can help by giving you a free quit plan online at www.BecomeAnEX.org.

Smoke-Free Super Bowl tips:

 *  Ask your friends not to smoke around you while watching the game.
 *  If you are drinking alcohol, try something new and switch flavors or brands. Breaking your
    usual routine also helps break your smoking connection.
 *  Stash gum around the house. If you feel the urge to have a smoke, grab a piece of gum
    instead.
 *  Overtime is intense, but lighting up won’t coax your team to victory. Just think: if you
    can abstain from smoking through overtime, you can handle any situation without a
    cigarette.

(FYI, my dad died when I was thirteen, heavy smoker.)

A new Greatest Generation via the Roosevelt Campus Network

Okay, the deal is the that the people of the Depression era changed the world, inspired by a President with a vision and who got stuff done.

The Roosevelt Campus Network is trying to replicate that, and here's more:

On FDR’s birthday, the Roosevelt Campus Network, is launching a youth-generated vision for the
future-- a New Deal for the Millennial America. In the same way that FDR’s New Deal established America’s political course for years to come, the culmination of the Campus Network’s Think 2040 project, Blueprint for the Millennial America, outlines the Millennial generation’s goals and policy priorities for the next thirty years and offers a unique glimpse
at an engaged, socially empathetic, community-minded, and hyper informed generation of
Americans. To date, thousands of Millennials nation-wide have contributed their 2040 vision.
Now, young people across the country are taking action to
make their vision a reality. Over the course of the next few months, students nation-wide are
launching action projects to move towards their 2040 goals, including

• Investments in public infrastructure
• Equal access to quality education
• Elimination of the socioeconomic achievement gap
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• A strong green jobs sector
• The creation of a stronger, more flexible “social safety trampoline” as top priorities for
the next thirty years.