Behavioral Informatics BLOG
Today I was checking out the Society of Behavoiral medicine for professional reasons, and came across this: Behavioral Informatics, a blog from their Informatics section.
At first I was very excited about the prospect of a professional organization jumping into the information revolution and making use of emerging technologies. At least, I was excited until I went to the blog, and discovered that it was--shall we say--short lived. There were about four posts in 2005 and then it died. I can just imagine what happened to. Some forward thinker in the group said "Hey, we are the informatics groups, we should have a blog" at first people were all excited about the idea and supported him, so he put all this work into it. But then people decided it was stupid or "not in the best interests of the group" and then the blog died.
I find it quite frustrating that, while technology is rapidly changing all around us, those who are in charge often seem to be stuck. Let's take an example from my own work.
I work in a place where technology is paramount. We do research. Nay, we do the best research. We do some of the fanciest, most expensive research in the world, and we are quite proud of that. We see ourselves as saving people's lives through genomics and proteomics, and little tiny robots that can mend diseased cells (nanotechnology--also used in Dockers pants!). To put in frankly, when it comes to technology, we think we're the shit.
Now, I was working on a project where they were starting a health campaign targeted toward people aged 18-30. They hired this big time advertising firm and were doing all kinds of testing to make sure that they had just the right logo, just the right message, just the right people in their commercials, to really make a difference in this particular health problem. It is really a noble effort. Rarely do public health professionals have the means to use tested, proven communication methodologies for media campaigns.
The big-wig advertising firm recommended, based on their research, that the campaign have a true grass-roots movement of real people in this age group, sharing their stories, through blogs and person pages, to show their health struggle so that others could feels supported. Great Idea! After all, how do people in this group (people my age) communicate today? Electronically. We look up information on the internet before anywhere else. We don’t buy maps, we don’t use telephone books. We use Yahoo! and Google and to find the information we want. We even, occasionally, buy our groceries online. I don’t even know if I own a telephone book. If I do it is probably being used to prop up a table or something.
You have to be living under a rock to not know that America, and the world, is obsessed with reality shows right now, so the leaders on the project (branch chiefs, office directors, people much higher, and older, than myself) could understand the idea of having the “real people” angle. They were even accepting, though slightly hesitant about the whole blog idea (provided we can keep people from using profanity, etc.) but when I, and later the advertising execs, suggested what would have been the PERFECT place to hold such blogs, the refused. They wouldn’t even consider the idea.
Tell me the one place where you could put up blogs and know that they would reach people in the 18-30 age group quickly. In the true sense of the term grassroots, where is the one place where people this age spend a ton of time and information spreads quicker than ever before? Where is the one place where you could find almost EVERYONE in this age group. Myspace.com! Who doesn’t have a myspace page? And if I linked my page to the fancy health website page, then all my friends would see it, then all their friends might end up seeing it. It could spread like crazy.
But no. They wouldn’t even consider it. Why, because a couple of parents can’t control their 14 year old girls. But what does that have to do with spreading information? So many businesses and television shows have used myspace to get the information out about their products. Why can’t the government. It’s not like you can’t control what goes on your page, and what comments you allow to remain posted.
Are we going to have to wait ten years, until all the baby boomers retire, before we can finally catch up with the times? When we, the generation Xers, are in charge, will we be as stubborn about new things that we don’t know about yet. I hope not.
At first I was very excited about the prospect of a professional organization jumping into the information revolution and making use of emerging technologies. At least, I was excited until I went to the blog, and discovered that it was--shall we say--short lived. There were about four posts in 2005 and then it died. I can just imagine what happened to. Some forward thinker in the group said "Hey, we are the informatics groups, we should have a blog" at first people were all excited about the idea and supported him, so he put all this work into it. But then people decided it was stupid or "not in the best interests of the group" and then the blog died.
I find it quite frustrating that, while technology is rapidly changing all around us, those who are in charge often seem to be stuck. Let's take an example from my own work.
I work in a place where technology is paramount. We do research. Nay, we do the best research. We do some of the fanciest, most expensive research in the world, and we are quite proud of that. We see ourselves as saving people's lives through genomics and proteomics, and little tiny robots that can mend diseased cells (nanotechnology--also used in Dockers pants!). To put in frankly, when it comes to technology, we think we're the shit.
Now, I was working on a project where they were starting a health campaign targeted toward people aged 18-30. They hired this big time advertising firm and were doing all kinds of testing to make sure that they had just the right logo, just the right message, just the right people in their commercials, to really make a difference in this particular health problem. It is really a noble effort. Rarely do public health professionals have the means to use tested, proven communication methodologies for media campaigns.
The big-wig advertising firm recommended, based on their research, that the campaign have a true grass-roots movement of real people in this age group, sharing their stories, through blogs and person pages, to show their health struggle so that others could feels supported. Great Idea! After all, how do people in this group (people my age) communicate today? Electronically. We look up information on the internet before anywhere else. We don’t buy maps, we don’t use telephone books. We use Yahoo! and Google and to find the information we want. We even, occasionally, buy our groceries online. I don’t even know if I own a telephone book. If I do it is probably being used to prop up a table or something.
You have to be living under a rock to not know that America, and the world, is obsessed with reality shows right now, so the leaders on the project (branch chiefs, office directors, people much higher, and older, than myself) could understand the idea of having the “real people” angle. They were even accepting, though slightly hesitant about the whole blog idea (provided we can keep people from using profanity, etc.) but when I, and later the advertising execs, suggested what would have been the PERFECT place to hold such blogs, the refused. They wouldn’t even consider the idea.
Tell me the one place where you could put up blogs and know that they would reach people in the 18-30 age group quickly. In the true sense of the term grassroots, where is the one place where people this age spend a ton of time and information spreads quicker than ever before? Where is the one place where you could find almost EVERYONE in this age group. Myspace.com! Who doesn’t have a myspace page? And if I linked my page to the fancy health website page, then all my friends would see it, then all their friends might end up seeing it. It could spread like crazy.
But no. They wouldn’t even consider it. Why, because a couple of parents can’t control their 14 year old girls. But what does that have to do with spreading information? So many businesses and television shows have used myspace to get the information out about their products. Why can’t the government. It’s not like you can’t control what goes on your page, and what comments you allow to remain posted.
Are we going to have to wait ten years, until all the baby boomers retire, before we can finally catch up with the times? When we, the generation Xers, are in charge, will we be as stubborn about new things that we don’t know about yet. I hope not.
Labels: communications, website
posted by layne @ 9:20 AM
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