You can play HealthSeeker at HealthSeekerGame.org.
Interview about HealthSeeker at ePatient Connections 2010
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Monthly Archives: September 2010
Switching to ShareThis
Thanks to the advice of Jonathan Richman, I just moved over Liking and Tweeting of blog posts I used to have in here to ShareThis: a consolidated way to sharing on your site PLUS it gives you control over what and how things get shared if you want it/need it.
Anyone else got any success stories, using ShareThis?
Healthseeker: Engaging and Motivating with a Facebook Game
This is the slidedeck for a presentation about HealthSeeker, the healthy Facebook Game we developed at the Diabetes Hands Foundation, in collaboration with Joslin Diabetes Center.
I am presenting HealthSeeker along with Michael Fergusson, from Ayogo Games, at e-Patient Connections 2010 Sept. 28, 2010:
View more presentations from Diabetes Hands Foundation.
Session description:
There is a widely-held belief that playing games online is a waste of time at best (“Your friend sent you a sheep!”), and part of an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle at worst. A closer look reveals something quite different, however: games and play are one of the strongest motivators of behaviour, and a key tool for anyone looking to develop or reinforce healthy habits. HealthSeeker is a game that turns your Facebook network of friends onto a source of support as you complete real-world missions to get healthier through simple everyday actions. Join us for a discussion about the game, how it works and how it came about.
Play HealthSeeker at:
http://www.HealthSeekerGame.org
Like HealthSeeker at:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=114713051892552
Follow HealthSeeker at:
http://twitter.com/healthseekerFB
¡Viva Venezuela!
A pesar de que estoy lejos, el amor por mi pais no disminuye. Y hoy siento un gran orgullo!
Venezuela decidio ayer. Y como resultado la nueva Asamblea Nacional es una mas digna representacion de la diversidad que tenemos en nuestro pais y no un monolitico amontonamiento de votos a favor del presidente, que solo contribuia a amasar mas y mas poder en manos de menos y menos personas.
Vean la nueva composicion de la Asamblea Nacional.
Pablo Milanes: Yo No Te Pido
Increible version!
How can $10 make a difference to people touched by diabetes?
In the past 14 days, we’ve raised just over $6,000. Today is the last day of our campaign to help us raise $10,000. Impossible? I don’t think so. Wanna know why? Because we count on you!
Maybe you have found comfort and support in TuDiabetes in days when you needed it most, while struggling with high blood sugars. Or you may have found information that has allowed you to better control your diabetes.
Whatever the case, if you are reading these lines, we hope you will think how TuDiabetes has helped YOU and translate that into a tax-deductible donation today.
If only 20% of the people who visit TuDiabetes any given day donate $10, we’ll reach our goal. You can donate $1 to $10 via Paypal or schedule a monthly or quarterly contribution.
If you can donate more than $10, that helps even more! All donations to the Diabetes Hands Foundation are eligible for very special thank you gifts.
So, please make a tax-deductible donation today to the Diabetes Hands Foundation, the nonprofit that runs TuDiabetes. You can also mail donations to: Diabetes Hands Foundation, P.O. Box 9421, Berkeley, CA 94709.
Thank you for your generous help!
Patxi… numero equivocado
How to get a Wikipedia page for your nonprofit
We tried… and we tried… and we tried… and we finally succeeded!
After more than 3 years, the Diabetes Hands Foundation finally has a Wikipedia page.
Because it was such a painfully long process and because I couldn’t find too many complete articles when I googled “Wikipedia nonprofits“, I decided to share the lessons we learned so that you may not make the same mistakes we made.
Build your reputation and “notability” first
No matter how important you think your work is (and I am sure you are doing amazing things for others in the world), your organization needs to be notable, according to Wikipedia’s guidelines, before it can be Wikipedia-worthy. Quoting:
An organization is generally considered notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in reliable, independent secondary sources. Trivial or incidental coverage of a subject by secondary sources is not sufficient to establish notability. All content must be verifiable.
Don’t kill the messenger! This set the rules of their site and it’s worked for them so far… though the jury is still out on this one. So, your blog? Not typically a reliable, independent secondary source. A passing mention in an article in your local newspaper? Not notable enough. Does it suck? Ask me! But if you come to think of it, it’s what keeps the site as encyclopedic as it can hope to be.
Make the page about your organization, not your programs
Our earlier attempts at getting a Wikipedia page up were focused on a page about TuDiabetes, the diabetes social network we run in English. As our first program, it got the most visibility at first and it got the most reliable (in our opinion) media coverage earlier. However, TuDiabetes, unlike Facebook or Google, is not a household name (not yet at least!) and it isn’t its own organization: it is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation.
The results when we posted a TuDiabetes page on Wikipedia in 2008 were disastrous. But I am going to let a screenshot of the page speak for itself:
Your Wikipedia page should encompass all your work. Not only will this be a more complete depiction of your work: it will also furnish you hopefully with more notable and reliable sources to insert as references in your page.
Let others write about you
This, to me, was one of the most puzzling things about getting a Wikipedia page started (for a nonprofit or any other organization). One of the arguments we heard from Wikipedia in our first attempt to write our own page was that others had to do write about us. It didn’t dawn on me that the this implied other MEDIA (reliable media, that is). It is not a problem for you to write your own page, but you have to make sure the reliable references are there and that you are writing about something bigger than a program you just launched.
Last few tips
- It helps to get a copy of a book like Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, but you don’t need it as much these days as you used to back in 2008 when it first came out. Recently, Wikipedia has added new features that make creating and editing articles a lot easier.
- Reputation management online is key, so make sure to watch your page. After you log in to Wikipedia, you will see a little star (it’s blank by default) next to the View History link for the page. Click on it (which will turn the star blue) to have your page added to your Watchlist.
- No matter how tempted you may feel to “trick” Wikipedia, don’t do it. Don’t waste your time or loose your account’s credibility in the process. Stick to the Wikipedia guidelines and address the concerns they may have about your page when you post it in a timeline fashion. Respect their decision even if you dislike it: this doesn’t mean you are not supposed to talk with them about your questions or ask for a more detailed explanation about a particular decision, but always do so in a respectful way.
- Most important of all: getting a Wikipedia page for your nonprofit is not a sprint. In the world of Web 2.0, this is as close to a marathon as it gets. Be patient and do your homework. It will pay off in the long run.
If you have any lessons you have learned from your experience with your Wikipedia page, I would love to hear them.