Positive Technology Journal

Via Telemedicine and E-Health Journal newsletter

Britain's National Health Service could meet a substantial part of its $31.6 billion [USD] cost savings program simply by using technology that enables patients to monitor their own conditions, according to the health department's chief information officer. DOH CIO Christine Connelly said patients need 21st century technology to help them make informed health choices and "take control of their health and experiences." Experts note that home-based technology could reduce hospital admissions, physician call-outs and patients with repeat problems, however current access to health information is too hard, jargon-ridden and fails to reach people in their homes. The challenge, they note, is for software developers to create applications that can overcome these issues.

Several initiatives are exploring the potential of crowdfunding for supporting scientific research. In this approach, that I described in a letter to Science donors can choose from a list of public projects. Projects seeking funding are stored in an online repository. Investors (either people or funding agencies) can decide which projects to fund.

The closest example of crowdfunding science is Cancer Research UK's MyProjects scheme (http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/). Launched in October 2008, MyProjects allows Cancer Research UK donors to search projects by type of cancer and location to find a specific research project to donate money.

I am also running a crowdfunding-science project in Italy, called Open Genius. The website is available only in Italian, but you can find the essential info about the project in this presentation.

I wish to hear your comments about this!

Wanna make money with your blog? Do you have quality content that you would like to monetize? Now you can do it, with a revolutionary micropayment system called Flattr.

The system was launched publicly in March 2010 on an invite-only basis, and then opened up to the public in August 2010.

How does it work? 

You pay a small monthly amount (using either Moneybookers or PayPal) and then click buttons on sites to share out the money you paid in among those sites, sort of like an Internet tip jar. The minimum to pay is 2 euros per month. The money payed each month is spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month. In this way, users share not only money, but also content. For the service, Flattr keeps 10% of all the users monthly flatrate.

What is interesting about this service is that not only sites which support Flattr, but all sites, can have Flattr buttons.

Good Flattr to everybody!