Illegalize it!

I saw a hand washing poster on the street. I started thinking and guessing.

Officials have knowledge about how much a hand washing campaign costs and what kind of results to expect (x percentage less infected). Officials can make an excel sheet out of the data and calculate wheter they should make a campaign or not.

When the campaign hits the streets, I, the individual will get it wrong. I shall not wash my hands because I am a fatalist, or I know better, that hygiene is actually bad for my health. I may even think it is stuffing bacteria-hysteria down my throat, beacause of a consipiracy. In any case, I think the campaign is to keep me healthy so I weight the campaign message against my personal health.

Actually the campaign is a tool to minimize the cost on society, not a tool to minimize the illness of an individual. The same with vaccination: Not a tool to keep individual healthy, but a tool to fight epidemics, with a side effect of keeping the individuals healthy.

Officials have a range of tools to fight the epidemics. I don't know the available tools and how effective they are. But that didn't stop me to invent the ultimate tool that everyone understands. What if there was a law, that getting the flu is illegal? Big fine for getting the flu, small fine for forgetting to wash hands.

Yes, yes, impossible idea in all of the imaginable levels. But please play along with the thought.

We tend to respect the law, or own interpretation of it. At least we know what is legal, what is not and the reasons why. Speed limits are not for my safety, but for the general road safety. I don't cross the road when the light is red, if there are children around me. For the same reason, to strenghten good practices in society, I wear bike helmet, even though the law doesn't yet require it.

Epidemics require individuals to understand the big picture. That is difficult. Obaying a law is not.

Don't take this too seriously, but think about it: You may not spread AIDS, why are you allowed to spread influenza?

Swine flu tags

Swine flu has arrived here, in Helsinki: We the intelligent turn into emotional.

As I see myself worrying about vaccination timetables and my kids, I no longer worry about common cold. I guess we can only worry about one infectious disease at a time. This observation in the light of Illtags:

[x] to utilize swine flu in spreading awareness about Illtags

[] not to utilize swine flu in spreading awareness about Illtags

Even though obvious, it was actually a painful decision to make. We turned the service more swine flu oriented. We also added few "viral" features, hopefully making the service more viral than the flu. This means a bit more notifications and requests to spread the awareness of the service.

Interesting to see if the changes have any effect. Can we get 1k users this month?

Facebook adjustments and Slush

We are working on the Facebook application now. A lot of small and big adjustments and features on the way. Now we have adjusted levels of alert notifications (so that you know if there is something happening in your groups and events) and a reminder notification for the get-well gift option. More features coming all the time.

We are also attending Slush Helsinki with a follow-up panel discussion about the last year. Please attend and come to talk to us.

Learning press release writing for Finnish media

Lehdistötiedote julkaisuvapaa heti

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Uusi kotimainen terveyspalvelu etsii koekaniineita

HELSINKI, 7.10.2009 - Sosiaalisen median terveyspalvelu Illtags on vajaan vuoden kehityksen jälkeen avattu englanninkielisenä testiversiona. Palveluun haetaan suomalaisia Facebookin käyttäjiä testaamaan täysin uudenlaisen palveluidean toimivuutta.

Kysymyksenasettelu on seuraava: mikäli suomalaiset tekisivät flunssaan liittyvät Facebook-valittelunsa Illtagsin kautta, kuinka tarkkaan ja nopeasti saisimme paikallistettua ja ennustettua tartuntatautien etenemisen? Illtags yhdistää sosiaalisen Facebookin tilapäivityksissä ilmoitetut oireet Facebookin sosiaalisiin ryhmärakenteisiin. Näin kyetään havaitsemaan etenevät infektioaallot ja varoittamaan niistä niin, että osa käyttäjistä voisi mahdollisesti välttää sairastumisen.

Illtags syntyi pilke silmäkulmassa vuonna 2008, mutta on vuoden aikana kehittynyt kunnianhimoiseksi terveyttä edistäväksi hankkeeksi. Illtagsin perustajat lääkäri Markus Bergman ja IT-osaaja Wesa Aapro löivät päänsä yhteen, kun molemmat olivat pohtineet samanlaisen palvelun tarvetta.

"Wesa otti minuun yhteyttä, kun sai tarpeekseen lapsensa flunssakierteestä", kertoo Bergman. "On turhauttavaa kun flunssaan ja muihin arkisiin tartuntatauteihin ei ole varsinaisia parannuskeinoja. Tällöin ainoa keino pysyä terveenä on välttää tartunta. Toisaalta usein tuntuu, että jo pelkkä tieto tautien leviämisestä ja ilmenemisestä helpottaisi monen arkea."

Illtags avataan ajankohtaiseen aikaan, kun Suomi valmistautuu H1N1-epidemiaan. Vakava asia pistää herrat mietteliäiksi. Kuinka sopivaa on väittää, että Facebookilla voi taistella flunssaa vastaan?

"Olemme monta kertaa kysyneet itseltämme että voiko tämä oikeasti toimia, mutta vielä emme ole kuulleet yhtään vakuuttavaa syytä, miksi ei", toteaa Wesa Aapro. "Jos edes osa meistä voi välttää sairastumisen, voimme kutsua projektia onnistuneeksi. Siksi tätä kannattaa yrittää."

Hankkeeseen voi osallistua ottamalla käyttöön Facebook-sovelluksen osoitteessa illtags.com/facebook. Tarkempi hanke-esittely löytyy osoitteessa illtags.com.

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Lisätietoja:

http://illtags.com/faq/
Wesa Aapro, wesa.aapro AT kaislainnovations.com, +358505933854
Markus Bergman, markus.bergman AT kaislainnovations.com, +358503075797

Illtags goes paivakotisaa.fi

A shiny new Illtags widget was added to ConnectedDay paivakotisaa.fi service today! This means the parents of the children in 3400+ Finnish daycare centers can now join the collaborative effort of tracking the infections of the Finnish children.

Now the gates of utilizing Illtags API with third party services are open, more widgets to come!

Media day

Today we got some media attention.

In Finnish:

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/hyvaolo/terveys.asp?id=1735540

http://www.taloussanomat.fi/harrastukset/2009/09/30/suomalaiskeksinto-kertoo-mihin-flunssapiikki-iskee/200921040/139

and in English:

www.arcticstartup.com/2009/09/30/illtags-takes-the-fight-against-the-flu-online/

Let's hope we get a lot of good feedback and new ideas on the development side.

New server up and running!

Now we're out of pre-alpha, as the new server should be able to handle quite a bit of traffic! Next stop: The medical logic needs some tweaking, nothing fatal.

This was short status update. Press/blog release soonish.