May 14th, 2008
I’ve been asked to speak tonight at a friend’s poker night. But this isn’t just any poker night (nor is this just any friend) this is a local chapter of the MS Society’s guys night. So how did a gal without MS end up speaking at a multiple sclerosis event and what on earth is she speaking about? I think the answer to the first part of that question is because my friend promised a group of guys that he could bring in a girl and the second part of the answer is that I’m talking about online communities for people with multiple sclerosis.
Tonight I’ll be talking about a few health 2.0 sites that are full of good stuff.
HealthTalk.com - All bias aside this is an incredible resource. For online support check out our blogs to rally with your fellow MSers (or a good deal of other disease networks) or submit a question to our Ask the Doctor section. Download a podcast of one of our Webcasts, listen to our web stream or watch some of our videos. HealthTalk is all original content which is becoming somewhat of a rarity in the online health space.
RevolutionHealth.com - Again, there is some bias here but that doesn’t stop me from being amazed at all the community features and tools this Web site offers. I highly encourage you to check out the Community >> goals or groups features. Another cool one is their medicine chest which allows you to search a huge database of prescription meds with user reviews.
The following health 2.0 community sites(not necessarily MS related) are largely based on a blog post by ReadWriteWeb called, “Top Health 2.0 Web Apps”
And finally I got to make a plug for blogs in online community. My preference is WordPress but there are all sorts of options to create a blog. Among the more popular are:
Blogs are incredibly useful for staying in touch with friends and family. They are easy to use and provide a seemingly endless opportunity to connect with people about multiple sclerosis (who happen to be very active in the blogosphere) or any other health related or sensitive topic. Most blog tools allow you to make a blog or blog post as public or private as you wish.
I’m actually writing this post about 30 minutes before I’m supposed to head to Fremont to give this little talk so I will be updating this entry with links and any other ideas that come from the discussion with the boys.
Update: So… the meeting was in Ballard not Fremont. Yep I got lost and was late, but not too late. It was a good time. The only site that any of these guys had heard of before was HealthTalk (which was nice to hear). One other guy told me that he visited a Web site called BrainTalk which is basically a massive chat board on any given health topic. I gave a quick demo on how to sign up for a WordPress.com blog. I was surprised that some people didn’t know that WP is free (and no, I don’t work for Automattic or WordPress, I’m just a fan). During our blog discussion, my friend (who writes a successful MS blog), brought up a really good point. When you have a chronic illness like MS you hope that at some point your friends and family can talk to you without harping on how you feel. Keeping an MS (or whatever it may be) blog is a way for you to explain how you feel without having to talk about it all the time. That way friends and family who are filled with good intentions can check in on you without making it a focus of conversation when they see you face to face.
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Posted in Blogging, Blogosphere, Online community, Web 2.0, health 2.0 | No Comments »
April 20th, 2008
I’m a (relatively) new mom of two little girls ages two-and-a-half and ten-months. I’ve always been able to upload photos, videos and send them out to friends and family via the web. I’ve had the ability to share new happenings to friends and family instantaneously via email and blogs. I’ve been able to attend a “virtual” Christmas via skype when we were unable to come home so that my family could feel somewhat connected to the girls during that special time. My two, almost three-year-old plays on pbskids.org and playhousedisney.com and I appreciate having another medium to participate in her development. It’s not something we let her do every day which makes it all the more exciting when she gets to have her “turn” on the computer. It’s hard to imagine a life without these newly added comforts and although I’ve never been a parent when these things weren’t available I feel it adds to the parenting experience.
The following are websites that have helped me as a parent (in no particular order):
Skype- I have nothing but love for skype. Love, love, love. For those unfamiliar, Skype is a free way to instant message, phone (anyone in the world) and live video stream. Rampant rumors are going around right now that they will soon be acquired (and I believe they’ve already turned down a couple of lucrative offers). I sincerely hope that whoever does end up acquiring Skype will remember that people…families all over the world connect through this portal that might otherwise not be able to because of cost.
Flickr - Admittedly, I’m really bad about keeping up with photos (it’s always on my New Year’s resolutions list) so I don’t use this site nearly as much as I should. I love that you can send someone a simple url to view your photos unlike other sites that require login info. And if you’re not careful those sites send unwanted emails (I believe they call that something like…spam 
)
Netflix- For the most part I like the Netflix interface (they seem to mess with their formula quite frequently) and I’ve never had a problem waiting long for a movie. It’s no secret that having a baby throws your social life into a huge hiatus. We had our second when our first was only two, which not only makes babysitters more expensive but increases the fatigue level (do I need to say more?)! Our weekend entertainment is now a case of beer and a Netflix movie. It’s hard to remember the days of browsing through the video store (well, not really) but can you imagine what a two-year-old would do to all those little shiny boxes on the shelf!?! No thanks.
Picnik - This is a new photo site that I recently reviewed and since that time I’ve used it a ton. It’s super clean and easy to use. It makes me feel like I know what I’m doing with photos! You really should try this one out.
ParentMap - We live in Seattle and I work full time. When the weekends roll around I want to to get our little ones out and watch them at play! But sometimes I need a little push of what kind of play we should do; ParentMap helps me think outside of the box for outings and activities. Thanks for all the great ideas ParentMap!
Babycenter - This is a great site for all things babies. They have a great store and a well organized informational resource for parenting, babies and beyond.
WordPress - I hope I don’t need to explain this one. This blog runs on WordPress. I’ve disclosed before in this blog that I really do enjoy this blog platform. It has a lot of potential and speaks to all skill levels. WordPress recently released a new 2.5 version. If you don’t want to host your own WP site then you can easily sign up for WP hosted blog on WordPress.com.
Facebook- This is my favorite social networking site. When you work full time and have two young kids it’s hard to be social. Facebook is one way to “sort of” keep up with friends.
Craigslist! - I know I said no particular order but damn…how could you live without craigslist. From finding cheap kids stuff to selling your kid stuff to finding childcare - Craigslist is a friggin lifesaver! Simplicity and accessibility at it’s finest; a tremendous thank you to Craig Newmark for keeping it that way!
I think I may keep this a running list and when I run across other websites (or remember more) that may help out with parenting, I’ll add a short review on here. In the meantime, if you have any you think I should know about by all means, leave a comment.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Online Publishing, Online community, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 for parents, WordPress | No Comments »
