September 6th, 2008
I was brought up in the South where politics was a subject that was considered impolite to talk about at the dinner table. In general, I think that’s probably a wise piece of advice and perhaps that line of thinking is what prompted me to consider deleting my latest blog entry where I discussed the Sarah Palin hoax (I was sort of kidding about the hoax part). If your blog is not a political blog is it polite or even unwise to talk politics on your blog??
I’m not one of those people that preach my political views to everyday life. If you talk to me long enough you’ll probably get the idea that I’m more liberal but it’s not because I’m bashing a certain party or shoving my politics down your throat. I think most people are rather surprised when they find out that I majored in politcal science. When I was in college my political science professors were not allowed to tell us their party affiliation or personal political views for fear of bias in teaching. It therefore became a goal of almost every poli sci major to figure out what each professor was before we graduated.
I now wonder if I should have adopted that philosophy and kept quiet on my political views in this blog. But then I thought why wouldn’t I share that information?! It doesn’t make what I say about blogs or the web world any less valid. We are embarking on a very important election here in the U.S. and every voice counts right now. I’m going to let the cat out of the bag on this blog and occasionally sound off politically when I 
feel inspired to do so. It’s with pride that I say, “I’m a democrat and I’m voting Obama.” It’s time for a change people.
I can’t wait to hear what the family will say when I go home for the holidays. I have a feeling someone’s going to break that no politics at the table rule.
As my favorite (democratic) poli sci professor would say at the end of every class, “Good luck everybody.”
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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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