OrganizedWisdom Health Blog

Is Today's Internet Killing Our Culture? Why Human Intermediaries Are Essential In A Web 2.0 World.

For anyone interested in social media, the concept of the Wisdom of Crowds, or the meaning of a flat world, we highly recommend watching this presentation by author Andrew Keen as part of the Authors@Google series.  Mr. Keen discusses his book "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture" and he makes a compelling argument for the value of intermediaries in a Web 2.0 world.

Over the past year as we've been building OrganizedWisdom to help guide people to safe, inspirational and credible health information, we've been thinking a lot about this issue and figuring out the best way to tap into the power of people sharing their own stories and recommendations. 

The biggest issue has been with figuring out the best way to organize all of the great wisdom being shared across the web, and determining the role our editors, guides and medical reviewers in helping curate all of this information. 

These are some of the questions we been dealing with (and continue to deal with) since the beginning: What rules need to be established to guide people to quality information? How do we protect people from spam?  What role should editors play?  What types of content should be considered user-generated? Is a doctor-video on YouTube user-generated? Should we include links to wisdom that are also promoting a specific product or service? And so on...

Mr. Keen makes some important statements in this presentation about the essential need for intermediaries in a world where everyone has essentially acquired their own "printing press". 

To paraphrase, he says in the Web 2.0 world, everyone is able to publish themselves. You don't have to have programming skills to be a blogger.  You don't need to have gone to recording school to produce a video.  Web 2.0 makes it very simple to create and distribute because it does away with the middleman.  And according to many who evangelize the value of Web 2.0, the middleman is bad, corrupt. Gatekeepers are bad.

But, Mr. Keen argues Web 2.0 is not a viable economy because we need middlemen.  We need the expert. Whether in marketing, creativity, or content creation, the middleman helps discover the best talent and polishes their work.  The intermediaries are the core players in any media system whether Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. If we do away with the intermediaries we are undermining media because we are undermining talent.  He warns the reality is that talent is scarce.  The core value of the ecosystem in media is finding and distributing this talent.  The ecosystem is HUMAN.  The only way of discovering and polishing the best of the best is a human function. Not an algorithm.

There is a lot we agree with in Mr. Keen's thinking.  That is not to say we are not proponents of everyone having the ability to publish, and create, and share.  We just agree that there is great value in helping organize, structure, and lend credibility to the best of what the crowds are creating.

Because this flattened media is more open to corruption and lends itself to illegitimate characters gaming the system to their advantage, we are seeing the proliferation of clutter, spam, and junk mixed in with all of the greatness, inspiration and wisdom.  How do we know what information is great/trustworthy/credible in a Web 2.0 world being infiltrated by people who are using the same virtues of open media to sell products, manipulate or satiate their ego? 

Mr. Keen makes a defense of a media with formal, official, and transparent gatekeepers because he believes "Web 2.0 is too easy to game.  To easy to play around with.  Too many sites are too easy to fix."

"The problem with this flattened world," says Mr. Keen, "is when you do away with formal gatekeepers, the problem with web 2.0 media is it is increasingly becoming one long commercial break. Increasingly hard to distinguish between paid content and free content.   The whole thing becomes one long advert.   It is becoming more difficult to distinguish between content and advertising."

We are seeing many of these issues being worked out as communities like Wikipedia institute more guidelines, editorial controls and moderation.  But there is clearly a lot more to be done in order to weed out the junk. Social media and collaboration are incredibly powerful, but as the Web expands it is becoming more clear that humans are an essential ingredient in helping monitor, organize and guide us to the very best wisdom of crowds.

New Research Shows How Social Media Is Impacting Health Search

We're looking forward to digging into this new research report just released from Envision Solutions: Diving Deeper Into Online Search. 

The research provides new information about why Americans trust health content they find online and documents how Internet health seekers are exposed to a significant amount of user-generated media (i.e., blogs, wikis and online bulletin boards) and frequent Websites developed by government, non-profits and corporations.

 

Compiled from Hitwise data taken between December 2006 and January 2007, this research was inspired by a Pew Internet & American Life Project report indicating that “three-quarters of Internet users who look online for [health] advice do not consistently check the source and date of [content] they find online.” 

Following are some of the key findings of the study: 

• Internet users’ exposure to health-related user-generated media is significant: Out of 16 queries Envision Solutions conducted on Yahoo and Google (using popular health/medical keywords), UGM appeared on the first three pages of searches 88% of the time.
  
• Online health searchers are relying on government, corporate and non-profit produced Websites for information:  For example, 32% of those who typed “diabetes” into major search engines went to the American Diabetes Association’s Website www.diabetes.org.
  
• In certain cases, wikis and blogs are receiving significant traffic:  Five percent of those searching online for information about the antidepressant Lexapro between mid-December 2006 and mid-January 2007 went to CrazyMeds.org.  This is a popular blog that provides information about the safety and efficacy of psychiatric medications.   

To download a free copy of the study report, please go to http://www.envisionsolutionsnow.com/healthsearch.html.

See OrganizedWisdom Speak at CBI's 6th Annual eMarketing for the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference in March

We would like to personally invite you to see Steven Krein, CEO of OrganizedWisdom, speak at The Center for Business Intelligence's 6th Annual eMarketing for the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference convening this year in Philadelphia, PA from March 7-9.

As social media and online health communities continue to evolve, it is essential that pharmaceutical companies continue to learn how to safely, responsibly and transparently join the conversation online and help bridge the divide that has been widening between patients, physicians and pharma for years.  Learning how social media can help all of these groups work together is the first step to solving these challenges.

The Golden Rule To Creating Wisdom And The 9 Tips We're Learning From Our Members

It's truly amazing what can happen when a community comes together to
help each other.  At OrganizedWisdom.com, people like you have been
sharing their best health advice, ideas and recommendations by publishing
WisdomCards on everything from Preventing Back Pain and Healthy Diets
to Alzheimer's Disease and Arthritis -- and the knowledge being shared
is already helping thousands of people who are searching for this
information.

Since a lot of our members have been asking us recently about what makes
a really great WisdomCard, we thought we would share some tips we've
learned from the best wisdom already being shared on OrganizedWisdom.com.

I hope you will use these tips to create more great WisdomCards!

Tip #1: The Golden Rule to WisdomCards
Have you ever needed to find an answer to an important health question and
not been able to quickly locate a straight answer? The most important
thing you can do when creating a WisdomCard is to think about what you
would want to know if you were the person needing help.

Tip #2: Everyone Has Wisdom to Share
I can't tell you how many people have emailed me saying: I really want to
create a WisdomCard but I don't have anything important to say. Well, the
truth is, everyone has important health wisdom to share. In fact, people
share health tips and stories with friends and family all the time. Now
let's get all this great collective wisdom written down and make it easy
for others to find!

Tip #3: Pick A Topic You Know About
Start by thinking what health experiences you or a loved one have
experienced. Have you ever been sick? Or to a hospital, dentist, therapist,
or treatment center? Have you ever used a medication? What worked? Did you
wish you did something differently? Whether you have experience with a very
serious condition, or something seemingly simple, share what you know.

Tip #4: Be Honest
This goes without saying, but the best wisdom is honest and sincere.
Remember, you can remain anonymous if you want so don't be afraid to open up.

Tip #5: Be Specific - The More Details the Better
The more detailed you are the better. Share specific tips, advice, and
lessons learned. Your details will help others.

Tip #6: Offer Practical Advice
Try to share actionable information. Much of the health information
available online leaves people wondering what questions they should ask
their doctor or what they should do next. You now have the chance to publish
tips people can use.

Tip #7: Recommendations Are Invaluable
Tell people what books, websites, medications, doctors, treatment centers,
etc. helped you most. If they helped you, they could help others too.

Tip #8: Hope Helps
Your stories can inspire and provide hope. And this can often help more than
anything.

Tip #9: Create More Than One
We hope you will publish several WisdomCards on as many topics as you have
experience with. Remember, you can create more detailed WisdomCards on
specific products, medications, treatment centers or anything you want.

We hope you find these ideas useful when creating your next WisdomCard...

Information as Therapy - Podcast Interview with Healthwise CEO Don Kemper

TheHealthCareBlog is featuring Matthew Holt's excellent podcast interview with Don Kemper, CEO of Healthwise.

Don Kemper created the concept of information therapy--the prescription of evidence-based medical information to a specific patient, caregiver, or consumer at just the right time to help the person make a specific health decision or behavior change.

Of particular interest was the discussion about the importance of peer to peer information and how this type of health information works well with evidenced-based research.

"Clearly you need both." said Mr. Kemper. "You need good vetted scientific information that has a good base of scientific research. You need that to be able to work with your doctors. You also need to know what worked for other patients.  The two work together quite nicely."

There is also a great discussion about how peer to peer health communication helps people cope with the social aspects caused by health issues.