By Stingray
Lots of news this week as it related to the blogosphere and social media. I couldn’t pick just one topic to write about, so you get three and a bonus.
NYT Launches Olympic Blog
The New York Times announced launch of a special online section for the 2008 Olympic Games complete with a new blog called “Rings.” According to Editor and Publisher, “Rings is dedicated to the full range of topics surrounding the summer Games in Beijing, from the competition itself to the social, political, and economic issues attached to them. The blog features analysis and perspectives from sports, foreign, and business reporters at the Times and in its global bureaus.” Right now the blog features some light reports, YouTube videos and sparse comments, but you can be sure once the games heat up so will the coverage and traffic.
Google Health Brings Medical Records to You
Google launched Google Health, which allows consumers to build a health profile, import medical from its eight initial partners (including Walgreens, CVS and MinuteClinic) and store them for free, explore online health services and find doctors by name, location and specialty using their existing Gmail username and password.
According to Mashable, “The information you provide under your health records is used for your own personal purposes, and can be printed and taken with you to a doctor’s appointment. If an office is integrated with Google Health, then the information is already accessible to them. In terms of the extended health services provided through Google’s health portal, registering for any of these, and linking it to your Google Health profile provides you with automated updates to that third party service.”
So not only will you have access to what the doctor scrawled on your file at your last appointments, when your last tetanus shot was and how much you weighed when you were 18, it’s all digitized in a format meant for easy distribution.
However, the Washington Post has pointed out that Google is not a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and therefore, the provisions of that law do not apply to what Google does with your info. That means if you disclose details such as whether you have AIDS, HIV or any sexually transmitted disease, have been treated for drug or alcohol abuse, have had an abortion, or have a genetic predisposition to any diseases, you have to just trust Google to keep that information secure.” But The Health Care Blog writes, “The privacy policy, with oversight from the Google Health Advisory Council, stipulates that data will never be transferred, sold, mined or released without specific consent of the patient. Patients completely control the content and may remove it any time. This is similar to the Microsoft Health Vault policy.”
Although privacy will always be a concern when it comes to medical records, personally I’m very excited at the opportunity to “own” my personal health records in a format my doctor, pharmacy and spouse can all access and share.
YouTube Embraces Citizen Journalism
Back in February I wrote about CNN launching iReport.com, a new Web site built entirely on user-produced news. Unlike CNN’s own properties — where only iReport submissions that have been handpicked by editors and checked for accuracy ever make it online or on air — the new site was wide open, allowing users to post whatever content they choose. Now YouTube is getting in on the action with YouTube Citizen News. They’ve hired a News Manager and will be highlighting some of the best news content on YouTube every day sourced from public tips and breaking news around the world. Watch the intro video here.
Bonus (yes! a bonus!)
Business Week updated their 2005 story, “Blogs Will Change Your Business,” including a very compelling video. It’s a must read/play.