sean

sean http://seanhorgan.posterous.com life is short, the art long posterous.com Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:34:00 -0800 Final prep for NACCHO PHP 2012 Summit http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/WY2W3ONAl1w/final-prep-for-naccho-php-2012-summit http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/final-prep-for-naccho-php-2012-summit <p> <p>I'm presenting a poster with Dana Carey and Hannah Aalborg from <a href="http://twitter.com/YoloHealth" target="_blank">Yolo County</a> Health Department about the <a href="http://www.cosanta.com/FastTrack" target="_blank">FastTrack</a> trials I've conducted with them and San Francisco County Health Departments at the <a href="http://naccho.org/" target="_blank">National Association of County & City Health Officials</a> (NACCHO) Public Health Preparedness Summit next week in LA.  The official title of the poster is:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Managing the Med Surge: Lessons from low-cost real-time instrumentation of clinic and POD operations using cheap mobile devices and on-demand cloud services</p> <ul style="padding-left: 60px;"> <li>Poster Number: 44 </li> <li>Poster Group: Group 1</li> <li>Poster Presentation Date: Wednesday, February 22</li> </ul> <p>I presented at the <a href="https://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cdc-sns-summit" target="_blank">CDC SNS Summit</a> last July and I thought that the poster presentations were actually a better forum for discussing new ideas like this.  The downside of a scheduled speaking role is that you are limited to a particular slot and audience size while the posters will be available to everyone for the entire day.</p> <p>When I read the directions from the conference organizers, I gave it a double take because of the poster board size: 4 x 8 feet!  I haven't put together a poster since my 8th grade science fair project (second place, still have the trophy) and expectations have grown quite a bit since those magic marker and posterboard days.</p> <p>I got some great design inspiration from an old roomate Caroline and decided to go big and bold.  I drew from <a href="http://www.cosanta.com" target="_blank">cosanta's  website</a> color pallete:</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-19/abCixCkwIFDJtAuFdhvkfenjqdstkvqdBzCFhtBDogfrwDqjsCiAiuuFdeAd/cosanta-fasttrack-naccho-poster-v3b-scaled-7x11.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Cosanta-fasttrack-naccho-poster-v3b-scaled-7x11" height="333" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-19/abCixCkwIFDJtAuFdhvkfenjqdstkvqdBzCFhtBDogfrwDqjsCiAiuuFdeAd/cosanta-fasttrack-naccho-poster-v3b-scaled-7x11.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>While many folks recommended powerpoint, I used <a href="http://inkscape.org/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a> to draw the poster as it gave me much better control of each element and it was much easier to scale the images as it natively supports SVGs.  The only problem I had was when I tried to export the file to a PDF for the printer (<a href="http://proprintboston.com/" target="_blank">ProPrint Boston</a>) as my laptop choked on it.  After some experimentation and back-and-forth with ProPrint, I was able to perform a bitmap export to a PNG with 300 DPI.  I scaled the poster down to 4'x6' as I wanted some room on the side of the poster to hang some takeaway information but I was still shocked at the size of it.</p> <p>I'm looking forward to the trip to LA and getting some excellent feedback on what we're working on.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/final-prep-for-naccho-php-2012-summit">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/A0gfmnfIkWkt29jN0wFNvEsQjEk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/A0gfmnfIkWkt29jN0wFNvEsQjEk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/A0gfmnfIkWkt29jN0wFNvEsQjEk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/A0gfmnfIkWkt29jN0wFNvEsQjEk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/WY2W3ONAl1w" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/final-prep-for-naccho-php-2012-summit Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:45:00 -0800 New for FastTrack: managing your organization http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/qUgppQ2c4_s/new-for-fasttrack-managing-your-org http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/new-for-fasttrack-managing-your-org <p> <p><strong style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">I rolled out a new version of </span><a href="http://www.cosanta.com/FastTrack"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: #1155cc; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">FastTrack</span></a></strong><strong style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> that contains a set of new features focused on managing your organization.  FastTrack Organizations are how users and metrics are collecte</span></strong><strong style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">d:</span><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hS-1zOr6ZxXegVJmwJK2QJmcUT8tAew1pR5nH-OcemHr46jNS-Y50zT-3dph8I8nWHjdfWyigOG1N4qpuSzm7ytY3_Yd6kPGXrHYJ54yW4N8vLxFDps" height="253px;" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="227px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Each organization, say a health department, in addition to having users that can count and monitor your metrics, will have some users with the role of 'org admin'.  When they log in, they now have the ability to make changes to the existing users and metrics as well as create new ones.  Here is a diagram of the components of a metric:</span><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/O0KvyBJCQai_s9bA3Yz2VSQDBy01p9ymPYGLhW4vJcHj0RIsE3UwLFd-ZkJk7YWSqAyMbm9QuM5RMuN4mCnq4LMsAuopteAd-F4-UzTA5Un9m1YFqFI" height="435px;" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="160px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">These capabilities will come in very handy during live clinics when you realize that you need to make unexpected changes to your measurements.  Maybe a new vaccine lot # arrives; here is an example of the steps that a clinic manager would follow to add this lot number to their metrics so that it is available to their counters:</span> </strong></p> <ul> <strong style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </strong><li style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">log in with your org admin account (e.g. <a href="mailto:admin@healthdept.org">admin@healthdept.org</a>)</span></li> <li style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">select the vaccine metric</span></li> <li style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">select the lot # field</span></li> <li style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">select ‘add a new field option’</span></li> <li style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">type in your new lot # and click save</span></li> </ul> <p><strong style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">In the event that a bunch of new volunteers showed up at your clinic to help you with counting clients, you would follow similar steps to add new FastTrack users.  </span></strong></p> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/new-for-fasttrack-managing-your-org">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/75D9vjuUzKKFXA3qBpjFUVWbPCY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/75D9vjuUzKKFXA3qBpjFUVWbPCY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/75D9vjuUzKKFXA3qBpjFUVWbPCY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/75D9vjuUzKKFXA3qBpjFUVWbPCY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/qUgppQ2c4_s" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/new-for-fasttrack-managing-your-org Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:54:00 -0800 On to 2012! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/nsb1NYTqA2E/on-to-2012 http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/on-to-2012 <p> <p>The last last few months of 2011 were very eventful.  Ali and I got married, found out that her transfer to Boston was approved, honeymooned in Ireland, found a new apartment, moved from California to Massachusetts, and I started a new job.</p> <p>I also helped out with a seasonal flu vaccine in Woodland CA, where we used <a href="http://www.cosanta.com/FastTrack">FastTrack</a> to measure vaccine use and survey responses.</p> <p>I've got into a good habit a couple of years of writing down my goals for the year and then reviewing them every so often.  The reviews weren't all the regular but I tried to give it an honest gut-check every 3-4 months.  I didn't get to everything but I was surprised by how much I did and it gives me the motivation and confidence to pile on a new bunch of things I want to accomplish and challenge myself with.  Three of the most important parts of feeling good about goals are aligning them with your passions, being real honest in measuring progress (or lack of), and a willingness to accept that you can't do everything.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/on-to-2012">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/crGRkV3TCX7VfiD5baW3OlCOwv4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/crGRkV3TCX7VfiD5baW3OlCOwv4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/crGRkV3TCX7VfiD5baW3OlCOwv4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/crGRkV3TCX7VfiD5baW3OlCOwv4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/nsb1NYTqA2E" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/on-to-2012 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0700 CDC SNS Summit 2011: Rural Communities http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/K6FVSU_lfsw/66738913 http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/66738913 <p> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">O</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ne of the primary challenges that health departments in rural areas face is the expectation that they meet similar </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">preparedness </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">requirements as </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">their urban area counterparts with </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dramatically lower funding.  With the formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002, the federal government started to invest heavily in preparing local communities for terrorist attacks through a number of different programs such as the </span><a href="http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/hsgp/#2"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Urban Areas Security Initiative</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (UASI) and the </span><a href="http://www.bt.cdc.gov/cri/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Cities Readiness Initiative</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (CRI).  The primary focus was to prepare large population centers, leaving rural communities with the hope that some of the money or resources trickled down.  Of the $1.8B that FEMA distributes as part of the </span><a href="http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/hsgp/index.shtm"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Homeland Security Grant Program</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (HSGP), almost 20% goes to New York alone.  Below is a chart that shows how UASI, one of the main elements of HSGP, is distributed by location:</span></p> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-23/gfqjmkDerbhrnmuyfsInvxaByEnnkBvoAFqIqHooxGHHIjHuwGeBrcwypjEr/2010Curvev2.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="2010curvev2" height="308" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-23/gfqjmkDerbhrnmuyfsInvxaByEnnkBvoAFqIqHooxGHHIjHuwGeBrcwypjEr/2010Curvev2.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From what I’ve learned about public health, most of their funding comes from these specially ear-marked grants and they cut across many federal agencies (e.g. CDC, DHS, FEMA, USDA).  You’ll hear many in public health lament that they spend more time maneuvering through a very dynamic grant landscape than they do on constituent health issues.  </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><a href="http://www.hstoday.us/focused-topics/emergency-managementdisaster-preparedness/single-article-page/funding-for-public-health-emergency-preparedness-trimmed.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">continued budget cuts</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> will only exacerbate the situation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unfortunately, many of the big-city investments, such as bomb robots and urban command and communication systems, have little practicality in the countryside.  The up-front hardware investment is one issue but the ongoing training and maintenance costs simply aren’t tuned for low-budget health departments.  </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">While it's true that big cities like New York and LA are responsible for the security of many more people, the functional requirements for systems that serve someone in Montana don't differ much from someone in Chicago; it's an issue of scalability. Small health departments still need Electronic Health Records (EHR), medical screening applications, and immunization databases. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">Sustainability across the health department budget spectrum must be a design goal of systems that want nationwide adoption.  Rural communities find themselves with neither the direct funding nor the staff to leverage urban area investments.</span></div> <div style="background-color: transparent;"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">References</span></div> <div style="background-color: transparent;"> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.hstoday.us/focused-topics/emergency-managementdisaster-preparedness/single-article-page/funding-for-public-health-emergency-preparedness-trimmed.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.hstoday.us/focused-topics/emergency-managementdisaster-preparedness/single-article-page/funding-for-public-health-emergency-preparedness-trimmed.html</span></a></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.dsbox.com/index.php/blog/comments/analysis_of_fy2011_homeland_security_grants_part_6/">http://www.dsbox.com/index.php/blog/comments/analysis_of_fy2011_homeland_security_grants_part_6/</a></span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.naccho.org/topics/infrastructure/lhdbudget/index.cfm">http://www.naccho.org/topics/infrastructure/lhdbudget/index.cfm</a></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://davislogic.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-baaaaaack-bill-to-limit-number-of.html">http://davislogic.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-baaaaaack-bill-to-limit-number-of.html</a></li> </ul> </div> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/66738913">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/R8AtVDFqhxfoWvRDoHpwiXpgPys/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/R8AtVDFqhxfoWvRDoHpwiXpgPys/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/R8AtVDFqhxfoWvRDoHpwiXpgPys/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/R8AtVDFqhxfoWvRDoHpwiXpgPys/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/K6FVSU_lfsw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/66738913 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0700 CDC SNS Summit http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/W9FDdXoEFSY/cdc-sns-summit http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cdc-sns-summit <p> <p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I recently presented </span><a href="http://www.cosanta.com/fasttrack"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">FastTrack</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> at CDC’s annual </span><a href="http://www.dsnssummit.org/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">Strategic National Stockpile Summit</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in Atlanta, Georgia.  As I designed and built the application, most of my product discussions were with health departments in California, so I was looking forward to getting feedback from organizations across the country. I was also very interested in learning about problems in rural communities, discussing solutions already in place in large urban areas, and understanding the role of various federal agencies like the CDC.  I’m going to cover each of these three areas in separate posts over the next few days.</span></p> <div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You can find a copy of the presentation over at <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/cosanta/cosanta-fasttrack-sns-summit-2011-presentation" target="_blank">slideshare</a>, or just flip through below:</span></div> <p /> <div style=""><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/cosanta/cosanta-fasttrack-sns-summit-2011-presentation" title="Cosanta FastTrack SNS Summit 2011 Presentation" target="_blank">Cosanta FastTrack SNS Summit 2011 Presentation</a></strong> <iframe scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/8967415" frameborder="0" height="355" width="425"></iframe> <div style="padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: center;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" target="_blank">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/cosanta" target="_blank">cosanta</a></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cdc-sns-summit">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GMU9Wz0mWbxF9I5c-CG0DLYWk7c/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GMU9Wz0mWbxF9I5c-CG0DLYWk7c/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GMU9Wz0mWbxF9I5c-CG0DLYWk7c/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GMU9Wz0mWbxF9I5c-CG0DLYWk7c/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/W9FDdXoEFSY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cdc-sns-summit Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:28:00 -0700 Podcast review: Aneesh Chopra and Barry Silbert http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/13bJhKlurWc/podcast-review-aneesh-chopra-and-barry-silber http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/podcast-review-aneesh-chopra-and-barry-silber <p> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My brother was recruited by NASA after grad school to work on the </span><a href="http://aquarius.nasa.gov/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Aquarius Mission</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and I drove down to Vandenberg AFB (North of LA) for the launch of the satellite last week.  Faced with 12 hours of driving, I made sure I had plenty of podcasts to pass the time.  My podcast feed includes </span><a href="http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/category/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Missed in History</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, </span><a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">This American Life</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, </span><a href="http://audiovideo.economist.com/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">The Economist</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://etl.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar</a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (ETL); more than enough to keep me occupied.</span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stanford’s Tech Venture Program, which sponsors the ETL series, brings in leaders from various industries to talk about their experiences in the business world.  On the whole, I’ve found these to be very educational.  Naturally, some speakers are betters that others and sometimes I find the discussions tangential to my interests, but with business being business, there are kernels of truth to be found regardless of the domain.  </span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Of the podcasts I listened to on the road trip back, I put together a few notes on the following speakers:</span> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2759"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Aneesh Chopra</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, United States CTO</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2698"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Barry Silbert</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Second Market CEO</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2689"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Jennifer Morris</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Conservation International</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://stvp.stanford.edu/blog/?p=3483"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Geoffrey Moore</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, author of Crossing the Chasm</span></li> </ul> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m going to post about Aneesh’s and Barry’s podcast tonight and I’ll try to work in some time during the week to post about Jennifer’s and Geoffrey’s.  </span></div> <p /> <h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Aneesh Chopra, US CTO</span></h3> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I always wondered what the US CTO did and it’s clear that one aspect of his job is to get the next generation of leaders focused on 3 big core areas: health-care, energy, and education.  He discussed programs like </span><a href="http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Startup America</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and </span><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Morgenthaler-Announces-DC-to-prnews-3097461653.html?x=0&.v=1"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">DC to VC</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, which got me excited about my own efforts to instrument health departments.  In fact, Aneesh used the term instrument so much that I finally felt fine about my own over-use of it in my </span><a href="http://www.cosanta.com/fasttrack"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">FastTrack</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> presentations.  </span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There were times in his prepared remarks when I didn't like the sales-pitch tone, specifically talk about becoming a billionaire and lunch at the White House mess. I'm all for encouraging innovation so I have to accept that in order to get new college grads interested in government over high-growth startups, you need to dangle the dollar.</span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am a big fan of his position on immigration. As an immigrant from Ireland, I may not be very objective, but it just seems like a win-win to staple a green-card on to a diploma in certain high-need areas like STEM.  </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">A <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301402.html" target="_blank">study from Duke University</a> found that 25% of startups from 1995-2005 were led by one senior executive born outside the United States. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">The United States was and will continue to be built by attracting the best and brightest from around the world. </span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I found Aneesh’s speaking style very unique.  He was very energetic and mostly spoke in 5-6 second chunks; very rhythmic.  I’d like to catch him 1:1 and pick his brain on taking best practices from nations that do a better job in those 3 core areas.</span><p /></div> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"> <h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Barry Silbert, Second Market CEO</span></h3> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Barry Silbert’s company, Second Market, is the company behind the market that trades private stock for Twitter, Facebook, and a growing list of new companies.  It’s hard to get into all the details but the key takeaways for me are:</span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. My retirement plan could be screwed.  If the highest-growth companies decide to forego the traditional public markets (NYSE, NASDAQ), what does that mean for my portfolio?  </span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Startups will have less time to return money to early-stage investors.  Now that they can pull money from the private market, the pressure will be on startups to demonstrate “success” as quickly possible.  Success of course will be defined by their ability to convince others of the opportunity.  </span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One of my concerns throughout Barry’s talk was the issue of transparency.  He mentioned that these secondary markets are regulated by the federal government and that they are required to file documents similar to public companies, but that fact doesn’t give me too much confidence.  I’m convinced that these new markets will be very disruptive to the investment community.</span></div> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/podcast-review-aneesh-chopra-and-barry-silber">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sCQY3DgDHJuS84TD_P6itawb7NI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sCQY3DgDHJuS84TD_P6itawb7NI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sCQY3DgDHJuS84TD_P6itawb7NI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sCQY3DgDHJuS84TD_P6itawb7NI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/13bJhKlurWc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/podcast-review-aneesh-chopra-and-barry-silber Tue, 31 May 2011 19:39:00 -0700 Using FastTrack for surveys with SFDPH http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/CnNp2aQbhWs/using-fasttrack-for-surveys-with-sfdph http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/using-fasttrack-for-surveys-with-sfdph <p> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I ran the second of three trials of <a href="http://cosanta.com/fasttrack" target="_blank">FastTrack</a> with the <a href="http://sfcdcp.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Department of Public Heath's CDCP</a> a couple of weeks ago.  When I first designed FastTrack, my focus was squarely on collecting data about real things like vaccines and people.  My goal was to provide clinic managers the data they needed to make operational decisions, such as bringing on more staff to increase client (i.e. patient) throughput or drawing less of a particular vaccine lot # from the stockpile due to low demand. </span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">For this second clinic, I wanted to tackle a more subjective but potentially more enlightening metric: patient perception.  What if the staff could view in (near) real time how the people who came to the clinic thought about it?   I’ve seen paper-based surveys conducted but the results are usually not available for many days (if not weeks) as the results need to be manually entered.  What if a clinic manager, whether onsite or not, could just glance down at their phone to see what people thought as they were at the clinic?</span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I didn’t need to make any software changes as I was already redesigning how metric properties are configured.  “Metrics” in FastTrack are the atomic element of what is being measured.  A typical clinic could have 1 metric for vaccine and another one for clients.  Properties of a vaccine metric could be the lot #, dosage, who administered it, etc.  Properties of a client metric are usually the standard demographic elements: gender, age, zipcode, etc.  With the redesign, I could now make changes to Metric properties during a clinic, such as adding a new survey question or adding new options.  The redesign followed the new HTML5 form and input standards, which are nicely summarized in the </span><a href="http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">DiveIntoHTML5 website</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.  Under the covers, a metric property maps to an HTML5 input or select fields.  A nice advantage is that the browsers on most new mobile devices take advantage of these new field types such a range, number, datetime and display the appropriate controls.</span></div> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve pasted a screenshot (from an iPad) of the results of the survey from the second clinic with SFDPH:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/gWqShNd-czx0gElN8zn5Fd9XNN-DazVR3Rc-GR7bUmf1QyrlPDuxMeDs7MXbo-37cnYB051SL0o9eKt_wzrk-UekR-p0pu4I0ncjvwZYDcFRs1QtK1Y" height="419px;" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="559px;" /></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some notes about the screenshot and questions:</span></div> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"> <ul style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In order to display the results as efficiently as possible on smaller screens, the screenshot displays a coded form of the questions and answers.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I'm a big fan of <a href="http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/better-know-visualization-small-multiples/" target="_blank">small multiples</a> for data like this, so optimizing the output for display on a single (ipad size) screen is a design goal. Imagine if you had to scroll down or flip around multiple pages to see this data? </span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">TimeInClinic: clients were asked to estimate the time spent, in minutes, at the clinic.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">OverallExp & ExpectedExp: both the overall experience and the expected experience were ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 representing the best experience.</span></li> </ul> <p style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </p> <ul style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </ul> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I highlighted a few interesting values (using </span><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeideas/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">adobe ideas</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) right in the screenshot:</span></div> <ol style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most people (count=74) had a ‘5’ overall experience.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many people expected a 1,2, or 3 experience but just one rated a ‘1’ overall experience</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Given that this was the first time we used FastTrack to collect survey data, the results were conducted by paper and quickly entered into FastTrack (I wanted to make sure we had a good fallback system).  I noticed that many of first responses did not answer the overall experience question, which can be seen reported as 21 ‘n/a’.  I brought this to the attention of the survey takers, who were more focused on getting more surveys inside of getting good surveys.  Thanks to this rapid processing, we were able to correct a problem before it got worse.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The majority of surveyed people (75%) perceived a wait-time of less than 15 minutes.  Many health departments go to great lengths (usually for RAND corp studies) to measure time (latency) between various stations in clinics.  I think that this simple measure of people’s perceptions is a great example of the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Pareto Principle</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in action.  I can see how a clinic manager, whether on-site or not, could keep an eye on this stat.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Almost everyone learned about this clinic from their school, not from social media, the internet, or traditional media channels.  This is inline with the clinics marketing strategy: push it at the schools, but I’d like to see what a little more <a href="sfcdcp.org/tdapclinics.html" target="_blank">online advertising</a> could do for clinic attendance.</span></li> </ol> <p style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </p> <p style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">What’s next:</span></p> <ul style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Embedded charts: I’d like the user to just touch/click on a Metric field to display the appropriate visualization, e.g. a pie chart for fields with just 2 or 3 values or a choropleth maps for zipcode data.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="">Crosstab analysis: I’d like to experiment with a UX that made crosstab analysis more more accessible and intuitive.  Based on the SFDPH survey results, I’d be interested to look at the other survey fields for those respondents who rated their overall experience a ‘1’.  I could place a stats toolbar on the page with a crosstab option that a user could activate and then select the field options they wanted to fix. Think of a photo or image editor where you select the tool (brush, fill, crop) and then make you changes. All this should work off the most recent data.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="">More than the total: Currently this stats summary page sows the total counts, which forces the user to do a little math in their head to understand how they compare against each other. I've been reluctant to add percentages to the default page as it would get too busy. I may just work off the stats toolbar idea by adding a percent option that switches from a total count display to percentages.</span></li> </ul> </div> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/using-fasttrack-for-surveys-with-sfdph">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5T7aA0WLSX29VzSEotNJrqmE5Eo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5T7aA0WLSX29VzSEotNJrqmE5Eo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5T7aA0WLSX29VzSEotNJrqmE5Eo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5T7aA0WLSX29VzSEotNJrqmE5Eo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/CnNp2aQbhWs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/using-fasttrack-for-surveys-with-sfdph Thu, 05 May 2011 17:37:00 -0700 Referencing constants in EL using Jakarta unstandard taglib http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/9lpy9HBPbYQ/referencing-constants-in-el-using-jakarta-uns http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/referencing-constants-in-el-using-jakarta-uns <p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This is a quick post to document how I solved a problem I was having with EL (Expression Language). I was trying to reference constants inside my Google App Engine project from a JSP, which is easy to do with a scriptlet (<%= com.sample.Constants.EXAMPLE %>), but I try to use EL when I can. Unfortunately, as I learned on</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3732608/how-to-reference-constants-in-el">Stack Overflow</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">(thanks</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/157882/balusc">BalusC</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">), this is not possible with standard EL as it requires standard javabean getters/settings. There are a few workarounds but the most straightforward seemed to be the Jakarta unstandard taglib.</span></span></p> <p style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"> <p style="display: inline !important;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Jakarta</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard/">project page</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">for the unstandard lib says that binary downloads are no longer available and you have to build from source. I didn't really feel like putting anymore third-party source in my workspace so after a little hunting around, I ran across this</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://blog.tallan.com/2010/07/01/the-unstandard-tag-library-using-constants-within-jsps/">blog post</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">from Tallan that linked to an archived nightly</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://people.apache.org/builds/jakarta-taglibs-sandbox/nightly/projects/unstandard/jakarta-taglibs-sandbox-unstandard-20060829.zip">sandbox build</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.  It contained everything I needed: taglibs-unstandard.jar and taglibs-unstandard.tld.</span></span></p> </p> <p style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"> <p style="display: inline !important;"> </p> <p style="display: inline !important;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Here is what I needed to do to reference constants in EL:</span></p> </p> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Place a copy of taglibs-unstandard.jar into my WEB-INF/classes directory (via Eclipse 'java build options' etc)</span></li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Place a copy of taglibs-unstandard.tld into my WEB-INF</span></li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> Update my web.xml so that it can map a reference to "<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0">http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0</a>" to my local copy as requests to the <a href="http://apache.org">apache.org</a> location return a 404.</span> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><taglib></span></li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">    <taglib-uri><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0">http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0</a></taglib-uri></span></li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">     <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/taglibs-unstandard.tld</taglib-location></span></li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></taglib></span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> Add the import directive to load the taglib into my JSP</span> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> <%@taglib prefix="un" uri="<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0">http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/unstandard-1.0</a>" %></span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Use the custom prefix to pull the constants into a scope variable:</span> <ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><un:useConstants className="com.sample.Constants" var="constants" /></span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p /> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I could then reference constants as I would any other EL variable, for example: ${constants.URI_PREFIX}.</span></p> <div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many thanks to all the various posts that helped me quickly solve this. If there is a simpler way to do this, I'm interested in hearing about it.</span></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/referencing-constants-in-el-using-jakarta-uns">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kE4ZTDPEc5Poma-SejZ8aEds6V4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kE4ZTDPEc5Poma-SejZ8aEds6V4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kE4ZTDPEc5Poma-SejZ8aEds6V4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kE4ZTDPEc5Poma-SejZ8aEds6V4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/9lpy9HBPbYQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/referencing-constants-in-el-using-jakarta-uns Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:30:00 -0700 Atrix touch-screen replacement http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/V1ZMKBdz-y8/atrix-touch-screen-replacement http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/atrix-touch-screen-replacement <p> <div style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff; margin: 8px;"> <p>I recently switched from an iPhone to a <a href="http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-ATRIX-US-EN" target="_blank">Motorola Atrix</a> as I wanted to get some hands-on experience with Android.  I still have the iPhone around the house as well as an iPad, so I feel like I have plenty of iOS devices to work with.  So far I've been very impressed with both the hardware and software.  It's like going from a Windows PC to Linux, where you feel like you are exposed to the internals.  I can't recommend this to everyone but for those who like to experiment, Android provides a nice platform.</p> <p>One problem with getting a recently-released phone is the lack of protectors for it.  About a week after I got it, I slipped out of my hand and landed flat on the concrete, shattering the screen:</p> <p><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_MoYSnHqbjs0/TaTnkyNfBDI/AAAAAAAAFcc/3MTOnt6zwQY/s640/DSC01654.JPG" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p> <p>Luckily, the phone still worked.  Most smartphones have 2 "screens": (1) a digitizer touch-screen that takes touch input and (2) an LCD panel that handles display.  I hopped on <a href="http://www.ifixit.com/" target="_blank">ifixit</a> and found that they had a tear-down guide for the <a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/1" target="_blank">Atrix</a>.  All I needed was to get my hands on a replacement touch-screen and it looked like I could handle the repair myself.</p> <p>Which is mostly true...but it took a little more work than I thought.  It took a couple of weeks to find a vendor that would sell me just 1 replacement touch screen as many had a minimum requirement of 3.  I paid <a href="https://www.durapowerglobal.com/Motorola-ATRIX-4G-Digitizer-Touch-Screen-glass-replacement_p_1290.html" target="_blank">DuraPower Global</a> $59.95 + $5.95 S&H and I had the replacement screen in my hands a few days later.</p> <p>The iFixIt teardown guide did a good job of describing each step.  I was impressed with how easily the individual components in the atrix could be detached.  I struggled with removing the panel behind the LCD (<a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/edit/4964/22280" target="_blank">step 13</a>) as you needed to gently lift the top of the panel while pushing up on both corners of the bottom.  After that, it was tough to keep track of the connections at the top of the phone, such as the light sensors, speaker, finger print reader, and headphone jack; especially the connection between the touch-screen digitizer and its cable on the motherboard.</p> <p><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_MoYSnHqbjs0/TaTnhQKB_tI/AAAAAAAAFbE/WB3lj6EkTtM/s640/DSC01647.JPG" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p> <p>Below is a photo of the touch-screen connection on the broken screen:</p> <p><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_MoYSnHqbjs0/TaTniwypcQI/AAAAAAAAFbs/mNhOSOZ6KY4/s640/DSC01650.JPG" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p> <p>At one point I looked down at all the disassembled pieces on the table and thought that it would never go back together again.  Fortunately I found a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbR56jSplRs" target="_blank">youtube video</a> that walked you through the teardown, which I found very useful as it showed you how much pressure was needed to remove the connectors, but it actually didn't show how to remove the touch screen from the frame.  The trick is to gently pull away the thin plastic bar that is located below the touch-screen connector.  This allows you to slip the connector behind it and away from the frame.  The new touch-screen connector simply slides underneath it.</p> <p>So iFixIt was a great help but they could definitely use some videos and specific instructions on how to replace commonly broken items like screens.</p> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/atrix-touch-screen-replacement">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjSrsRlu9UucMBU4VdLurS6SgF4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjSrsRlu9UucMBU4VdLurS6SgF4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjSrsRlu9UucMBU4VdLurS6SgF4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjSrsRlu9UucMBU4VdLurS6SgF4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/V1ZMKBdz-y8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/atrix-touch-screen-replacement Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:15:00 -0700 OpenHeatMap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/-99vUgxw4fU/openheatmap http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/openheatmap <p> <p>I haven't posted in a little while as I've been heads down with a project for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  They used <a href="http://www.cosanta.com/fasttrack">Cosanta FastTrack</a> to track clients who received the <a href="http://sfcdcp.org/tdapclinics.html">Tdap vaccine</a> last weekend and I'm working on some visualizations based on the zipcode data.  I've been taking some of the things I've learned from the <a href="http://p2pu.org/webcraft/online-maps-openlayers">P2PU OpenLayers class</a> (but never finished) and putting together an OpenLayers-based map.  As part of that I'm rethinking some data model decisions I made for storing metric properties in Google App Engine's BigTable.  Currently I aggregate information as part of the datastore write operation as the write-rates are low relative to the read-rates.  Now I'm starting to realize that some of the data I lost by aggregating will come in handy for new datastore queries I'm coming with.</p> <p>So I'm continuing the process of pushing more data down to each leaf and removing any traces of normalization.  I'm going to prototype an end-to-end use case to see how quickly I can aggregate the data during the reads.</p> <p>I read on <a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/03/23/pete-warden-openheatmap-data-science-toolkit/">GigaOm</a> that Pete Warden released his Data Science Toolkit.  He has a great time-based map of <a href="http://www.openheatmap.com/examples/us_unemployment_county/">US unemployment rate by county</a>:<div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-03-24/ugiEAwjfwagjHgmIzvGlmrduszfHpFwGJBuCGgrcHwJjHijvClAktabjaGjv/Screenshot.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screenshot" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-03-24/ugiEAwjfwagjHgmIzvGlmrduszfHpFwGJBuCGgrcHwJjHijvClAktabjaGjv/Screenshot.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>You really see the unemployment rate (higher => more red) blow up in 2008.</p> <p>Enough distractions for one day, back to work.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/openheatmap">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CPT62VVmfKo1XzBiTIF70uUFbq4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CPT62VVmfKo1XzBiTIF70uUFbq4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CPT62VVmfKo1XzBiTIF70uUFbq4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CPT62VVmfKo1XzBiTIF70uUFbq4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/-99vUgxw4fU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/openheatmap Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:41:00 -0800 AirBnB Waipio http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/2_lqXl4k64g/airbnb-waipio http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/airbnb-waipio <p> <p>We spent our last night in another airbnb spot and it was yet another gem. The airbnb experiment on Big Island worked out great, each place  had a unique local twist. <p /> The owner, Steve, ground some coffee for us and left some fresh fruit in the fridge. The house bordered a large reserve that ran down to the ocean. The path down there was through some banana trees and some trees with gigantic leaves.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/RGVbOCJEoCktf6tTV0NlD0GyMEoQ5eoi0YhGIohY8mlmyN9qdzOG4r01O0ee/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_1" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/nCTPAwXKfKmDR9rrK4emDVJj6zeu3ZtE9yqedAwVCJxsb1zGwm3105OV5z9T/photo_1.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/HHZvNILX9KitHJvg0bZVblN0iAHtyZ8uicCaJUmJyFGhcvJDzx2bhewobHX2/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_4" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/tHAmJswkjinETVohOY7phZFnYbC8V9AEAE6aUdKdj5SoF3MXyO75TJuIKfAw/photo_4.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_5" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/EQa2ObFiG13xOga0Z4SNHDyUY9yBbqmUM8AsIo1PUE5S8cTpQ3knWKHL7AxI/photo_5.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/airbnb-waipio">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/airbnb-waipio">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qqxZbyUk0UDKSY6e9_9JlVFsnCo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qqxZbyUk0UDKSY6e9_9JlVFsnCo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qqxZbyUk0UDKSY6e9_9JlVFsnCo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qqxZbyUk0UDKSY6e9_9JlVFsnCo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/2_lqXl4k64g" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/airbnb-waipio Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:36:00 -0800 Waipio Valley http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/Ht_pTIRCsaU/waipio-valley http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/waipio-valley <p> <p>For our last night in Hawaii, we stayed in another airbnb place right near the Waipio Valley Lookout. We were lucky to catch the view with some fog rolling out that night and again in the morning with clear skies. <p /> The cliffs rise up about 2000 feet from the valley floor and you can either hike or drive a 4WD down. We walked down about 1/3 of the way as we didn't have time for much else. You can hear the waves crash into the black sand beach down below.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Photo_1" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/GacZueZPmRQcRYPoV1nHIG4QXhzLR2JVrdKUABpNkFhSOTspXgw7S7yZr1gH/photo_1.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/jikggUOIODrTczmHYrMwJWx0dCQ9Lm5qc0ltLueYFCaQpEAQl8JIBca0cmhA/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/wvFjgS2HlHEL7rJ5DbnNFI5awyY73vGIvMXKKcL2oDp2X0r74eYfnhQGPxdG/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_4" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/iu8hE9suBLth7duRK4ctGwESymzW5xhfTKcNFarAVBeRigoQukzC7gHANtDL/photo_4.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_5" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/OpWGb6aN7t5PD2Yn0g1zlEvNgHLcbwnkFSwUW7Iu2TTFjMqFnKKh5uxyt2VH/photo_5.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/waipio-valley">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/waipio-valley">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OAZDWB-XLn-faKwLmkAV8zQiZPk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OAZDWB-XLn-faKwLmkAV8zQiZPk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OAZDWB-XLn-faKwLmkAV8zQiZPk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OAZDWB-XLn-faKwLmkAV8zQiZPk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/Ht_pTIRCsaU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/waipio-valley Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:57:00 -0800 Cedar Cabin, located in the jungles of Big Island Hawaii http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/3DJT6Urpp3Q/cedar-tag-a-cabin-in-the-jungles-of-big-islan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cedar-tag-a-cabin-in-the-jungles-of-big-islan <p> <p>We just left our cabin near Pahoa and we almost extended our trip because the place was that nice. I'll post more photos when I get home but I wanted to get a few out there during the drive to Waipio. <p /> The cabin is off the grid, with power coming from a couple of 12 volt batteries that are charged by solar panels. There are no windows, just  fine mesh screens that run floor to ceiling. <p /> There is a full bathroom with a transparent roof, so it is filled with natural light. The shower is hooked up to a propane heater so the  water was piping hot with a lot more pressure than I expected. <p /> The kitchen was fully screened in as well and had running water, a single burner propane stove, and some pots and pans. We cooked up some dinner on Thursday night and we had everything we needed. <p /> I didn't know it at the time i booked the place but the cabin is part of a yoga center, which is a gorgeous 2 story building a short walk through the trees. More on that later...</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/b10XdOOHLk0SK4zEOHg3ZyLmfpkPQUeAt6UtDupV4W5QjAfOD32ba9OgIGwY/photo_1.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo_1" height="375" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/waZYuGdOB90krycXZtC8wD7mBAHkrEtPFQCX0ooRhLCjXmd0VOHCkqFOrcaE/photo_1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/h4woUKHhuwOsK2B0SrlKArds9KFzYymoXtUtOyU7ab48TKhopu3XoyavoBlN/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/JN2LdFZsLTWmJmr19OHfqqPH4iY2BlVLoRF2se6PCfpLHqEHs36yu1PEODWt/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_4" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/8ydpdio2Y0SRtRg1u7x11qJQcTxwODcJQ53e4H1Lfr9TxZuxKK5WK8rQ1DLT/photo_4.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_5" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/rIdjU3xsnp1SGTut0MrQUiiLSARWCOJX1Ix5ixPQg1AkUXEiKltbENJsI2Es/photo_5.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cedar-tag-a-cabin-in-the-jungles-of-big-islan">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cedar-tag-a-cabin-in-the-jungles-of-big-islan">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xI7Hw_KhTsls29ZuTJEBgJkoSs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xI7Hw_KhTsls29ZuTJEBgJkoSs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xI7Hw_KhTsls29ZuTJEBgJkoSs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xI7Hw_KhTsls29ZuTJEBgJkoSs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/3DJT6Urpp3Q" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/cedar-tag-a-cabin-in-the-jungles-of-big-islan Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:42:00 -0800 Kilauea lava flow http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/nv2gQpdrr8M/kilauea-lava-flow http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/kilauea-lava-flow <p> <p>Lava from Kilauea poured over Hwy 130 the last couple of days and we were lucky enough to see some new flows tonight. The iPhone camera is clearly out of its depths but you can get the idea from what I've posted. The road was on fire and every so often some red hot lava would pour out and start to harden.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Photo_1" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/55sBcc5NSwDQ9QqIqxXqsF6j7VTSmu6DKjXSu7aJgPvmltN9Rh0Mo3KB9Psd/photo_1.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/pfs6SXnA82ADw11Qx3y0CcDLARqbJKk4YkfU3IPSFXWVuYLBvxaPR7KWtbMe/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/uVuQsF2xCIjZXYDX1e46GCGWA9chHIi0AcccXiDqgkKACXRUHWhoGAvfWwMV/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_4" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/kCNEDbOpdWypJ6wW8Rairnm6x4KDg9sn91cORzHPMwOrVKZwxg4sWG2q4dbJ/photo_4.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/kilauea-lava-flow">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/kilauea-lava-flow">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/UlL7ufvIArbC2aTvNHUmt-JquNA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/UlL7ufvIArbC2aTvNHUmt-JquNA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/UlL7ufvIArbC2aTvNHUmt-JquNA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/UlL7ufvIArbC2aTvNHUmt-JquNA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/nv2gQpdrr8M" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/kilauea-lava-flow Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:20:00 -0800 South Point Hawaii http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/zDbgZK2JHFY/south-point-hawaii http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/south-point-hawaii <p> <p>South Point is the tail end of the US and the nearest continental landfall is 7500 miles away: Antarctica.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Photo_1" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/w1ZsT5SmOnNODag0Rg3OPa4ohchrJOegDyS65HXfRcNnLwtbATkaN9Ij6kSQ/photo_1.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/alzC2khEz0J3l0ojI35Ef58QkN8QPHske7iqe9DUgaLA5XAFLgCLtPnwlz2g/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/C6y4QD3hSsiFJ94XM5KyqwZZNrJ4FVL6vp02cUO4k5BW1TnzURhcFzqQMvsn/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_4" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/bIg8yf3jGhR37SxsmBCBhVFsbazyJihRbRypuBE3gnDR4KieDqQUla9qfV80/photo_4.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_5" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/Y3CS79QGMaMsiooZVFqLEdRp5czycRudbWrR6Z1dJkCtLoKhhTAeTolQDncj/photo_5.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/south-point-hawaii">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/south-point-hawaii">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fbPSXznandQR-_vK-31Z9QNPqQo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fbPSXznandQR-_vK-31Z9QNPqQo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fbPSXznandQR-_vK-31Z9QNPqQo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fbPSXznandQR-_vK-31Z9QNPqQo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/zDbgZK2JHFY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/south-point-hawaii Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:22:19 -0800 Night dive off Kona http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/lrQG-_e8tEs/night-dive-off-kona-0 http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/night-dive-off-kona-0 <p> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/h7GWnLOOZzuCkLMEJyDmgPI2oLHQQ1xTV1co9L0Z2H4bCVNU1SgYLu9NAM82/photo_1.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo_1" height="375" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/AnZVJYwqEpiXqTQJUQ5c6vS3gxyIHuDBnc6CGU8JPgb7J7Li0YSlEE9SvW23/photo_1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/aXA5zrsUEonuGAUEVpq8OfPeuBfb4uihHBhdgaHNhgHG5X5FpTs2yRg2zL8L/photo_2.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo_2" height="375" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/aww1UE5zRRF5D3DUgGueDq2CbUYul3wu380VM4ZhrctuTPmo27Ek577RHCVu/photo_2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/Wnb9EQj596i4qoKfWPBO1Og0CEGZ6s4HuHdleBLDW4hhvMEWEUVMxCAiBNci/photo_3.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo_3" height="375" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/XL6hW1tx7edtmfnZrJ6MsRYNUJbX2IxzWXdwq6NLL6krD7Tc7mmcbx5UJq0V/photo_3.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/night-dive-off-kona-0">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/night-dive-off-kona-0">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/acnD82mjqvat-q7igVbrPVl4l9M/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/acnD82mjqvat-q7igVbrPVl4l9M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/acnD82mjqvat-q7igVbrPVl4l9M/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/acnD82mjqvat-q7igVbrPVl4l9M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/lrQG-_e8tEs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/night-dive-off-kona-0 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:18:00 -0800 Breakfast at The Coffee Shack http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/8dGune_U1FA/breakfast-at-the-coffee-shack http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/breakfast-at-the-coffee-shack <p> <p>About 20 minutes South of Kona. Parking is tough as it is very popular but the views are spectacular. We got the Bus Island Benedict: pan-seared mahi mahi with all the fixins.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Photo_1" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/b6NkeSDKcwADI5Zm7Fr8H6I3uIUqAOvf0v4fXdU65zFHeQiZJEU6eIfwVGsM/photo_1.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_2" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/nFh3vRskvNckBhFuVjs151RDGqgiyIcFCCM8YCzKcd30gEnj8pH0nqpl9pNk/photo_2.jpg" width="320" /> <img alt="Photo_3" height="240" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/seanhorgan/z8QCWHe8nNtw1RmYbwtNI3d6Aue7L835XBarCMlSnz2KkzpwMwkDv0iQ10NA/photo_3.jpg" width="320" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/breakfast-at-the-coffee-shack">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/breakfast-at-the-coffee-shack">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ezjzNtpTbDxapgRpSndbu2yJqu8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ezjzNtpTbDxapgRpSndbu2yJqu8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ezjzNtpTbDxapgRpSndbu2yJqu8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ezjzNtpTbDxapgRpSndbu2yJqu8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/8dGune_U1FA" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/breakfast-at-the-coffee-shack Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:15:00 -0800 VCs for Volunteers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/Uzenk8WMCd8/39203731 http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/39203731 <p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; color: #000000;">I was recently invited to participate in a Community and Partner Feedback Session with Hands On Sacramento, the local affiliate of the Hands On Network.  Deanna Berg, the new Director, wanted to reexamine the organization's goals and its effective as a community volunteer organization.  Representatives from the Mayor’s office, corporate partners, and non-profit programs attended the session, and facilitated by Amanda Daflos (Deloitte).  In this post I’ll discuss some of my experiences with volunteerism here in Sacramento, how I got involved with Hands On, and the concept of an outreach program incubator that would add a lot of value to the community.</span></p> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As anyone who is familiar with the civic scene in Sacramento knows, the over 3000 non-profits in the region make for a crowded space. While this level of participation is amazing, it often leads to the duplication of services and can inhibit coordination of efforts. Especially in a time of reduced funding across the board, non-profits and volunteer organizations need to focus on where they provide unique value, just as any for-profit business would.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When I first moved to Sacramento just over a year ago, one of my major goals was to make a difference in the local community.  After scouring the Internet to find volunteer opportunities, I was more confused than when I started as there appeared to be different “Volunteer Sacramento” organizations, one run by the city and a separate non-profit that grew from United Way.  The city maintains the website </span><a href="http://www.volunteersac.com/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.volunteersac.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> while the non-profit maintains </span><a href="http://www.volunteersac.org/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.volunteersac.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.  Both use variants of "Volunteer" and "Sacramento" on facebook and twitter and the other non-profits refer to them interchangeably.  </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Add to this Hands On Sacramento and “California Volunteers” and there seemed to be at least 4 different databases.  I’m like most people in that I prefer one-stop shopping, be it Google, Facebook, Amazon for my various search, social, and consumer needs.  Barry Shwartz drives this point home in “</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060005688/seanhorgansho-20"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” and I believe the same goes when finding places to spend our precious volunteer hours.  The numerous and often conflicting sources of opportunities served only to increase the time it took for me to take it all in and choose.</span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I decided to use Hands On Sacramento as their website user experience was clean and easy to use and I could sign up for recurring volunteer programs.  I was also able to list some of my interests and skills and this helped connect me to the H1N1 Flu Clinic program at Sacramento County’s Public Health Department, which I’ve written about </span><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/h1n1-clinic-attendance-and-website-access"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.  The depth of that experience and the network of people I met lead me to develop a mobile application called </span><a href="http://www.cosanta.com/fasttrack"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">FastTrack</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to automate the collection and processing of vaccine data.</span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond a consolidation in the volunteer/non-profit databases, an area I think that Hands On Sacramento can better support their mission is to help incubate the next-generation of outreach programs.  With so many established programs swamped with volunteers and understaffed to manage them, it can be difficult for someone with a specific passion to find an outlet.  The parallels with the business community are clear: some of the most innovative people are the least likely to capitalize on their creative energies inside existing organizations.  </span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To continue with the business analogy, I see the need for an organization to play the roles of a Venture Capitalist for Volunteers.  Broken down by functional area:</span><br /> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the local landscape</span> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Identify, prioritize, and publish the needs in the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">local</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> community, both met and unmet: A Need Dashboard.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maintain a list of past and present programs and their impact</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make the local connections</span> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Develop and maintain relationships with local government, non-profits, and corporate partners</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Act as a funnel to local media to help market and promote</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Periodic reviews of current programs, challenges, and new opportunities with local leaders</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Incubate new programs</span> <ul> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Clear metrics that define community impact and success criteria</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assign mentors to develop and shepherd</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Identify like-minds and facilitate partnerships</span></li> <li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Match ideas with needs</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The goal is not to centralize decision making or program development, but to provide the information, connections, tools and forum that local innovators need to focus their ideas and move them forward.  Any organization that takes on this role must be careful not to pick winners or erect barriers.</span><p /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m encouraged by the level of participation and interest in making our community better.  As confusing as it was when I first moved here to find the right match, I appreciated that I had so much to choose from.  As we move towards reduced funding, greater accountability, and increased demand on non-profits, we also need to help the next generation of programs to take root where they are most needed.  I believe the existing support networks like </span><a href="http://www.handsonnetwork.org/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">hands on</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and </span><a href="http://serve.gov/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">serve.gov</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> need new locally-supported incubator programs to fully accomplish their mission to </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“inspire, equip, and mobilize people to change lives through service”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> [</span><a href="http://www.handsonnetwork.org/about/what-we-do"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">].</span></div> <p /> <div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. <a href="http://www.handsonnetwork.org/about/what-we-do">http://www.handsonnetwork.org/about/what-we-do</a></span></div> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/39203731">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cJpqeICUNu9j0zmKQ1qyxZsoldY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cJpqeICUNu9j0zmKQ1qyxZsoldY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cJpqeICUNu9j0zmKQ1qyxZsoldY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cJpqeICUNu9j0zmKQ1qyxZsoldY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/Uzenk8WMCd8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/39203731 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:59:00 -0800 Peer to Peer Education http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/KNA-JLQ-P6c/peer-to-peer-education http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/peer-to-peer-education <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="P2pu" height="47" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-12-27/ldkmrDtlyGfrwjxeiivkwkvdrAElHynohizidxIjlmDxDdoFfAIpEFCeaxsz/p2pu.png.scaled500.png" width="160" /> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">I love to learn new things and I'm in an industry and part of a generation that encourages self-directed learning.  When I've interviewed software engineers or managers, I like to ask how they stay current because the field moves so quickly.  You learn a lot about someone by what the read and how the learn new things.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Entire product lines rise and fall in a matter of a few years (think dashboard GPS) and returning to a university to get a formal degree isn't going to cut it.  I've used my online O'Reilly Safari Books account about a dozen times this year and I just canceled my subscription because my most recent work using the new (alpha-1.2) Google API Java Client wasn't covered in any book; it was hardly covered in Google's online docs.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">There are no shortage of self learning sites on the web. From the big Open Content players like <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm">MIT OpenCourseWare</a>, <a href="http://ocw.umb.edu/">UMass Boston</a>, and <a href="http://oyc.yale.edu/">Yale</a>, to the more specific skill sites like <a href="http://www.soyouwanna.com/">SoYouWanna</a>, you can find just about anything.  When I needed to brush up on some statistics skills earlier in the year, I was quickly able to find some course materials that gave me just what I needed.  </span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">I'm excited to see this taken to the next logical level by <a href="http://p2pu.org/">P2PU</a>: Peer to Peer University.  I'm looking forward to trying out one of the courses, probably <a href="http://p2pu.org/webcraft/online-maps-openlayers">Online maps using OpenLayers</a>.  I've wanted to create an OSM Map of Fallujah, similar to <a href="http://mapkibera.org/">Map Kiberia</a>.  For a full list of the draft courses for the first half of 2011, check out this link:</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://p2pu.org/course/find?course_status[00_draft]=00_draft">http://p2pu.org/course/find?course_status[00_draft]=00_draft</a></span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">It's not much of a stretch to say that education will go through some fundamental changes in the next 25 years.</span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/peer-to-peer-education">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pl6yJDxAE8WsNeU9bYvB1rz6g80/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pl6yJDxAE8WsNeU9bYvB1rz6g80/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pl6yJDxAE8WsNeU9bYvB1rz6g80/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pl6yJDxAE8WsNeU9bYvB1rz6g80/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/KNA-JLQ-P6c" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/peer-to-peer-education Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:59:00 -0700 Deborah Aschheim and visualizing information http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~3/LpjB5MF8DiY/deborah-aschheim-and-visualizing-information http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/deborah-aschheim-and-visualizing-information <p> <div style=""> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;">LA artist Deborah Aschheim recently spoke about her public artwork "Taxonomy", which was just installed on the exterior facade of the new Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library in Sacramento.  The library was completed in August of this year and it looks amazing, outside and in.  You know a library gets it right when it is packed full of people at 7pm on a Tuesday.   The picture below gives a small taste of what it looks like: </span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Taxonomy_medium" height="165" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-10-12/tFGylJdwxvgbsiEhdDxwuJDAFrCBxsfIcjnrppHdrktbGfvzAzAhjBjiqtfk/taxonomy_medium.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="120" /> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;">It immediately reminded of the <strong><a href="http://www.bpl.org/branches/allston.htm#">Allston branch</a></strong> of the Boston Public Library, another great public resource.  </span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;">I was drawn to Deborah's talk as I like to hear from artists who try to capture and reveal dense information in their work.  We are inundated with an ever-increasing supply of facts, charts, and analysis, which serve mostly to confuse the hell out of everyone.  True command of the subject is achieved when you bring the focus to those elements that are needed to evoke an emotion (from an artistic perspective) or make a business decision (from a corporate perspective).  She discussed one of <a href="http://www.deborahaschheim.com/drawings" title="her drawings">her drawings</a>, titled "Christine", which is a visual map of everything she knew about meeting a woman one week prior.  Attributes or things she was told about her are represented in green while things she observed are in red:</span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://media.deborahaschheim.com/filter/l/transfer/img/dr_9.jpg" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;">While the small version of the image doesn't convey much, you can imagine what a similar drawing of you would communicate.  A piece with more contrast is "People who are interesting because they died", which Deborah describes as</span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br /></span></p> <blockquote style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 40px; padding: 10px;"> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #808080;">People who died while I was young are burned into my brain. To make this drawing, I started with myself as the large node in the center, and I visualized the spreading activation of synapses as I remembered people across the network. The people who died are the red nodes.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="http://media.deborahaschheim.com/filter/l/transfer/img/dr_2.jpg" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;">What I find most fascinating is her work that lies at the intersection of psychology, neurology, and art, especially <a href="http://www.deborahaschheim.com/projects/on-memory/forgetting-curve" title="The Forgetting Curve">The Forgetting Curve</a>, which is a term that describes the way memory decays over time.  A glimpse of her dedication is the 10-year longitudinal study she is conducting (on her own) where she records memories by taking photos and notes at set times.  Since 2006 she has carried around this little beeper every other month that reminds her to make a record of what is happening at that instant.  By 2012 she expects to have about 10,000 of these memories and she plans to periodically test her recall ability.  I'm proud of myself if I remember to bring home all the groceries from the store.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;">The piece she installed at the library is titled "Taxonomy" and the only picture I have is at the top of this post and it doesn't do it much justice.  Her goal was to create a visual representation of the catalog of books in the library.  She started with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification" title="Dewey Decimal Classification">Dewey Decimal Classification</a>, which now seems like a prehistoric approach to classification but is probably the most common system in existence.  I didn't know how a library picked the books for a particular branch but Deborah explained that when a new branch opens, the library staff reviews Census Bureau data to understand the demographic they are trying to reach.  Apparently, that's how they decide to fill a bookshelf full of vampire novels; they know the local teens will be breaking down the doors.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Deborah is currently working at the University of California, San Francisco, <a href="http://memory.ucsf.edu/" title="Memory and Aging Center">Memory and Aging Center</a>, where she is working with scientists and patients to product public art.  Researchers have found that patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and autism, gain the ability to think and create artistically.  An article in <a href="http://today.ucsf.edu/stories/memory-and-aging-center-examines-artistic-expression-among-patients/" title="UCSF Today">UCSF Today</a> goes into a lot more detail and you can also look at some samples from the <a href="http://memory.ucsf.edu/Art/gallery.htm" title="Patient Art Gallery">Patient Art Gallery</a>.  </span></p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> </p> </div> <p> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/deborah-aschheim-and-visualizing-information">Permalink</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_ipBHsAqcGtNDVzpWbFJ1CPdY8k/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_ipBHsAqcGtNDVzpWbFJ1CPdY8k/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_ipBHsAqcGtNDVzpWbFJ1CPdY8k/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_ipBHsAqcGtNDVzpWbFJ1CPdY8k/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/QZpi/~4/LpjB5MF8DiY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/953578/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eMEmfadJ05 Sean Horgan Sean Sean Horgan http://seanhorgan.posterous.com/deborah-aschheim-and-visualizing-information