Kevin Kelley on Lifelogging
The goal of lifelogging: to record and archive all information in one’s life. This includes all text, all visual information, all audio, all media activity, as well as all biological data from sensors on one’s body. The information would be archived for the benefit of the lifelogger, and shared with others in various degrees as controlled by him/her.
Some form of this total recall is inevitable, at least for some people. Partial recall from partial recording seems inevitable for the rest. We are all likely to record more and more of our lives.
Still the overriding concern is how to read, retrieve, and use this huge – and I mean huge – ocean of data that your life will generate. There’s one solution not normally offered in discussions of lifelogging that seems reasonable to me. Ten years ago computer scientist David Gelertner envisioned a new organizing metaphor for one’s growing cache of personal data. Instead of boxes and “windows” a lifelog should be centered on well, a life log, a timeline, chronological log of one’s life. "We're going from an artificial information storage scheme to a far more natural one. The idea of a timeline, a chronology, a diary, a daily journal, or a scrapbook is so much older and so much more organic and ingrained in human culture and history than the idea of a file hierarchy."
How the professionals do it
At the mine, the precious nuggets go in, preserving key data and slices of US past
Iron Mountain's vast data storage complex 220 feet underground houses historic photos, master recordings by Elvis Presley and other artists, and reams of sensitive business data.
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"Companies are beginning to worry about the security of their most vital records," said industry analyst Edward J. Atorino, managing director for Benchmark Co., a New York brokerage firm. "So you're seeing some of these new businesses, like microfilm, percolating below the surface. And Iron Mountain is taking advantage of it."
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Prints and negatives for these and thousands of other photos are stored in a freezer-like vault cooled to 45 degrees with 35 percent humidity. The vault also houses banks of card catalogs, glass plates in wooden crates, and rows of file cabinets crammed with photos of historic figures (or actors who have played them in movies), athletes, and celebrities: Jennifer Lopez is across from Thomas Jefferson; Martina Hingis has a place next to Hootie & the Blowfish.
Google tests online system to store health records
Google tests online system to store health records
Web search company Google Inc is testing in the United States an online storage bank where individuals can store and access their medical records, the company said on Thursday.
Just last week, Google said it was teaming up with the Cleveland Clinic, a leading academic medical center, to test an exchange of medical data that Google says will put the patient in charge of his own records. The electronic system will allow patients to control their records and interact with multiple physicians, health care service providers and pharmacies.
Google said other possible partners include health insurer Aetna Inc, medical testing company Quest Diagnostics, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies, and hospitals.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, addressing a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference in Orlando, Florida, described a secure information service in which consumers store their health records in a Web-based system on Google computers.
Access to medical records would require a login and password, he said. Privacy is one of the first principles of the system, Schmidt added.
"The information in your health record is yours and it doesn't get shared with anyone else without your permission," he said.
