Wired News: RFID Keeps Track of Seniors

People from our lab were in DC for demos to various congresspeople and staffers this week of technology relating to healthcare. They showed off our "Caregiver's Assistant" which apparently went over well with all who saw it. (I've been doing data mining/learning work connected to this project for the last year or so.)

Update: The New Scientist writes us up too (without mentioning our lab directly).

CNN.com - 15 teams qualify for Mojave robot race - Mar 12, 2004

Following up on my Jane Jacobs posts on privacy, togetherness, and networks...

Obviously, there are significant differences between the social interactions and neighborhoods of city life and the social interactions and "neighborhoods" of online life. However, I think Jacobs's observations about the former provide interesting perspective on the latter.

"The cross-links that enable a district to function as a Thing are neither vague nor mysterious. They consist of working relationships among specific people, many of them without much else in common than that they share a fragment of geography.

   "'Togetherness' is a fittingly nauseating name for an old ideal in planning theory. This ideal is that if anything is shared among people, much should be shared. 'Togetherness,' apparently a spiritual resource of the new suburbs, works destructively in cities. The requirement that much shall be shared drives city people apart.

"Privacy is precious in cities. It is indispensable... In small settlements, everyone knows your affairs. In the city everyone does not -- only those you choose to tell will know much about you. This is one of the attributes of cities that is precious to most city people...

The next few posts will be excerpts from Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, her 1961 book about urban planning and city vitality. The whole thing is pretty good, but there were a few portions that would be of particular interest to anyone building/using social networks. Some of what she says will sound very familiar, and perhaps some will provoke lightbulbs over heads. Once I've posted a few excerpts, I'll comment more specifically on what I draw from it all. Excerpts: privacy, togetherness, and networks. And my thoughts.