An ongoing OpenCare reading list

This is a wiki and anyone logged in can and is invited to Edit. If you come across articles or media worth checking out, add it please or post about it in a comment below.

  • The Future of Care in the Hands of Hackers by Remy & Ben (Living on the Edge in 2014 session)

    “a number of conversations have started springing up, talk of distributed pension plans, hacker care homes and intergenerational meetups. (Just imagine if the EdgeRyders community management team was composed of your grandparents generation, it actually begins to make a lot of sense.)  Disruptive innovation often comes from unexpected places and perhaps nothing could be more unexpected in this moment than an intergenerational alliance focused on social innovation.”

  • Notes from The Future of Care session at LOTE4
  • Welcome to retirement, by Jeff

    “it is time to explore the different possibilities that can be made to exist for people outside the “system”. What options are there? How will this be financed? What can/will the state do? Private corps? What technological solutions will there be?”

  • Stewardship Ethnographic report, by Inga and other Edgeryders

    “When a community becomes the main actor taking care of shared assets, instead of waiting for help from a state, it can be beneficial, as we see from the case studies. But it needs to be stressed that even if a community becomes the main caretaker and stewards common assets, it does not exist in a vacuum. Thus it needs to be in a constant dialogue and communication with local authorities and policy makers.” (p.17/18 as of April 19th)

  • At 90 designing tech for ageing population ("For a friend of mine, I tried to design air bags of graded sizes that would be activated at a lurch of 15 degrees." She is stumped on how to find the right power source for her air bags.") 
  • The island of long life. On the Greek island of Ikaria, life is sweet.. and very, very long. So what is the locals' secret?

    The island has not escaped the Greek economic crisis and around 40% of its inhabitants are unemployed. Nearly everyone grows their own food and many produce their own wine. There is also a strong tradition of solidarity among Ikarians.[] After the war, thousands of communists and leftists were exiled to the island, bringing an ideological underpinning to the Ikarians’ instinct to share. As one of the island’s few doctors told Buettner, “It’s not a ‘me’ place. It’s an ‘us’ place.”[]

    “We keep the old people with us. There is an old people’s home, but the only people there are those who have lost all their family. It would shame us to put an old person in a home. That’s the reason for longevity.”

  • Eastern Europe's population has higher mortality risk and greater difficulty for care systems to cope with this. "The most important implication is for health policy. Much of the greater morbidity and mortality among the middle-aged is driven by preventable conditions such as cardiovascular disease. This is because the health systems, geared to treating in hospital, are not configured to the management of public health with its emphasis on lifestyle changes, prevention, and disease management. Reducing morbidity and mortality would allow the countries to reap a second “demographic dividend” from a healthier and longer-living population."
  • Germany moves away from US-dominated IoT standards group
  • IBM and Apple want to share how you are with others (retrieving health data from fitness apps)
  • Dutch students choose to live in nursing homes rent-free (as long as they keep the residents company)
  • Innovation in Health: Co-Creating for a Healthier Society, article in The Changer - "The importance of health has long been recognized in Germany. In Prof. Ganten’s words, “Science and culture are the only sectors that have always been maintained at a high level in our country in spite of the historical catastrophes it has faced.” Unfortunately, science has also been misused for terrible purposes, especially in the field of research on the human body and diseases. That being said, the most effective way to ensure abuse won’t happen again is to make science the property of the largest number of people possible, so it can’t be controlled by a select few. “Science can’t be closed”, Prof. Ganten added. And co-creation is the road to progress."
  • The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things, book by Bruce Sterling
  • IoT Podcast series: http://iotpodcast.com/
  • Information Security Professionals May Not Be Prepared for IoT after allAs you might expect, the IoT is fraught with security holes and a growing population of users who are rather unconcerned about it - mainly because they don't know and don't think about it enough.  But do you want someone hacking into your Google Car?  This article points out that many IoT devices and projects don't even know all that connect to them. (via John Coate)
  • OpenCare pinterest board (via Costantino)
  • BBC Frontline Documentary on Two UK Doctors Helping Refugees
  • Dutch Volunteer Turns Refugee Boats and Life Jackets Into Backpacks. Story about a Dutch woman who made a super clever hack of the junk boat and lifejacket parts to make backpacks out of them using a few simple tools, which she then taught to the refugees.  An excellent maker story solving a real problem without having to get too high tech or even ask for wither permission or forgiveness.. (via John Coate)