On Our Radar - from Disney's magical wristband to health in your hands

Wearable tech

Disney's £1bn bet on a magical wristband (via Wired)

If there is anyone that hasn't already read this piece out there, you should. Basically this wristband and the software behind it turn the park into a giant computer. Streaming real-time data about where guests are, what they’re doing, and what they want. Disney is also crunching visitor preferences while you book online in order to make the visitor experience as 'frictionless' as possible.

New Firm Combines Wearables And Data To Improve Decision Making (via TechCrunch)

Big Brother in the workplace! A system that uses a smart employee badge to collect employee behavioral data, which it links to specific metrics with the goal of improving business performance. 

Data

The 7 most data rich companies in the world (via Data Economy)

We can never quite get our heads around Facebook stats like this: 'users upload 30 billion pieces of content between them every day, resulting in over 300 petabytes (3 million gigabytes) of information.'

Startups

The Startups Unbundling FedEx, UPS and the logistics industry (via CB Insights)

A brief overview of (literally) the movers and shakers in the logistics industry. 

Mobile Payments

Transactional Flexibility Is The Future Of Payments (via TechCrunch) 

Everyone thought it would be things like the Google Wallet to breakthrough the payment space. This article, and we would agree, says consumers will begin to see payment itself as a flexible tool, not limited to any one place or platform.

Health 

Your health in your hands (via Creative Review)

We're really interested to see how our relationship with the medical profession will change as the adoption of both consumer and clinical health tech services and devices becomes more widespread. This piece offers a gives a overview of the current landscape and some interesting provocations.

Embracing technology as a new approach to dementia (via KPMG)

Could neurogames take the 'gaming for good' agenda to a whole new level? 

On Our Radar: From charity porn failure to crowdfunding in space

Data

How Data Can Make You A Better Teacher (via teachthought.com)

Nice, accessible overview of the role that data can play in education, and the broader principles apply in many sectors.

How machine learning will fuel huge innovation over the next 5 years (via VentureBeat)

From healthcare to travel to advertising and more. The machines are coming. 

Digital marketing

Is personalization creepy? 6 experts weigh in (via HubSpot blog)

You have people's data. How do you deliver better services without creeping them out?

Digital Fundraising

Orgasms for world peace? A charity porn site can’t give its money away (via salon.com)

Who'd a thunk it?

From #P2P15| What Twitter Taught Us About Peer to Peer Fundraising (via npENGAGE)

A useful collation of Orlando conference chat on this issue.

Phone Lockscreen Becomes Important Fundraising Tool for Cash-Strapped Charity (via psfk.com)

Clever idea. Hope it catches on.

Crowd funding

The Curious Adventures of an Astronomer-Turned-Crowdfunder (via MIT Technology Review)

We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars...

On Our Radar: from small data driving IoT to the new app that gives you a glimpse into a single minute around the world

Data

Forget Big Data - Small Data Is Driving The Internet Of Things (via Forbes)

Despite what some may think, big data is not a requirement for IoT projects. Here’s a good short piece on the uses of small data.

The big deal about “big data”—your guide to what the heck it actually means (via arstechnica)

We liked this piece, which breaks down the buzz words. On big data: “It’s all about sorting variables and tracking them, piecing together things that humans can’t.”

Why Business That Use 'Big Data' Make More Money- Infographic (via Entrepreneur)

We’ve been looking into consumer behaviour and data these past few weeks and like this infographic of other examples of how big-data analytics are being used by businesses to make better decisions…and more money.

Mobile payments

Barclays to allow mobile payments based on Twitter handles (via Gigaom)

Users of Barclay’s Pingit mobile payments app will now be able to transfer money to one another using their Twitter handles.

Crowd funding

Pebble Time Vs. Flow Hive: Kickstarter, Indiegogo Projects Break Records (via Forbes)

Dissecting how crowdfunding has become an increasingly powerful as both a marketing and ecommerce tool, and remains effective for both first time inventors and returning companies.

Apps

Apps in pockets, bums on cinema seats (via BBC)

UsherU, which launches next month, is an app that gives cinemas the ability to send out alerts when a screening has a lot of empty seats.

This awesome app gives you a glimpse into a single minute around the world every day (via thenextweb)

Wondering what is happening around the world at this precise moment in time. Wonder no more with the new oneminute app!

On Our Radar: from digital humanitarians to predicting Olympics medal hauls

Data

Does bad software hurt non-profits? (via Fundraising Success)

[The answer is yes]

There's no such thing as anonymous data (via Harvard Business Review)

Hearing more and more people say this. Wondering how systems might react.

A global network of millions of genomes could be medicine’s next great advance (via MIT Technology Review)

What happen with the advent of the Internet of DNA?

Predicting the Olympics medal count (via Discovery)

Interesting data hack - useful to see the working out.

Tech for good

Experts urge technology boost for UN peacekeepers in ‘rapidly evolving, complex world’ (via UN News Centre)

“Being able to transition to a culture that values innovation is central to being able to execute more effectively on peacekeeping mandates.”

Charity digital marketing

How digital transformation improved Marie Curie’s marketing strategy (via econsultancy)

Highlighting the positive the positive impact of adapting to the digital world.

Online volunteering

Patrick Meier on single-click volunteering, the good side of tech (via memeburn)

Digital humanitarians. Are you one? 

On Our Radar: From the Trust Engineers at Facebook to the apps curbing drink driving

Data 

Trust Engineers (via Radiolab) 

Must listen Radiolab podcast this week on Facebook’s behavioural studies.

Facebook Heir? Time to Choose Who Manages Your Account When You Die (via WSJ)

Staying with Facbook, the social network now lets you designate a ‘Legacy Contact’ for your digital afterlife!

Maps and territories: explaining differences in recent reports on the UK’s 'tech' sectors (via Nesta)

Interesting breakdown of the new publications on the tech sector, which reflect the increasing policy interest in this space. The post also takes a good look at the different approaches to certain data sets and terminology used in each report.

The Oculus Rift could change big data analytics forever (via infoworld)

This company want to take data visualisation to the next level by showing real time representations of data sources.

Digital currencies 

Bitcoin is good money (via Business of Fashion)

If you’re behind on Bitcoin reading this is a good, short and accessible piece on how bitcoin stacks up when you evaluate it against the characteristics of money.

Apps

Three apps curbing drunk driving (via PSFK)

As technology improves, these types of apps are getting better and better at helping to solve real social issues.

Events 

Creative Data Club (via Sound and Music)

A plug for our friends at Sound and Music, who host a brilliant event around the creative use of data. Next week is all about music archives.

On Our Radar – from optimising your ‘Where’s Wally?’ search to data-informed careers guidance

Data science

Here’s Waldo: Computing the optimal search strategy for finding Waldo (via RandolOlson.com)

Who said data science had no practical uses? Discover the optimal search pattern to find Waldo (or Wally, to UK audiences).

When Big Data projects go right (via Forbes.com)

“…it could lead you to questions you would otherwise have never thought to ask.”

Data for good

A lot of Private Sector data is used for Public Good (via Computerworld.com)

Some early examples of this. Much more could be done, in our view.

LMI for All

LMI for all is an online data portal of labour market information that can be piped into websites and apps to help inform and guide careers decisions. We saw them speak at the Open Data Institute last week and thought we’d share.

Privacy

Managing privacy in the Internet of Things (via Harvard Business Review)

When everything talks to everything else, how can you keep a secret?

Digital marketing

The psychology of notifications (via TechCrunch)

Are we all now Pavlov’s Dogs?

Mobile payments

UK Consumers say lunch is on me… and on mobile (via eMarketer.com)

More evidence of the growing appetite for mobile payments in the UK.