Vancouver Quantified Self Meetup: Personal Informatics edition

We're having another meetup of the Vancouver chapter of the Quantified Self groups. I know this is hot on the heels of our last meetup, but we have some guests in town and it would be a shame not to take advantage of their presence.

For those not aware, SIG CHI, one of the largest human-computer interaction conferences is taking place in Vancouver this May. The conference includes all-day workshop (http://personalinformatics.org/chi2011) on research into different aspects of personal informatics, organized by Ian Li (http://www.ianli.com/).

Costs to attend the workshop alone start at $450, but some of the speakers have been kind enough to talk about their work at our meetup. We're still working out the final details but the evening will be a combination of recaps of some workshop's talks, demos, and opportunity for longer Q&A. I think this will be a real treat and hope you can attend. More details on what exactly constitutes personal informatics follows, or check out personalinformatics.org (http://personalinformatics.org/).

What is Personal Informatics

Personal informatics is a class of systems that help people understand their behaviors, habits, and thoughts. Developing such systems poses new challenges in human-computer interaction and creates opportunities for collaboration between diverse disciplines, including design, ubiquitous computing, persuasive technology and information visualization. This workshop will continue the conversation from the CHI 2010 workshop (http://personalinformatics.org/chi2010/) and extend the discussion of personal informatics to include behavioral theories that can guide the development of such systems, as well as the social implications of self-tracking.

Topics cover three major areas:

Challenges in developing personal informatics systems. Behavioral theories to guide the development of personal informatics systems, such as self-regulation and goal setting. Social implications of self-tracking.

Topics of Interest

New and current personal informatics applications and systems on the desktop and online Sensor and life-logging technologies that monitor various personal behavioral information Effective feedback techniques, such as visualizations, virtual agents, and persuasive technologies, that help users become more aware of their own behaviors Interaction techniques that alleviate the burden that personal informatics impose on engagement Effects of self-knowledge and self-awareness on behaviors and daily life Methods of conducting long-term studies to determine effects of information on user behavior