Measuring Well-being (Take 2)

Given the unexpectedly large number of signups and waiting list for the first event, I'm creating a second for those who are unable to make Sep 13th and want to participate in this topic.

Cities like Somerville are measuring citizen happiness as part of personal well-being.[1] Many EU countries are also measuring well-being.[2] Since governments use surveys, there are many biases to account for, significiant time delays, much effort required, and time (often years) before policy makers can act on the data.

Surveys are also impractical for personal use, especially when monitoring our own behavioral data. How often would we complete a survey to tell us how our sleep patterns affect our daily performance, or how we're progressing toward some personal goal, or how we're feeling about that progress?

QS efforts for both personal and society benefit can currently take a lot of time, effort, and discipline. Can they be easier?

For example, our phones often gather large amounts of accelerometer data throughout the day. What if we could mine that data to find patterns in our daily movements that quantify our life satisfaction or well-being? Could such information be actionable for improving ourselves, our cities, and/or our schools? Could we share it with our spouse, our friends, our doctors, our teachers, our policy makers?

We're in a town swimming in cutting-edge medical, psychological, and educational technologies, so there are bound to be interesting possibilities. Let's enjoy some great beer and explore ideas together.

[1] http://www.somervillema.gov/news/results-happiness-survey-be-released-community-meeting-823
[2] http://www.beyond-gdp.eu/indicatorList.html?indicator=Well-being