Quantified Self
"The Quantified Self" is a network of users and suppliers of methods and hardware and software solutions that help them eg record, analyze and evaluate environmental and personal data. A central goal represents the gain of knowledge among others dar. for personal, health and sports, but also custom -specific issues
The members of the Quantified Self movement organized in 35 countries worldwide in approximately 130 cities regularly held " Meetups ". The core of this meeting are reports from users about self - tracking solutions for sports, health and other personal areas as well as product presentations from startups and established companies. The Quantified Self groups serve the networking of users, developers and suppliers of digital products for sports, health and other areas of the use of personal data.
History
The website was launched by the American quantifiedself.com Wired journalist Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly in 2007. In 2008, she gathered some like-minded people from the San Francisco Bay Area, to discuss their self- tracking experience. Since then, the experience reports and presentations will be posted on the associated website. In subsequent years, other Quantified Self groups around the world. In Europe, the first groups in Amsterdam and London were founded in 2010. Since 2011 find international conferences with users, developers, journalists and business representatives from the health care industry instead. In Germany, meanwhile groups were founded in Aachen, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart and the German- interested exchange ideas in a Facebook group. The events in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley are now finding place in the environment of the Singularity University, and Stanford University, and has become a meeting place for many pioneers in the fields of technology, health and personal development.
Background
Long before the emergence of the Quantified Self movement was for chronically ill or elite athletes the regular measurement and documentation of vitality values and activities of everyday life. Also often associated with Quantified Self desire to improve the physical and emotional well-being is independent of time and generations. Through the development of networked vitality sensors such as scales, blood pressure monitors and pedometers and the advent of smartphone apps to collect data on sport and health, it has become easier to understand the personal development based on data and control. Gary Wolf, founder of Quantified Self, called the collection of data about themselves as a mirror to know himself and improve.
In addition to physical and medical oriented applications, the basic idea of the Quantified Self movement found its fulfillment in the observation of daily routines and their engagement with our environment. Ordinary as email traffic, the use of the phone or the frequency of meetings can thus become the focus of the analysis.
Methods
Self tracker use various approaches to detect data. Simple tools such as diaries and Excel spreadsheets for manual holding of information is increasingly being replaced by smartphone apps and vitality sensors, which facilitate the collection of data and make it accessible to the mass market. New devices such as networked scales, pedometers or sleeping sensors automate data collection and are usually a software for visualization of values. In addition to the collection of data on self-observation, many products are aimed at the self-motivation of the users and try to motivate them to one of them desired behavior. Background of this effect are called feedback loops that promote awareness of behavior by a change in behavior. Many supporters of the Quantified Self movement develop their own solutions for the collection of data, experiment with self-made sensors or develop their own software applications. Thereby, the Quantified Self groups to a network of users, developers and suppliers of professional sports and health solutions as well as other applications, personal data has become. In addition to the technical orientation of the Quantified Self movement which means the growing field of wearables, the portable or integrated directly into clothing sensors, discussed and utilized, also arise cognate initiatives. So Life Modding considered difficult in note form the principles of personal development, which will be sought with the help of methods to improve the general health. These are based on the purposeful and positive impact on the personal living environment. The focus is on physical, psychological, cognitive and social development fields in the narrow sense.
Quantified Self in Germany
Germany's first Quantified Self Group was founded in September 2011 in Munich. Meanwhile, groups in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and other German cities have emerged. Across Germany Florian Schumacher draws largely responsible for the spread of Quantified Self. Since early 2012, he organized the "Show & Tell " meetings in Berlin and Munich, support organizers in other cities and presents the Quantified Self movement at conferences. Schumacher is the founder of the company founded in 2012 German Quantified Self blog, which reports on the activities of the network. Since 2013 Meetups also be performed in Hamburg and Cologne and other organizers contribute to the German Quantified Self blog at. The circle of assets cares besides the actual website more social media channels and seeks in this way a network of the German QS - groups. In addition to the media exploration in TV, traditional print media as well as the various online newsrooms, so does the scientific attention of the thematic complex of Quantified Self and Big Data.
Criticism
Quantified Self is partially received critically in Germany. Issues of data security, surveillance, negligent confidence in the data or the risk of addiction are listed including as criticisms.