H(app)athonA Direction for Big Data

We seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product counts air pollution and the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Robert F. Kennedy Address on the nature of the GDP University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968

Introduction

H(app)athon is a movement consisting of three components:

The H(app)athon Committee. A series of experts determine the parameters for a two-month research experiment to collect data focused on Gross National Happiness (GNH).

The H(app)athon Experiment. A series of global volunteers use a mobile app (or series of apps) to track their GNH focused data.

The H(app)athon Conference. Results of the H(app)athon Experiment along with top research in the science of happiness takes place in the Spring of 2013 in NYC.

Results from the conference will also be featured in the book H(app)y, to be released from Penguin Publishers in the Fall of 2013.

Guiding Principles for H(app)athon:

Live an Examined Life. We’re living in an era with unprecedented opportunity to measure our behavior in an effort to make positive transformation in our lives. The Quantified Self (QS) movement is leading this charge in the mobile arena, amplified by data collected via the framework of the Internet of Things (IOT). We feel people should utilize this technology to improve their health, lives, and communities.

Big Data Needs Direction. However data is collected, we currently lack a cohesive metric to bring knowledge to these numbers. We feel Gross National Happiness (GNH) provides a guiding framework where metrics of subjective well-being can be measured by QS and IOT.

Trends

Trend Number One:Gross National Happiness (GNH)

Gross National Happiness has become a global focus for politicians, economists, and business leaders.

The United Nations created a resolution (Happiness: Towards a Holistic Approach to Development) in the Summer of 2012 resulting in a recent Happiness Summit at the UN on the subject and a report commissioned from Columbia University by Jeffrey Sachs, the first World Happiness Report to inspire global governments to utilize metrics of well being for their citizens.

Measuring well-being is based on both quantitative and qualitative measures. While no global standards have been finalized, metrics like the ones below created by the Happiness Initiative for a survey distributed to thousands of US citizens shows the range of issues measured via GNH:

•Community Vitality•Cultural Vitality•Education and Learning•Environmental Quality•Governance•Material well-being•Physical Health•Psychological well-being•Time balance•Workplace Experience

Trend Number Two:Quantified Self (QS)

The Quantified Self (QS), created by Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf of WIRED magazine, is a movement and a methodology where people track multiple elements of their behavior, largely via mobile apps.

This map, created by Rachelle DiGregorio and featured in a recent CNN article, shows how QS apps can track different areas of a person’s life. Nobody has aggregated apps in this way for GNH data, which is the goal of the H(app)athon Committee/Experiment.

Trend Number Three:The Internet of

Things (IOT)

The Internet of Things, loosely defined, is a networked community of objects outfitted with sensors that can collect and transmit data.

We’re coming to a time when your fridge can ‘talk’ to smart-shelves at your local grocery store, or your local mailbox can communicate directly with the post office.

Companies like Cisco, HP, and IBM are investing billions of dollars into the IOT industry to better determine how objects interact with people in regards to behavior and preference.

When combining QS (self focused) apps with IOT (object focused) data, there is a powerful opportunity to aggregate insights about human behavior. How that data is viewed and used, however, has no existing standard.

The Movement

The H(app)athon Committee

The Committee is being finalized but currently features representatives from the World Economic Forum, MIT, The Happiness Initiative, Ashoka Changemakers, Quantified Self (the organization) frog design, and Salesforce.

The Committee will determine parameters for the H(app)athon Experiment by December 2012.

The H(app)athon Experiment.

The parameters for the Experiment as created by the Committee will be announced in numerous online venues as well as the H(app)athon website (www.happathon.com). Volunteers will be recruited globally and asked to download apps to measure their well-being to gather data that reflects Gross National Happiness. An open contest/call to create a H(app)athon app will also be announced, encouraging technology companies to offer mobile solutions to collect data via an app they create.

The H(app)athon Conference.

Results of the H(app)athon Experiment along with top research in the science of happiness will take place in the Spring of 2013 in NYC at The Paley Center. Experts from the QS, IOT, and GNH communities, along with app developers will gather to share how consumers and the business community can benefit by incorporating metrics of well being into their lives and work.

Results from the conference will also be featured in the book H(app)y, to be released from Penguin Publishers in the Fall of 2013.

Speaking (Full list TBD)Interested in speaking at the Conference? See contact information on the following page.

• Tim Leberecht, CMO of Frog Design• Thanassis Rikakis, Carnegie Mellon University• William Hoffman, World Economic Forum

Sponsoring We are currently seeking sponsors to fund coordination and implementation of the H(app)athon Experiment and Conference. Full details are TBD, but the Committee Members, Speakers and Audience targeted for H(app)athon include:

• Corporate/business leaders, largely marketing-focused• Emerging technology business/thought leaders• Social Media technology business/thought leaders• Quantified Self business/thought leaders• Human Resources business/thought leaders• CSR/Sustainability business/thought leaders

More Information: www.happathon.com(917) 597-3323@johnchavens