About Blokcast and Swine Flu Blokcast | 2009 (H1N1/Swine) Flu Twitter, Search & News Feeds

About BlokCast for H1N1 (Swine) Flu

Q: Who created BlokCast for H1N1 (Swine) Flu?

A: BlokCast for H1N1 (Swine) Flu was created by Stew Apelzin & Tom Stitt at Aperial. You can find out more about Aperial, Tom and Stew here: http://aperial.com.

Q: What inspired you to create the H1N1 (Swine) Flu BlokCast?

A: Tom, Stew and Aperial are facilitators for a Twitter-based healthcare professionals conversation community called Healthcare Communications & Social Media (aka @healthsocmed on Twitter, Twitter search hashtag #HCSM, web site http://healthsocmed.com or search for HealthSocMed on Facebook.) HCSM meets every Sunday night at 9pm US Eastern time on Twitter (use Twitter search for #HCSM.) The HCSM community thought that having H1N1 (Swine) Flu social media and news feeds aggregated in one place would be useful for HCSM community members and the public. We created the site and tried to match the requirements.

Q: HCSM sounds cool. How can I find out more?

A: You can find out more about HCSM by sending an email to healthsocmed@gmail.com, sending a tweet to the HCSM moderator, Dana Lewis @danamlewis or visiting and registering at the HCSM website: http://healthscomed.com. HCSM was co-found by Dana Lewis (@danamlewis) and Arik Hanson (@arikhanson) in early 2009.

Q: Who will use BlokCast for Swine Flu?

A: We thought it would be useful for healthcare organizations and state/local healthcare departments as well as local government offices that manage emergency services to have one source that aggregated all the RSS news feeds and social media feeds about H1N1 (Swine) Flu, including feeds from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Google and other sources.

Q: What makes BlockCast for H1N1 (Swine) Flu tick?

A: BlokCast for H1N1 (Swine) Flu is built with Drupal, an open source content management system. The web page and Drupal code is all open source. (Aperial provides support, training, hosting and development services to BlokCast clients.)

BlokCast FAQ

Q: How does BlokCast work?

A. We (or our clients) select RSS feeds (think of RSS feeds as having television channels that are broadcasting web information all the time) from healthcare-related web pages, videos, podcasts or blogs for people to find and use. BlokCast displays the headline for the category and the title from the most recent three to seven updates. When you place a mouse cursor over a title, we display the first sentence or description of the story (or video or image) so that you can decide if you’d like to read it, look at it, listen to it, or watch it. To get to the content in a headline or title, click on the headline or title.

Q: How did you decide which headlines and titles to display?

A. We started with US Center for Disease Control news and Twitter feeds. From there we picked what seemed like relevant and reasonably factual feeds. We will add more. We will remove feeds that don't work or don't provide factual information. We're still challenged by the YouTube and Flickr feeds which sometimes veer off into content that isn't relevant or states opinion as fact.

Q: How often do you update the feeds?

A. Approximately once an hour we check to see if the feeds have updated from the source. Refresh your browser to see if a feed has been updated.

Q: How do you decide on the order to present the feeds?

A. Stew decided. Really.

Q. I don't see the H1N1 (Swine) Flu healthcare information I'm looking for on the page. What can I do?

A. Send an email to blokcast (at) gmail.com. Tell us what you'd like. We'll see if we can find and add a feed. Not all web pages offer RSS feeds. Some of the feeds we've tried have irrelevant or misleading content.

Q. Why does the position of headlines and titles on the page change sometimes?

A. We may make a position change if we think it makes sense. Or if a feed isn't working, another feed may be substituted.

Q. Couldn’t I build my own custom aggregation using a feed reader, customizable home pages, Netvibes, etc?

A. Absolutely yes and we'd be there cheering for you. However, Aperial BlokCast clients usually have other higher priorities and pressing resource demands so they use our service instead. HCSM members are typically busy running healthcare organizations or their own small businesses.

Q. How can I advertise on the H1N1 (Swine) Flu BlokCast page?

A. Send Tom an email to tom (at) aperial.com. We're unlikely to accept any direct product advertising. We will consider sponsors who have social-media or healthcare organization related services and messages that would help patients understand more about H1N1 flu. If you want to advertise a specific product linked by keyword and targeting consumer/mass market purchase, we recommend talking to the very nice people at Alltop (swine-flu.alltop.com.) They are laser-focused on consumer viewers and visitors. We are not.

Q. What’s your business model for the H1N1 (Swine) Flu BlokCast page?

A. We don't have one. We just thought it was a good ideal. Normally, clients pay us a monthly subscription/support fee for BlokCast pages and services. We try to deliver good value, great customer service and add features customers think make sense for their content. The code we use is all open source. We use Drupal for content management. Sometimes our clients use their own URLs to present BlokCast pages. Sometimes they use our URLs.

BlokCast Blog

In the future, we may blog about BlokCast at http://aperial.com

Contact BlokCast/Support Issues

Click the Feedback tab on the left hand side of the BlokCast page. Or you can send us an email - support@blokcast.com. Or you can send a tweet to Tom on Twitter - @tstitt. Heck, you can even call Tom at +1.650.276.0460 (USA, California, Pacific time)

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Traditional Press Release

29 April, 2009 | Immediate Release

Contact: Dana Lewis

E:mail: danamichellelewis@gmail.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/danamlewis

Phone: +1.256.527.8373

Health Care Twitter Conversation Community HCSM Launches 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu Website

Up-to-date social media & news feeds aggregated in one location for use by health care professionals

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Health Care Communication and Social Media (HCSM) community from Twitter has launched a web site 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu (http://swineflu.blokcast.com) to aggregate information feeds from social media, government and traditional media.

“After discussing 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu communication strategies on Sunday night, the HCSM Twitter conversation community decided that having related social media and news feeds aggregated in one place would be useful for HCSM members and organizations,” said HCSM co-founder and moderator Dana Lewis.

The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website requirements were suggested by the HCSM community and implemented by Tom Stitt, Stew Apelzin and Aperial, developers of BlokCast, an RSS feed aggregation service focused on healthcare markets. HCSM participants include physicians, administrators, public information managers, web services managers, editors, bloggers, writers and consultants. (788 followers of @healthsocmed as of Weds 29 April 2009, meets Sunday 9pm Eastern US time, search on #HCSM using a Twitter client.)

“We thought it would be useful for healthcare organizations and state/local healthcare departments as well as local government offices that manage emergency services to have one website that aggregated relevant RSS news and social media feeds about the 2009 N1H1 (Swine) Flu,” said Stitt.

The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website was built using Drupal, an open source content management framework. Followers in the HCSM community suggested authoritative RSS news feeds from governmental organizations and traditional media regarding the 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu epidemic, as well as suggesting social media feeds from Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

“We’re excited to use technologies like Drupal to build BlokCast & work with HCSM to showcase the benefits of social media for addressing real-time health care communication requirements,” said Stitt.

“Twitter isn’t about “what are you doing?” anymore. This is the second time the HCSM community has identified a communication issue in health care on Sunday night and has had a credible solution a few days later,” said Lewis. Previously, the HCSM community sparked the implementation of an Alltop web page with hospital news feeds: http://hospital.alltop.com.

For more information about the 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website, contact Tom Stitt: tstitt@aperial.com or +1.650.276.0460. More information about the Health Care Communication and Social Media (HCSM) community can be found at www.healthsocmed.com.

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Social Media Press Release

29 April, 2009 | Immediate Release

Contact: Dana Lewis

E:mail: danamichellelewis@gmail.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/danamlewis

Phone: +1.256.527.8373

Health Care Twitter Conversation Community HCSM Launches 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu Website

Up-to-date social media & news feeds aggregated in one location for use by healthcare professionals

Background:

• HCSM is a Twitter-based (http://twitter.com/HealthSocMed) conversation community for health care professionals focused on current issues involving health care communication and social media.

• Participants include physicians, administrators, public information managers, web services managers, editors, bloggers, writers and consultants. (788 followers as of Weds 29 April 2009)

• Participants follow a weekly HCSM forum (Sunday, 9pm eastern US time) where the moderator (@HealthSocMed) presents topics for discussion based on ideas contributed by HCSM followers.

• Participants join the conversation by searching Twitter (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23hcsm), then add the Twitter hashtag #HCSM to their messages. Messages continue to be exchanged 24/7.

• HCSM was launched by Dana Lewis and Arik Hanson in early January 2009 to provide a forum for idea exchange regarding the use of social media in health care communications.

• Tom Stitt and Aperial (http://aperial.com) act as the HCSM facilitator, providing web-based social media services to support the HCSM community initiatives, including RSS feed aggregation services like BlokCast http://blokcast.com and the HCSM bloghttp://healthsocmed.com

News:

• The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website, created with BlokCast, provides a single information destination for healthcare providers, state/local healthcare departments and local governments that manage emergency services to quickly scan aggregated RSS news and social media feeds about the 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu.

• The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website requirements were suggested by the HCSM community and implemented by Tom Stitt, Stew Apelzin and Aperial, developers of BlokCast.

• The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website is built using Drupal, an open source content management framework.

• Followers in the HCSM community suggested authoritative RSS news feeds from governmental organizations and traditional media regarding the 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu epidemic, as well as suggesting social media feeds from Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Quotes:

• “After discussing 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu communication strategies on Sunday, the HCSM community decided that having related social media and news feeds aggregated in one place would be useful for HCSM community members and organizations,” said HCSM co-founder and moderator Dana Lewis.

• “We’re excited to use technologies like Drupal to build BlokCast & work with HCSM to showcase the benefits of social media for addressing real-time health care communication requirements,” said Tom Stitt, facilitator of HCSM, Aperial director and BlokCast co-developer.

• “Twitter isn’t only about “what are you doing?” anymore. This is the second time the HCSM community collectively identified a health care communication issue on Sunday night and had a working solution a few days later” said Lewis. (See http://hospital.alltop.com– aggregated hospital news feeds.)

For more information about the 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu website, contact Tom Stitt: tstitt@aperial.com or 650/276-0460.

H1N1 Information from BlokCast

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