SMALL PRINT:If you've ever got bored or irritated by people updating their Facebook statuses by moaning about how sick they're feeling, hold your ire, because it could end up being of use to the wider public's health.
Sickweather.com is a website at the beta stage of development that’s hoping to harness social-networking mutterings about man flu and headaches and use them to forecast a place-specific health monitoring system.
“When purchasing a home, would it be helpful to know if certain neighbourhoods are more notorious for chronic illness?” Sickweather asks. Well, yes.
And this is how it does it: Sickweather scans social networks for keywords relating to illnesses or symptoms to see who is sick where. It aggregates the results and presents real-time “weather maps” that chart reported sicknesses from flu to bugs, chronic illnesses and depression. The site uses an algorithm to condense data into information from a variety of public sources, including Twitter, Facebook and its own online community.
The company, based in Baltimore in the US, hopes that people can check on the health of an area just as they check the weather. As the site is developed, you will also be able to keep track of the health of your family and friends. The site is currently accepting registration requests for beta testing. Big Brother is watching, and he’s got a sore throat.
