Whitehouse.gov uses social media for health insurance reform reality check

According to an LA Times article, the Whitehouse is using the power of social media to start a “reality check” offensive to stop the spread of health insurance reform rumors:

The White House blasted links to the package out to more than 300,000 fans on Facebook and more than 900,000 on Twitter today. It also sent an e-mail acknowledging “scare tactics” being used to bash the programs. A few hours later, users of the social news site Digg voted Reality Check to the site’s homepage. That potentially exposes Reality Check to millions of eyeballs.

See also the Whitehouse’s blog post on the topic.

Health insurance reform

OpenCongress.org: Overflowing with comments on health insurance reform

OpenCongress.org, a “free and open-source joint project of two non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation” has uploaded the full health care reform proposal. Per request they included a new version with page numbers and citizens can comment, share the bill, support or oppose the bill, track the bill, etc. Just today over 30,000 people have viewed the bill:

Here is a description of the OpenCongress’ purpose and goals:

OpenCongress brings together official government data with news coverage, blog posts, public comments, and more to give you the real story behind what’s happening in Congress. Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists already know what’s really going on in Congress. Now, everyone can be an insider.

OpenCongress is a free, open-source, not-for-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of two 501c3 non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation. To read more about our mission, our open data sources, and how Congress works, see About OpenCongress. To read more about how individuals and organizations can use this site to find and share valuable info about their political interests, see How To Use OpenCongress.

You can find OpenCongress.org on Facebook.

CDC is fighting the spread of the swine flu with viral technologies

The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) is using several different social media channels to inform about the swine flu besides the traditional (Web 1.0) channels, such as frequent press briefings, general information in audio and video, etc.:

1. Updates from the H1N1 page haven an RSS feed.
2. Frequent updates are spread using Twitter.
3. Video updates are posted using podcasts.
4. Image sharing on the CDCs Flickr site.
5. Buttons for your website.
6. Information sharing on MySpace‘s e-health page and daily strength group.
7. Updates can be shared using several different services (Google Reader, Bookmarks, Delicious, Facebook, Digg, etc.).
8. e-Cards to send by email to family members and friends to remind people to wash their hands.
9. Agencies can embed a flu widget on their page.

On the funny side: Do you have swine flu?

Brain surgery live on Twitter

This week, surgeons at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI, have tweeted a brain surgery live (see story on CNN).  Their main goal was teaching students and use technology that students are interested in and pay attention to. You can follow HenryFordNews on Twitter or view the surgeries their  YouTube channel.