Kamis, 20 Maret 2014

Welltok Buys Wellness App Maker, Mindbloom, The Move To “Dummy Down” Consumers Is Alive and Well With Gamification Efforts That Persist To Hook Us In…

I’m not a big fan of gamification over all and there are a “few” and I mean few apps that imagemight have some value but most are like this to “dummy down” consumers so they can “play a game” to learn.  I resent efforts like this and I’m not the entire population out here by any means but I’m a data mechanic and former query monster so no big deal for me to see what’s going on with some queries here and the use of the information.  Sure queries and data make us smarter and I like that but when I see efforts like this that want to “game” people versus a little common sense education, well it’s not high in my book at all, and it’s more like junk.  I’m an intelligent person and I’m not going to play a game to help myself along with information I need or desire.  Besides people like real games, like World of Warcraft when they want a “game”. 

Recently IBM Watson invested in Welltok, so here you go with mining and collecting all kinds of data. 

IBM Watson Invests in Start Up Company Welltok–Big Data Joins Forces With The Data Selling Platforms…

Of course Mindbloom has insurance company backing as you find them where most of these types of apps exist, we had “take your pill” lottery from Aetna a while back and Humana had their portal trying to get you to enter data to play a health game there too.  When I went to the Mindbloom website it looked a lot like that Humana thing they had going with a tree, etc.  You just had United Healthcare too getting into another gamificaiton to “dummy you” down. 

UnitedHealthGroup Buys Majority Interest of Audax, gamification and Data Mining/Selling Platform Operation–Subsidiary Watch

Again, there are very few instances where gamificaiton works and when you see a “tree” (grin)…well you can figure that out for yourself:)  Usually those “trees” like data and mine and collect it.  One thing though as more query monsters work on all of this, you get new analytics and some of which end up being not much more than quantitated justifications for things that are not true in the data game.  A couple years ago an incognito banker and I both agreed that half the analytics out there will be a waste of money.  What ever happened to Famscape from Humana?

Gamification–You Have Won and Now We Know All About You - It Didn’t Cost One Cent-Insurance Companies Have Games To Find Out More About You Too– “Attack of Killer Algorithms” Chapter 11

In my opinion it appears the query monsters and the apps are going to “just keep working you” until they find one consumers will adapt and buy into the “dummy down” effect.  The big different now is “big data” analytics with IBM Watson in the game…so what.  I would much rather see “real” education moving forward versus the “dummy down” apps like this as novelty wears off for even those that fiddle around with them and and buy into the “dummy down” process and so then where are you?  If the consumer didn’t get the “real education” here and had to fiddle around with a game that mines and sells their data?  Well you get the picture. 

As a consumer and a patient, “do you want to read up and get educated” or do you want to take “the dummy down” route and give up your data and privacy?  Not a touch question for me at all but everyone has to make their own decisions.  BD 


Health management platform provider Welltok announced the acquisition of wellness app maker Mindbloom today. Welltok will incorporate Mindbloom into its CafeWell Health Optimization Platform. Financial details of the transaction were not released. Since its founding in 2008, Mindbloom has disclosed about $1.8 million in funding from Seattle-area angel investors.

http://mobihealthnews.com/31213/welltok-acquires-wellness-app-maker-mindbloom/?utm_source=twitter

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