I would like to represent a graphic comparison between mediated and unmediated networks existing for one collection of individuals. I look for a (free) software that could generate the graphical visualization. Does anybody know one ? 
Category Archives: Flu
Monitoring Flu season 2010-2011 with Facebook – results
In a TED conference, Nicholas Christakis presented a conference (1) entitled “How social networks predict epidemics” where he followed 130 students for flu symptoms on the campus of Yale during the 2009 winter. We transpose his idea of a real-friends-network to a social media network of friends such as Facebook. Now the influenza virus doesn’t spread through Internet connection (at least not that one) , yet we assume that having a lot of friends on Facebook is an indicator of an extended social life involving more human to human contacts (²) . We were looking for an easy way to make someone auto-evaluate his condition regarding flu. The idea of a funny looking thermometer on Facebook having 4 levels of fever jumped to our mind because it is easy to use and has a nice look. Each participant can invite one or more of his Facebook friends to use the thermometer application FB. Fever is a common symptom for various winter conditions such as respiratory infections. We started our measurements on december 15th meaning temperature variation are more likely to be correlated with an incoming flu than by other winter diseases already present at the start of our experiment. Results of this study could be follow online with a barometer and a map. The comparison of the Facebook flu tracking thermometer FB with the official flu reports generated weekly by the Health authorities would allow us to evaluate how effective a social media could be . We started the study on december 16th 2010 as this would be some weeks before the seasonal Flu arrival in Europe. The 2010-2011 seasonal flu virus is the A/H1N1 although some other influenza virus are currently present in the northern hemisphere. I search recently the blogosphere and. I found a facebook flu initiative from the university of Auckland dating back from April 2010. We closed the readings around february 15th. 
Over that period, we collected N=431 readings from the facebook applications facebook accounts. Peak for flu events (level3 and level4 ) was observed around Jan 4th (week 1). In order to evaluate these results, we compare them with a reference method. In Belgium, The Scientific Institute of Public Health manages the description of the epidemic in time to design the epidemic curve as a part of a broader clinical and epidemiological surveillance program repeated each year. In this reference method, general practitioners, geographically distributed across Belgium, collect weekly the number of flu syndromes and other acute respiratory infections. They also collect naso-pharyngeal swabs in a part of their patients presenting with flu syndrome. Based on this information, the epidemic curve is drawn and the intensity of the circulation of the virus is measured.
As observed in the reference curve for the 2010-2011 seasonal flu epidemic, the maximum of new FLU cases was observed during week 1. Split per age category of the official epidemic results showed a good match both in time and in shape with the results generated by the Facebook thermometer application. The Facebook apps results did not predict/anticipate the epidemic. It is our current assumption that the Facebook Apps design did not reward the FB user in a proper immidate way failing to assure virality. Virality of the Facebook Thermometer App is the key factor to generate predictive values on Facebook. Failing to make it viral, we were still able to record the Flu cases increase of the 15-64 years category through Facebook in a succesfull way.
See also for reference on last year pandemic
http://www.actualitedumaroc.info/2010/12/pandemies-reseaux-sociaux-pour-sonner.html
C’est quoi une épidemie de grippe?
En Belgique, l’épidémie de grippe est déclarée lorsque sont recensés plus de 150 cas de syndrômes grippaux par 100.000 habitants pendant 2 semaines d’affilées comme ce fut le cas ces deux dernières semaines de décembre 2010. http://www.iph.fgov.be/flu/EN/Y2009-Influenza.pdf
Ce seuil d’épidémie apparait numériquement très faible mais quelles sont ces personnes touchées de manière précoce et par qui transite l’épidémie. Ces personnes ont-elles plus de contacts sociaux que les autres, les rendant ainsi prédisposés à propager l’infection virale? C’est ce que propose l’expérience en cours actuellement Facebook prédit / visualise la grippe . Le postulat de ce simple jeu accessible aux titulaires d’un compte Facebook est simple : nous visualisons les cas de grippe en demandant à nos amis les plus populaires de Facebook s’ils ont de la fièvre grâce l’application thermomètre de Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
Ensuite donnez de vos nouvelles régulièrement et suivez la situation sur la carte Googlemap de la grippe
http://griep.rustybolt.be/report.html
Où se trouve la grippe dans votre environnement ? interrogez vos amis les plus populaires. Reste une question à priori simple pour laquelle je n’ai pas trouvé d’explications rationnelles vraiment satisfaisantes : pourquoi la grippe saisonnière revient en hiver ? Cela fera l’objet d’un post ultérieur.
La grippe prédite online via Facebook : Pas encore sur Bruxelles
Here are the first results of the flu tracking using Facebook thermometer in Brussels
Please participate with your most popular Facebook friends
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
Look RESULTS online http://griep.rustybolt.be/report.html
compare with official stat http://www.iph.fgov.be/flu/EN/Y2009-Influenza.pdf
Anticiper et visualiser la grippe 2010 grâce à Facebook : c’est possible tous ensemble !
Nous anticipons la grippe en demandant à nos amis les plus populaires de Facebook s’ils ont de la fièvre grâce l’application thermomètre de Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
Ensuite regardez la situation sur la carte Googlemap de la grippe
http://griep.rustybolt.be/report.html
et comparer avec les statistiques officielles
http://www.iph.fgov.be/flu/EN/Y2009-Influenza.pdf
Merci de participer et d’inviter vos amis à participer à cette expérience fun et utile !
Pour ceux qui observent les réseaux sociaux d’un point de vue des sciences sociales, Internet surtout depuis l’apparition des réseaux sociaux est non seulement un formidable outil technique de communication mais est également un témoin, un révélateur du fonctionnement sociétal. Facebook est une structuration des liens entre les individus. Dès lors, avoir beaucoup d’amis sur Facebook est un caractère de sociabilité et d’orientation vers les autres. Sous forme de jeu, l’application de la théorie des réseaux est mise à profit à pour suivre l’épidémie saisonnière de grippe jusqu’à fin janvier.
Flu prediction using the thermometer of Facebook starts today
The Facebook population being more social is believe to be more quickly hit by the coming flu.
Let us build collective wisdom in a simple game :
Anticipate how and where the FLU is progressing over the next 2 month. Ask your most popular Facebook friends to use the Facebook thermometer application : no Fever ?
Open your facebook account and go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
or search within facebook and get friend with Griep Grippe
then go take a look on the scoreboard and the googlemap to visualize the localization of the daily Facebook readings
and compare with the weekly official officials stats.
Please participate by asking your most popular Facebook friends to participate to the test. (See other posts for the theoretical aspects)
Yes, Fever can be associate with other illnesses than flu but starting our Facebook thermometer mid december to finish end january, coorelates the variation of fever-cases to flu rather than other winter illnesses.
Prévenir la grippe : c’est aussi communiquer mieux : merci Facebook
Perdre du poids, faire de l’exercice , manger des fruits et des légumes… Nous connaissons les comportements recommandés en matière de santé. Mais voilà, les suivre est une autre affaire. Entre la connaissance des comportements et leur mise en pratique, il y a un monde. Sans passage à l’acte, la seule connaissance d’un remède n’a jamais soigné personne. La gravité perçue du danger et l’évaluation de sa susceptibilité personnelle face à ce danger sont les 2 leviers qui nous poussent à l’action. En d’autres termes, si c’est grave et que cela peut me toucher , alors j’agis et j’arrête de “procrastiner”. (Se) Soigner n’est donc pas seulement l’affaire d’un accès à des traitements curatifs ou préventifs, c’est aussi une affaire de communication. Fournir une visualisation/anticipation de l’avancée de la grippe permet à chaque individu d’évaluer par lui-même son risque et donc d’agir préventivement pour diminuer la propagation. Ainsi “Facebook et tes amis prédit la grippe” produirait littéralement de la santé publique puisqu’elle contribue à éviter des cas. C’est selon nous dans le domaine de la prévention que la santé publique pourrait gagner le plus de l’émergence des réseaux sociaux tels que Facebook pour la diffusion de messages préventifs.
L’application sur Facebook :
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
et le suivi de l’épidémie en Belgique via googlemaps
http://griep.rustybolt.be/report.html
A vous de participer
If You’re ‘Popular’(…on Facebook) Beware Of The Flu! Belgian experiment about to start
I fell recently on a article by Linda Lee : “It’s nice to be popular, and have a lot of friends…until the dreaded flu season arrives! Mr. and Ms. Popular are at greatest risk of getting the flu! There’s a study that shows that popular people get the flu first! Researchers at Harvard Medical School asked a random group of students who their friends were, and then looked at those people who were mentioned at least once. The most popular people ended up getting the flu about two weeks earlier than the campus as a whole. Want some ‘good news?’ Your ‘online friendships’ are safe! No risk for those of us with a lot of Facebook friends! Speaking of Facebook . . .”
What about social media then ? The link between having a lot of friends on Facebook and having a lot of real friends in the real life might have to be demonstrate first. Yet, we believe that you don’t reach a high number of friends on Facebook by staying at home or without having some extra social skills. Still the people having more friends are likely to get FLU earlier than randomly selected friends.
The facebook application
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
reference
http://wycd.radio.com/2010/10/21/popular-kids-high-risk-for-flu/
Seasonal FLU epidemy 2010 forecasting and monitoring using Thermometer FACEBOOK app: a social experiment
Why is it that human are so bad when it comes to evaluate surrounding risks ? How can we deliver better healthcare using social media ? We are about to see if social collaboration can anticipate and track the Influenza flu virus propagation. It is already known since last year that one could track day by day the evolution of the Flu epidemics by following specifics tags with google trend or other trend analyzing software. More recently, Nicholas Christakis presented a conference (TED) entitled “How social networks predict epidemics” where he followed 130 students for flu symptoms on the campus of Yale during the 2009 winter . Each student nominated their friend. When comparing the sample of nominated friends with a sample of randomely selected students, the author found that the sample of nominated friends was contaminated earlier than the sample of randomely selected students. So the author pointed out that by selectively tracking flu symptoms with popular friends, he got a predictive measurement of the incoming Influenza virus in a specific community. The major porblem is to represent a human network. We transpose his idea of a real-friends-network to a social media network of friends such as Facebook. Now the influenza virus doesn’t spread through Internet connection (at least not that one) , yet we assume that having a lot of friends on Facebook is an indicator of an extended social life involving more human to human contacts. We were looking for an easy way to make someone auto-evaluate his condition regarding flu. The idea of a funny looking thermometer having 4 levels of fever jumped to our mind because it is easy to use and has a nice look. making all the process more of a game. Each participant invite one or more of his most popular Facebook friends to play with the thermometer application . Fever is a common symptom for various winter conditions such as respiratory infections. We start our measurements on december 15th meaning temperature variation are more likely to be correlated with an incoming flu than by other winter diseases already present at the start of our experiment. Current results of the study can be follow online with a barometer of all readings and also a map using the geolocalization function of Facebook. The comparison of the Facebook flu tracking with the official flu reports generated weekly by the Health authorities would allow us to evaluate how effective a social media can be . We plan to kick off our study on december 16th 2010 as this would be some weeks before the seasonal Flu arrival (not a pandemic one) . The 2010-2011 seasonal flu virus is the A/H1N1 although some other influenza virus are currently present in the northern hemisphere. I search recently the blogosphere and. I found a facebook flu initiative from the university of Auckland dating back from April. A challenge will be to keep some mobilization across the 6-8 weeks of the flu arrival.
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=131167136944192
Visualisation on googlemap
http://griep.rustybolt.be/report.html
See also for reference on last year pandemy
http://www.actualitedumaroc.info/2010/12/pandemies-reseaux-sociaux-pour-sonner.html
Health 3.0 : Health as a service 
