Have you had your flu shot yet?  Now is the time to think about making a visit to your local clinic or Doctors office for the small moment of pain that will help you fight off the flu this winter season.  This, in addition to other forms of prevention such as hand washing will, help to keep you and your family a bit healthier this year.

Thanks to the wonders of Google search engine technology there is now an additional way to not only fight but monitor flu outbreaks in the United States.  I learned about this new development today via Deane at Gagetopia. 

Also from the New York Times:

There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.

That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.

Simply put: just way cool.

This past weekend a pretty cool conference happened in Prince Edward Island called Zap Your Pram 2008.  Actually, it was more of an "unconference" than a conference.  In this day and age of large conferences that are full of name tags, never ending panels, networking and trade shows; Zap Your Pram was pretty much just the opposite.  It was a gathering of creative, interesting and simply cool folks who got together to discuss the various things that they have been working on and to laugh, eat, play and simply connect with one another. Attendance was by invite only.  By all accounts, it was a great success.  Unfortunately, I don't know this personally as I was not lucky enough to be in attendance, but I do know several of the people who were there and they certainly think that Zap Your Pram was something pretty special. 

From the Zap Your Pram Website:

The Zap Your PRAM Conference is a gathering of creative professionals, academics, and intriguing people from around the world interested in design, the web and emerging technologies. We come together to relax and discuss design, media, art and technology.

Zap is not just a conference about technology, the internet, or gadgetry. It is not a yearly event nor is it a conference with a clear distinction between “presenters” and “attendees”. There are no paid speakers, no keynote addresses, no plenary sessions, no trade show, and no exhibitors.

Zap is not in a hotel with televisions or phones. You may not even have cell phone reception.

No phones, televisions and possibly even no cell phone reception – wow!  Now, that part really caught my attention.  How many conferences have you been to recently where you are pretty much forced to be that out of touch with the world?  Probably not many.  We are all so "wired" that it is hard to imagine turning your cell phone/crackberry/iPhone off for even an hour - let alone for up to four days.  I'm guessing that this reduced connectedness with the outside world probably contributed to the face to face connections, discussions and other great stuff that happened among the attendees of Zap Your Pram. 

Zap Your Pram 2008 is the second such unconference that has been organized by Steven Garrity, Dan James, Peter Rukavina and a few of their friends.  The first Zap Your Pram was held in 2003.

From the last two days of blog postings (some are below) it seems that this gathering left the participants totally inspired, wowed and longing for more.  I was truly blown away by the range of interesting blog postings about the weekend.  I could literally feel the good vibes, brilliant conversations and true connections that these folks made with each other.  Further, it prompted me to think that a similar type of event could possibly be put together around the areas that I am currently working within…the early years, child care, work-life balance, creating great work environments etc.  Now how cool is that?  So thanks to all of the Zap Your Pram folks for your enthusiasm, your passion and for reminding me that there is no substitute for the power of face to face connections, conversation and laughter. 

Here are a selection posts about Zap Your Pram 2008. They each have lots of other links within them so you will get a good sense of how this unconference played out.

Dan James – CEO Blues

Peter Rukavina – Ruk

Steven Garrity – Acts of Volition

Rob Paterson's Weblog 

Deane Barker – Gadgetopia