This weekend promises to be an exciting one for SMART trailblazers Ken Mandl and Josh Mandel, who have been invited to Health Foo 2013, December 6–8 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. Health Foo (friends of O’Reilly) is an invitation-only “unconference focused on innovation in health and healthcare, sponsored by O’Reilly Media and the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation” (RWJF).
The unconference is an outgrowth and convergence of two other O’Reilly efforts led by Tim O’Reilly and Sara Winge. First came Foo Camp ten years ago, which now shares its wifi-enabled tent logo with Health Foo despite the latter’s decidedly indoor venue. Then the Open Source Convention (OSCon) featured a health care track for the first time in 2010, thanks to support from RWJF. Shortly afterward, their grant to enable the first official Health Foo in 2011 was announced.
The third Health Foo was originally scheduled for April 19, 2013, but had to be cancelled due to fallout from the Boston Marathon bombings and the shooting of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. Nevertheless, a small group still managed to gather in DIY fashion—an “un-unconference,” as enthusiastic attendees later referred to it. May the upcoming official re-do prove to be as inspiring and thought-provoking as the makeshift version.
For further reading:
Health Foo 2013: Best Canceled Event, Ever
by Ted Eytan, April 22, 2013
BostonStrong – Body and Mind: Of Bicycles and Health Foo
by David Harlow, April 22, 2013
Boston, Health Foo, and The Open Door
by Regina Holliday, April 24, 2013
What I learned at Health Foo
by Susannah Fox, July 19, 2011
What’s a Health Foo
by Keith Boone, July 16, 2011
You must be logged in to post a comment.