Quantified Self

Automation, Visualization, and Analytics


Quantified Self is about data collection, feedback, and self development. I’ll go over tools that can help collect data and provide feedback.


I’ll be presenting some web automation tools and their recipes along with some tools to help track, display, and analyze that information.


A Typical QS Device Ecosystem


Klint Finley at WIRED in 2013



IFTTT — and alternatives like the open source alternative Hugin or the business-oriented service Zapier — have become a standard part of the Quantified Self toolkit, letting users automate and analyze their lives. This sort of thing is creeping into businesses, too. For example, the Portland, Oregon based mobile design and development firm Citizen has been building a system to analyze the effects of everything from lighting to exercise on employee productivity.”


On Chris Dancy and Quantifed Self



“He tracks everything he can, even if he doesn’t see an immediate benefit, so long as it’s relatively easy to collect — and he can save the data into Evernote, Google Calendar, and Excel. You never know when something seemingly pointless will come in handy in the future...He calls this “knowledge lockering.” Dancy’s original knowledge locker was an Outlook PST file. Now, using online tools like IFTTT and Zapier, he saves all the content he creates and every articles he reads in Evernote.”

Web Databases/Knowledge Lockers



QS-Specific Web Databases:

Askmeevery

ohlife


daytum


myfitnesspal


Other Web Database Tools




Web Automation Tools




Others:

IFTTT


IFTTT QS Recipes

  • Foursquare: append check-in to text file in Dropbox
  • Twitter: append tweet to text file in Dropbox
  • App.net: append item to text file in Dropbox
  • Facebook: append post to text file in Dropbox
  • Instagram: append link to image in Dropbox
  • iPhone photos: Dropbox Camera Upload
  • iPhone screenshots: Dropbox Camera Upload
  • new iPhone contacts: append contacts to Dropbox text
  • last.fm: append to text in Dropbox
  • iOS Reminders: append to text file in Dropbox
  • Email: save Gmail in Dropbox by appending to text file
  • Withings: start devices automatically when you weigh in

zapier


zapier "zaps'


  • Email: Archive Gmail to Evernote
  • Evernote: RSS to Evernote
  • Twitter: Archive Tweets to Google Spreadsheet
  • Texts: Text Twitter mentions to cell phone
  • Dashboards: Push Spreadsheet Data to a web dashboard tool like Ducksboard or Geckoboard

SALES/marketing automation tools

Related business tools that you may also use/integrate:

Infusionsoft


Web Dashboards


A QS Dashboard Example: http://measuredme.com/lifestream/

Ducksboard


Geckoboard


Measuredme lifestream


QS Visualization Tools


You might not want to wait until the end of the year for a report on what's happening in your life.

For making Feltron-type maps:

social media analytics

Social analytics can be another metric for quantified self.

    Sprout social


    twitonomy


    Quantified Self

    By Erich Stauffer