A couple of weeks ago I got an idea. Andres (listen to his podcast interview here!) suggested that I ask the LivingVertical community to share photos of their weekend adventures with goal of sharing back a couple of photos on Instagram each monday morning. If our goal is to inform and inspire others to go beyond diabetes then this seemed like a good idea. But would it work?
I was initially skeptical. I told Andres that it would be worth a try but I secretly expected to just hear crickets in reply when I put out the ask. Week one had about 6 or 7 submissions. Week 2 had more than 10. Week three more than 15. So I decided that rather than choose 2 or 3 photos to share and just sit on the rest-why not put out a weekly gallery with ALL the shots right here on our blog!
This is somewhat of an experiment-can we help support eachother as we move forward with goals in the real world through sharing our experiences in the virtual world? It’s a tricky balance but one that can be achieved, I think. Do you want to get involved? It’s really simple-just share the activities that allow you to Go Beyond diabetes by emailing your photo submission to [email protected]. Share as much or as little information about what you are doing and why.
Each week, I’ll post the submissions I receive and readers can comment with questions, thoughts or support. Or all of those. I keep returning to the idea that the value in anything we do is how much we can give away. I’d love to be guiding people with diabetes through canyons or up cliffs again-but that’s not on the table right now. If I can use this as a platform to inspire and inform our community about ways that they can get after it on their own terms, that could be a help to some.
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This is awesome!
Thank you! Fun to see my daughter in this collage!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing all of the inspiration 🙂
I love it! One thing that would be cool is a way for guests to ask specific questions about the activities/experiences listed. Either comment fields under each pic, or perhaps better from a long-term knowledge base standpoint. Number the pics…
But the number we see is only part of a unique identifier as an example, photo 1 may have a unique ID of 00106222015. The first 3 didgits are the photo number, the remainder of the string is the date.
The benefit of doing this is that if you wanted to link actions/information to share, it is easy to use a database to automate searching by users.
As an example, let’s say I have a question about pic 1 of this week. So I comment under the pic or at the end of the collage and populate a box with the question. On the back end/server side, that number is appended with the date info to link it to the primary key of 00106222015. Now all info/comments captured are tied to that key, so scripts can be used to retrieve the info by user queries. Even if you’re not ready for this level of interaction today, laying the framework now adds the potential for tons of value later.
Going back to pic 1, if the DB contained use info and a submitter generated description of the photo, subsequent searches for info on pregnancy and T1 would retrieve all comments related to that pic and others that are similarly described. IMHO, this is really where you can create immense value for those going beyond with T1. Think of a picture of a triathlete and the questions that may be associated within that context. Now think of the T1 that wants to tackle his/her first tri. Likely as not, you would have the only repository of specific information on the subject.
If all commenters/submitters agree to notifications, and respond to new comments, you’ve got an awesome interactive knowledge base for T1s!
This is very good feedback but it’s a tad over my head. Shoot me an email at some point and we can discuss! I like how you’re thinking!
Awesome!! Love this idea Steve!!