consumers

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New Crowdfunding Site Seeks To Protect Backers Of Industrial Design

Tim Maly | Wired | December 8, 2012

Entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff wants to build more credibility into crowdfunding — so he’s launching a new platform that takes responsibility for ensuring the viability of new projects. Read More »

New York State Hospital Data Exposes Big Markups, And Odd Bargains

Nina Bernstein | New York Times | December 9, 2013

Just how expensive is your hospital? In New York, the answer may lie in a trove of hospital cost data newly posted online by the State Health Department. Read More »

No, Madam Secretary, Prices On Healthcare.gov Are Not A “Hypothetical Situation”

Gregory Ferenstein | TechCrunch | October 30, 2013

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, wins the award today for most creative political spin. During a congressional grilling about the failings of the federal e-commerce website, Healthcare.gov, the secretary now claims that insurance prices are merely “hypothetical situations.” Read More »

Ohio Dept. Of Insurance: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Health Premiums By 88 Percent

Avik Roy | Forbes | June 10, 2013

Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. [But...] Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent”.... Read More »

Patients Turn To mHealth Over Prescriptions, Says Survey

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | July 16, 2013

It might be a little hard to swallow, but 24% of patients are more willing to accept a prescription for an mHealth app than a pill, according to a recent survey of 2000 patients by Digitas Health. Read More »

Physician Ratings & Reviews: Doctors Distrust Them And Patients Ignore Them

Lonnie Hirsch | HealthWorks Collective | February 12, 2013

The many and various “doctor review” sites seem to be as popular as the flu bug floating around the office. Doctors don’t like them and patients don’t use them, according to two recent surveys. Read More »

Say Goodbye To Privacy: How Nest Might Transform Google

Tero Kuittinen | BGR | January 14, 2014

It’s no wonder some people are freaking out over Google’s $3.2 billion Nest Labs acquisition: it’s another step towards a future when Google has enough access to lives of high-income consumers to gain psychological insights that no company has ever possessed. Nest’s Learning Thermostat can track movements and activity of people in their homes, an ability no doubt improving by leaps and bounds. [...] Read More »

Seagate Embraces Open Source: Joins The OpenStack Foundation And Open Compute Project

Press Release | Seagate | February 20, 2013

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today announced it has become a corporate sponsor member of the OpenStack Foundation and Open Compute Project as part of a collaborative effort to partner with industry leaders to define and promote open source standards for cloud computing. Read More »

Should Consumers Bear The Cost To Upgrade The Grid?

Fawn Johnson | Nextgov | March 17, 2014

Given that it will cost upward of $4 trillion over the next 20 years to modernize electricity, gas, and water lines, is it OK to allow utilities to tack on extra charges to customers' bills to pay for those upgrades? How can customers voice their opinions? The first question is one that utility regulators deal with on a daily basis. The second question is only just beginning to surface.

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Smart Disclosure Makes Consumers Happier And Markets Better

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | June 3, 2013

The government collects reams of information that might benefit citizens, but just opening that data up to the public isn’t enough, according to a task force report released Thursday. Read More »

Stupid Lawyer Tricks (And How The PTO Could Help Stop Them)

Corynne McSherry | Electronic Frontier Foundation | October 30, 2012

We’ve seen some absurd trademark threats in recent years, but this one sets the bar at a new low: The Village Voice is suing Yelp for trademark infringement based on Yelp’s creation of various “Best of” lists. [...] Read More »

Superstar Programmers Are Getting Paid Like Pro Athletes—Tens Of Millions Of Dollars A Year

Leo Mirani | Quartz | September 6, 2013

It’s always nice to be paid your “true value.” Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says that is what is happening now in the technology industry, where some engineers are drawing multi-million dollar paychecks. Read More »

The Antibiotic Resistance Coalition (ARC)

Press Release | Antibiotic Resistance Coalition (ARC) | May 22, 2014

Act now, or face catastrophic post-antibiotic era Read More »

The Extraordinary Science Of Addictive Junk Food

Michael Moss | New York Times | February 20, 2013

On the evening of April 8, 1999, a long line of Town Cars and taxis pulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury and discharged 11 men who controlled America’s largest food companies. [...] Rivals any other day, the C.E.O.’s and company presidents had come together for a rare, private meeting. On the agenda was one item: the emerging obesity epidemic and how to deal with it... Read More »

The Importance Of Making Big Data Accessible To Non-Data Scientists

Mare Lucas | Wired | May 1, 2013

Close behind “Big Data” as one of the most utilized enterprise technology terms today is “Data Scientist.” Many postulate that the explosion in Big Data will usher in an insatiable demand for data scientists able to slice and dice data to guide more informed decision making within the organization. Others go a step further... Read More »