The Revolution of Relevance

The Boston-based website PatientsLikeMe.com has created a large community that works together "to enable people to share information that can improve the lives of patients diagnosed with life-changing diseases." To make this happen, they have "created a platform for collecting and sharing real world, outcome-based patient data and are establishing data-sharing partnerships with doctors, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, research organizations, and non-profits." The beauty in their design lies in the fact that the goals they have outlined are easily customized to anyone's personal experience of battling a life-changing disease.

Of course, there's nothing new about advocates who build communities that set goals, solve problems and help achieve better stakeholder outcomes. A for-profit company focused on relief of disease-born suffering is laudable, but not exactly original. What is abrupt and new is the rapid growth and abundance of recently created virtual groups, and how amazingly durable they seem to be. It is no exaggeration to claim that the Internet has transformed the commons from tragic and depleted to vibrant and inexhaustible. "On line" strangers cross domestic class and international boundaries to freely choose their priorities, interests, and new friends.

So begins the Revolution of Relevance. Read more.