Citibank's "Bank of the Future," Healthcare Monitoring, and Why Social Tech Makes Me Happy

I was reading this interesting article by Mashable on Citibank's new "Bank of the Future" that is creating a lot of buzz. I thought I'd share the article. Let's just hope people never check-in to the ATM on Foursquare.

Additionally, a fellow VISTA told me about a healthcare monitoring system--one that's from the hospital that allows you to actually WATCH the procedure (graphically) and the other that comes from CaringBridge. What the folks at CaringBridge do is connect people with those that they love that are going through a serious medical procedure so that they get timely updates. It's awesome. Definitely a must-see.

And these two points (though mainly the healthcare tech one) point to the potential of a social internet. This may sound strange, but who wouldn't like to "Like" the fact that their friend's kid just had a successful surgery. Sure, a lot of people talk about the 'invasion of privacy' that social networks thrive on--but you have to remember the inputs. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, said in an interview with Time Magazine after being named the Person of the Year for 2010, that what Facebook (and I'll add the other social networks into this as well) is trying to do is connect people "serendipitously"--that is, where they would be connecting if they already knew about it.

I think this is a key point--I see it all the time in my work with nonprofits. There are stakeholders--sometimes even close partners--that don't realize the potential of their relationship not because they're not having conversations, but because they aren't having the right topics in conversations--they aren't talking about what matters most. I think that connecting socially allows that to happen, and that, in turn, makes me happy.

"To infinity, and no farther!"