Thing is, so much has changed in the last seven years that there are many new and exciting directions to take in digital. One that has caught my particular attention in the last six months is the disruption that technology and big data is playing on health and fitness.

We’ve seen technology disrupt numerous industries through the years including media, marketing, PR, publishing among others. Now it’s health’s turn thanks to the perfect storm of:

• Mobile computers
• Sensors
• Apps
• Big data
• Data visualization
• Social networking

That’s why I’ve started blogging over at Bionic.ly, a new blog of mine which aims to track and cover this, dare I say it, revolution. I use the definition of ‘bionic’ loosely to mean using technology to enhance human performance.

I’m not the only one either. My colleagues Drew Benvie (bodydata.co.uk) and David Clare (onemorelifehack.com) have done the same.

Go check them out.

“Carve is a very, very small company creating amazing wooden accessories for your tech devices right here in the heart of beautiful Ireland.”

I’ve been given one (for free but under no obligation to blog about it) and have used it as my phone’s case for the last week. The wood seems to get smoother and almost begins to wrap around the shape of the phone. It really is a nice piece of kit. Check out the pics below.

The even was pretty epic and included performances from Magnetic Man, Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and Tinie Tempah. Below is a video of the event I quickly bashed together.

I’ll be reviewing the Nike+ FuelBand for my other blog Bionic.ly soon.

I’ve just stumbled across this web app called Where Do You Go that allows you to visualize your Foursquare check-ins in a beautiful way. Below is my London check-ins where the whiter the heat means the more times I’ve checked in to a certain place. I work in Farringdon and I’m the proud Foursquare mayor of Exmouth Market there.

Below that I’ve widened the map to show NYC check-ins from when I was visiting late last year and also wider UK check-ins. As you can see by the first image it works better when zoomed in.

The large blue cluster is, not surprisingly, people I know who have a focus – or are very active in – social media which explains its large size. Natural connectors, you see? The orange cluster at the top is people I know from the North East, who obviously know each other too.

Smartphones, tablets and their accompanying apps are the new tools to allow us to not only track but to measure and quantify anything about ourselves. Be it our mood, stress levels, how much sleep we get each night, how far we walk each day, our blood pressure or how much time we spend writing emails each day.

Anything we want to track we can quite easily and we can also make correlations between multiple measures. For example, if you’re measuring both your mood and your carbohydrate intake, perhaps the reason you’re feeling a little low on Tuesday is because you had a low carb day the day before and your body is having to replenish the missing nutrients.

The example above is basic but the crux of self tracking from a health and well-being point-of-view is to record how our bodies are performing which gives us the information we need to make adjustments because the narrative is in the data.

For the last 50 days I’ve been testing an iPhone app developed by the London School of Economics called Mappiness. You can download the Mappiness app here or on your iPhone. Twice a day I’m prompted by the app to let it know how stressed, awake and happy I’m feeling at that moment. It then asks me where I am, who I’m with and what I’m doing. The app’s been designed to prompt you at random times of the day for (needed) inconsistency.

Over time the app builds a picture of your general mood through the week. I’ve responded to the app 100 times which I think is adequate enough to look at the data.

Which days am I happiest?

No surprise that I’m happiest on a Saturday. Interestingly I’m just as happy on a Wednesday than I am on a Friday. I’ve never particularly liked Sundays. Or Mondays for that matter.

What time am I happiest?

It seems 3 o’clock in the afternoon is my happiness sweet spot. I’m usually a night owl so the peaks around 9 and 10 o’clock explain that. And, yeah, I’m not a happy bunny at 6am.

Where am I happiest?

I like that this chart is fairly even. It illustrates that I’m consistently happy wherever I am. There are no peaks and troughs based on my location. The signs of a level head (I hope).

With whom am I happiest?

Again, a fairly level graph in terms of with whom I’m with when I’m happiest. I’m a bit surprised that I’m slightly happier alone than I am with friends or colleagues. Thinking about it, however, I spent three and a half years working pretty much on my own so perhaps it’s not that surprising I like my own company.

Mappiness is tracking thousands of people from around the UK who, like myself, have opted in to provide their data. There’s a map of the UK that you can use as a barometer of the country’s happiness levels. Granted there are limitations because it’s only available on the iPhone so you only receive a certain demographic’s data. However, using it personally is a good indication of your own happiness.

And I’m quite ‘happy’ with the result.