Recently, we partnered with PreventObesity.net and our friends at Netcentric Campaigns to launch a widget to promote awareness about the Obesity Epidemic in the United States. The effort to combat obesity has never been more urgent, and just last month, First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated a year-long effort that resulted in the passage of the Healthy Kids Act. The PreventObesity.net Obesity Statistics Widget is part of a broad, multi-channel effort to engage the public on this serious health and nutrition crisis. It also highlights some of the exciting new work that we have been doing.

During the past few recent months at EchoDitto, I have been privileged to preside over technical projects and strategic initiatives designed to look beyond the typical web presence and focus on diverse digital avenues that serve as critical vehicles for outreach and campaigning. In social media, a "digital footprint" is the total sum of the online presence of an individual or organization, and building a robust digital footprint means looking at building systems and services that entice the public to receive your message. A common digital footprint might consist of a website, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, and possibly a token presence on social media. More sophisticated digital footprints require a culture of innovation that look at creating applications that run on mobile devices and social networks like Facebook, or the creation of embeddable widgets that invite the public to interact and take ownership of a particular message.

To combat a serious public health crisis like obesity, we needed to look outside the toolbox of resources one might consider using. Some advocacy campaigns spread awareness through an effort that bridges social activity with real life changes, such as the Movember movement which encourages men to grow mustaches to raise awareness about prostate cancer. This can be very effective, especially when there is ignorance or undue stigma about a major crisis. Our challenge was to do more than raise awareness, but to also communicate a clear message of urgency by inviting people to interact with trending data. Leveraging jQuery to build a fully encapsulated and extensible widget enabled PreventObesity.net to extend its digital footprint by providing users with only a single line of code to embed on their blogs and websites. Coupled with an analytical integrative approach, we can gain insight into the demographic that is using the widget, while at the same time encouraging sign-ups to join the broader movement.

Widgets that provide moving information in a compelling format are most likely to make an impact when users can manipulate this information to drive home causal relationships. Examine the widget and take a look at what happens to the costs of healthcare, annual heart attacks, and the reduced lifespan as the obesity rate increases or decreases beyond the current rate of 34%. When we arm users with the truth and enable them to see the impact of change, we take the fight to a totally new level, beyond awareness and towards alignment on the significance of the issue.

I look forward to sharing more about exciting new technologies, social networking and mobile applications, widgets, and platforms that promise to make a difference for users and movements at large. For this project, I was honored to work with Technical Developer Paul Venuti, Creative Director Patrick St. John, and Front-End Developer Jenn Schlick. See our work below!