Connected Health Advocate Seeks Wider Audience

So was born Wellocracy, a combination of self-help book and social media-driven online support group that Kvedar formed with the help of self-help author Carol Coleman. There's also an activity tracker, the Pebble, although the Wellocracy idea plays well with many of the other activity trackers out there.

"[Carol] and I conceived of this project a little over a year ago, and said, Wouldn't it be great if we could get activity tracking and health tracking out of the 'quantified selfers' and into the land of everyday folks," Kvedar says.

The key, he says, is to include tools designed to help people understand their own motivational psychology, matching their activity tracking to an app or a service they can get now. For some, that motivation will be a data-driven service such as EarndIt. For others, it will be a social connection, such as forming their own Facebook group, thereby involving their Facebook friends in coaching them to be more active.

"You don't have to turn your life upside down to use tracking to be more healthy," Kvedar says. "You use the time you already have more wisely, whether it's parking your car further away from the mall, or taking the stairs, or taking a conference call walking around your office. They're all ways that you can be more active if you just think about it, and the beauty of the tracking ... is it will give you that continuous feedback while you're doing it."

The first Wellocracy ebook, Move to a Great Body, published last December, will be followed by ebooks on sleep and diet, hypertension, and possibly one on genetics, Kvedar says.