Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

We have certainly had a busy year! MindSearch now has almost 3,000 members across the greater London area. The publicity campaign earlier this year was very successful and has definitely generated a buzz around town. MindSearch is also up for the NHS innovation award for 2007. We will keep you posted on the results! Many thanks to all volunteers who participated in our on-line survey. Your answers and comments were helpful in letting us know how we are doing and where we could improve. We have created a new link on the website so that you may up-date your personal details just go to the Join mindsearch link and scroll tothe bottom and don't forget to look for our monthly newsletter via email to keep you up-to-date about new projects and general MindSearch information. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and see you next year! (From left to right: Dr. Laura Goldstein, Charlie Sharp, Dr. Paul Wicks, Allison Moseley, and Kataryzna Ray-Glover)

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

This week marks a number of important developments for the project. Our publicity campaign has now launched, with 20,000 leaflets being delivered through letterboxes in South London, along with 5,000 beermats and an Adshel bus poster outside our main site at Denmark Hill. During the first day of the campaign we saw traffic to our website triple with up to 300 unique visitors per day. We would also like to welcome onboard our new part-time administrator, Miss Mary Allison Moseley. Allison has a strong background in academic research and will be the main point of contact for volunteers and researchers alike.

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Do not adjust your sets! The website received an overhaul today with a number of major updates. The most obvious is our name change. For those of you new to the project, we were originally called "PsychPop", short for "Psychology Population". However through some market research it became clear that this name didn't put across what we do to our target audience. After a lot of thought we have changed our name to "MindSearch". The second big change is that I've integrated some of the fantastic artwork carried out for us by Satellite Marketing Communications including our new logo and some visuals which will soon be featured on an advertising campaign to take place shortly. Finally we have updated our system for joining the database. The biggest difference is that you no longer have to return a signed consent sheet before you can be an active participant. Consent is now obtained online when you fill out the registration form online.

We are currently in the process of selecting a permanent administrator for the project. So far we have been relying upon a team of database administrators working in shifts. However we have been granted funding from the IOP to recruit a part-time member of staff to administer the database on a daily basis. Currently there are 500 active volunteers on the database, and we have provided participants to more than 30 research projects.

Saturday, April 8th, 2006

The database administrators have begun shifts on data entry, selection of participants, and sending out questionnaire packs. This has significantly increased the rate at which we are able to match up participants with research projects. So far we have provided participants to four projects in dire need of highly selected participants. We were able to prevent delays in identifying participants in one scanning project which would have caused the project to over-run by at least one month. We have been honoured to have our site and projects posted on the www.biotrax.com website which has increased our site traffic considerably.

Saturday, March 11th, 2006

The database administrators have now been selected and will receive training shortly in preparation for the database going fully "live" in April. Approximately 200 volunteers registered. Two more projects added to the projects page. A proposal has been drawn up to turn PsychPop into a piece of infrastructure at the IOP and we are applying for funds to market PsychPop more extensively throughout the local community.

Thursday, February 9th, 2006

Online registration now possible. Approximately 100 volunteers registered for PsychPop studies so far. Advertising campaign through Google Adwords, Mindhacks.com, and BUILD, consistently drawing in traffic of between 40-80 visitors per day. By far the most popular page is the "Projects" page, and work will soon be underway to expand this section. A team of PsychPop database administrators will soon be selected and trained. The PsychPop team have been asked to write an article for a prestigious Psychology-related magazine. It is expected that participants registered on the database will begin being contacted for research some time in March.

Monday, January 16th, 2006

An internal document was created as an instruction manual for members of the IOP. Online and print advertisements are being placed in London newspapers and websites, starting today with Loot. A total of 30 questionnaire packs have been sent out so far. One researcher has submitted his target of 5 participants and will soon be listed under the "researchers" and "projects" page. Database forms reconfigured to match questionnaire packs. Work began on creating fully online-only registration.

Wednesday, January 12th, 2006

A map page was added to the site which will help participants navigate the IOP upon arrival. A temporary research worker was employed on the project. Adverts for the site were placed on several online messageboards related to South London. So far, 16 people have registered. The questionnaires and information leaflets have been finalised and will be sent out the first registered volunteers shortly. PsychPop has been integrated with a commercial SMS text messaging system for future development. Researchers at the IOP are being registered in version 0.6 of the database.

Friday December 16th, 2005

The second consultation meeting was held on December 13th with version 0.5 of the database. Suggestions included a drop-down menu to identify twins and triplets, time-stamping any updates to records to identify how current the information is, and resourcing a full-time member of staff to administer the database. This completes the internal consultation process at the IOP, and the database is currently undergoing minor tweaks to bring it up to a version 1.0 release. The "Join PsychPop" button on the website now links to a form which submits CGI data to the server, and 5 people have registered. Some long-term developments were discussed with an external organisation who specialise in technology-based communities. A reminder system using text messaging is a possible future development, as is a "walkthrough" of the journey from Denmark Hill station to the IOP. In January 2006, database "seeding" will commence, with researchers at the IOP being asked to contact their previous participants to see if they would be willing to register. The current target is for the system to be running fully by March 2006.

Saturday December 3rd, 2005

The first consultation meeting with members of the IOP was held on Monday November 28th with version 0.4 of the database. Suggestions included datestamping when participants were requested so there will be a record of when they participated in projects. Decided on using Microsoft Word for internal communication of participant details. Began creating a privacy policy for personal data. Final consultation meeting at the IOP before Phase II: Monday December 13th. A number of minor cosmetic changes have been made to the website including a new (temporary) logo.

Friday November 11th, 2005

www.psychpop.net registered as a domain name, "dummy" site created. version 0.3 of database delivered by programmer.