> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.isaacbowen.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://www.isaacbowen.com/2014/heartbeat.md).

# Heartbeat

I built Heartbeat while working at Enova. (Later, I built a successor: [1to4](/2018/1to4.md).) It was for monitoring the health of collectives of people, using metrics that could really only be interpreted emotionally. The goal was to get at what really *mattered*.

The measurements were aggregated and published internally, for everyone to see. Each human's specific data was always private to them, but each *collection* of people (and each collection of collections) had its data out in the open.

Reception was polarized. People mostly loved it, a few responded with deep, deep caution. It always created active, earnest conversation.

{% embed url="<https://github.com/isaacbowen/heartbeat>" %}

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRF10FdAYg>" %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Get the transcript for this video at [20140814](/2014/08/14.md).
{% endhint %}


---

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