Before Data. After Data

Watched a fantastic documentary recently, titled ‘The Human Face of Big Data’. In it, they talk about how almost everything we do today leaves a trail of digital exhaust. A perpetual stream of text, images, location data and other information that will live on, well after each of us is gone. All devices today are throwing off data, be it phones, cars, watches, computers. Information is being extracted out of parking spaces, medical diagnostics, toll booths, Facebook, internet searches, phones, tablets. Every single thing that you do leaves a digital trace. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before, but, we need to be careful, because in this vast ocean of data, there is a frighteningly complete picture of us. Where we live, what we do, where we go, what we buy, what we say. The whole world is being recorded in real time.

Humans interacting with technology generate a massive amount of data and we are measuring things more than we ever have. They estimate that by 2020 there will be 40 zettabytes of data volume. That would be approximately every single grain of sand on the planet multiplied by 75, which is 40 000 000 000 000 000 000 000.

Social media platforms are a major contributor to this phenomenon, as they gather a large number of data points on people's personal and consumption habits. Users tend to share different parts of themselves depending upon the 'social norms' of the different social apps they use. What a user would share on Facebook about a recent vacation is not what they would share on Linkedin, which is for more business related communication. As a result each social app only sees a very small, segmented part of their user's mobile social lives.

In comes a tool like SODA (which stands for Social Data Platform) This platform, created by mobile ad company StartApp, allows social apps to provide whatever piece of the user-data puzzle they have, be it dating preferences, professional skills, or hobbies and interests. In return, they benefit from the collection pot, receiving insights from other SODA partners and StartApp's own database, which helps them fill in the gaps thereby collating the multiple segments into a more complete picture of their user-data profiles. But the fact that this data can be used in any number of ways makes some people nervous. The less aware you are of the use of data, the less power you have in the coming society we are going to live in.

 In the earlier days what we did was we thought of things, observed things, wrote it down and that became knowledge. Big data is kind of the opposite, you have a pile of data that isn’t really knowledge until you start looking at it and noticing things. Visualizing data allows us to see how complex systems function. It helps us see patterns and meaning in ways that were previously impossible, and, it has made almost everything measurable and quantifiable. Most data is meaningless unless someone adds a narrative around it. It takes people, programs and algorithms to connect it all together and turn it into an interesting piece of information, revealing hitherto unnoticed insights. 

Big data expands customer intelligence, improves operational efficiencies and business processes, helps predict trends, prepare for demand, anticipate outbreaks, the list is endless.  The impact of data is so significant that it wouldn’t be too farfetched to imagine that in the not-so-distant future, the calendar system would change from B.C. and A.D. (Before Christ, Anno Domini) to B.D. and A.D. (Before Data, After Data)