New project to give data ‘human face’
DATA storage supplier EMC has embarked on a drive to get people worldwide to generate and share information via a project called the Human Face of Big Data.
The aim is to tap into, and put a human face on, the societal impact of “big data” — a new technology that aims to collect huge amounts data generated daily by consumers.
Examples include Facebook status updates, tweets on Twitter, digital photos and video, closedcircuit camera feeds, and creditcard transactions. The Human Face of Big Data was a globally “crowd-sourced” media project focusing on humanity’s new ability to collect, analyse, triangulate and visualise vast amounts of data in real time, said EMC.
EMC is the key sponsor of the project and is providing the technology platform. The project is an initiative of Against All Odds productions, the company founded by photographer Rick Smolan and his partner, Jennifer Erwitt.
The project kicked off a week ago with the launch of a smartphone application running on Apple handsets and also Google’s Android-powered devices. By Monday, about 106,000 volunteers had signed up to answer a few questions about themselves. They can also contribute the data the phone collects every day, such as the distance they travelled or direction, using digital maps.
Once they have contributed the information and completed the answers, volunteers can search for their “data doppelganger” — individuals similar to them based on the answers provided. EMC hopes to draw some interesting and useful conclusions about how we live and work.
Dave Menninger, the head of business development and strategy at EMC Greenplum, said: “The world is at a start of something that will change society for the better. Big data has the power to transform the world. It is changing the way systems work.”
Another part of the project involves 100 photojournalists who were sent to take photos and gather stories on how data are affecting lives across the globe. This information will be turned into a book to be published next month and given to 10,000 influential people worldwide.
Mochiko was a guest of EMC in London.