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1 Introduction: The Digital Society
“everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks
everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it…”
But some are actually doing it. In fact, “Big Data” has already given rise to many
interesting applications, such as real-time language translation. So, what is “Big
Data”? The term refers to massive amounts of data, which have been collected about
technological, social, economic and environmental systems and activities. To get an
idea of “Big Data,” imagine the digital traces that almost all our activities leave,
including the data created by our consumption and movement patterns. Every single
minute, we produce about 700,000 Google queries and 500,000 Facebook comments.
If you add all of the location data of people using smartphones, the consumption data
of people who buy things, and cookies which track every click and tap of our online
activity, you will begin to comprehend the enormity of “Big Data”.
All the contents collected in the history of humankind until the year 2003 are
estimated to amount to five billion gigabytes—the data volume that around 2015 was
produced approximately every day. While we have been speaking of an “information
age” since the middle of last century, the digital era started only in 2002. Since then,
the digital storage capacity has exceeded the analog one. Today, more than 95% of
all data are available in digital form. Even by avoiding credit card transactions, social
media and digital technologies, it is no longer possible to completely avoid digital
footprints on the Internet.
1.2 Data Sets Bigger Than the Largest Library
The availability of Big Data about almost every aspect of our lives, institutions and
cultures has fueled the hope that we could now solve the world’s problems. Every
Internet purchase we make generates data about our preferences, finances and location that will be stored on a server somewhere and used for various purposes, possibly
without our consent. Cell phones disclose where we are, and private messages
and conversations are being analyzed. It will probably not be long before every
newborn baby is genome-sequenced at birth. Books are being digitized and collated
in immense, searchable databases of words that are being data-mined to enable “culturomics”, a field which puts history, society, art and cultural trends under the lens.
Aggregated data can be used to reveal unexpected facts in a way that would never have
been possible before the digital age. For example, an analysis of Google searches
can reveal an impending flu epidemic.
This avalanche of data continues to grow. The introduction of technologies such
as Google Glass encourages people to document and archive almost every aspect of
their lives. Further data sets include credit-card transactions, communication data,
Google Earth imagery, public news, comments and blogs. These data sources have
1 Introduction: The Digital Society
“everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks
everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it…”
But some are actually doing it. In fact, “Big Data” has already given rise to many
interesting applications, such as real-time language translation. So, what is “Big
Data”? The term refers to massive amounts of data, which have been collected about
technological, social, economic and environmental systems and activities. To get an
idea of “Big Data,” imagine the digital traces that almost all our activities leave,
including the data created by our consumption and movement patterns. Every single
minute, we produce about 700,000 Google queries and 500,000 Facebook comments.
If you add all of the location data of people using smartphones, the consumption data
of people who buy things, and cookies which track every click and tap of our online
activity, you will begin to comprehend the enormity of “Big Data”.
All the contents collected in the history of humankind until the year 2003 are
estimated to amount to five billion gigabytes—the data volume that around 2015 was
produced approximately every day. While we have been speaking of an “information
age” since the middle of last century, the digital era started only in 2002. Since then,
the digital storage capacity has exceeded the analog one. Today, more than 95% of
all data are available in digital form. Even by avoiding credit card transactions, social
media and digital technologies, it is no longer possible to completely avoid digital
footprints on the Internet.
1.2 Data Sets Bigger Than the Largest Library
The availability of Big Data about almost every aspect of our lives, institutions and
cultures has fueled the hope that we could now solve the world’s problems. Every
Internet purchase we make generates data about our preferences, finances and location that will be stored on a server somewhere and used for various purposes, possibly
without our consent. Cell phones disclose where we are, and private messages
and conversations are being analyzed. It will probably not be long before every
newborn baby is genome-sequenced at birth. Books are being digitized and collated
in immense, searchable databases of words that are being data-mined to enable “culturomics”, a field which puts history, society, art and cultural trends under the lens.
Aggregated data can be used to reveal unexpected facts in a way that would never have
been possible before the digital age. For example, an analysis of Google searches
can reveal an impending flu epidemic.
This avalanche of data continues to grow. The introduction of technologies such
as Google Glass encourages people to document and archive almost every aspect of
their lives. Further data sets include credit-card transactions, communication data,
Google Earth imagery, public news, comments and blogs. These data sources have