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Digital mesh

A seamless blend of physical and virtual environments surrounds people for almost every moment of every day.

Jessie Rudd
By Jessie Rudd, Technical business analyst at PBT Group
Johannesburg, 01 Dec 2016

If people were to try hard enough, keep their wits about them and be mindful, they could probably figure out just how much digital content they are creating or partaking in, every day. All it would require is a bit of awareness of what they are doing.

With a little bit of thought, they could potentially fathom the part they play in just one minute of a day. One minute, which equates to over 4 million Facebook likes, close to 2.5 million Instagram likes, 300 hours of YouTube videos being uploaded, just short of 400 000 tweets - I could carry on, but I think my point is clear. Roughly 2.5 exabytes of data is produced daily. In simple terms, 530 000 000 million songs. Every day. Every single day[1].

What people may not be aware of, though, is the content they are inadvertently creating just by living in today's world. The sensors and apps on users' phones that record and, if permission has been given, analyse users' movements, steps, buying habits, which shop the user is in, etc.

I have used an example before that I am rather fond of. With very little effort, Google knows exactly where someone is and, potentially, what they are doing, at any given time. All because they synced their calendar appointment and used Google Maps to navigate to an address. Given enough detail in the body of the calendar appointment, and the geolocation software on a phone - users are inherently trackable. Findable. To within a couple of metres. With very little effort.

Massive and meaningless

Yet, consider this for a moment - only about 0.5% of the data created every moment of every day is ever analysed. That is just so ridiculous as to be laughable. And 95.5% of this massive amount of information generated and created and contributed to every day is there, but 'not there'... if that makes any sense. Around, but pointless. Much like that saying: if a tree falls in a forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it still make a noise? Only 12.5 petabytes of the 2.5 exabytes generated daily is ever analysed[2].

Out of necessity, out of sheer volume and scale, the content being created, whether it be of the mindful or unmindful sort, is giving rise to a new sort of existence. Imagine sitting in the centre of an ever-expanding set of devices, people, information and services. They are all interconnected in some way, all fluidly and dynamically, and they can and should relate to each other. Introducing "digital mesh". A network of 'things' that surrounds an individual. Now imagine the possibilities.

Only about 0.5% of the data created every moment of every day is ever analysed.

Digital mesh and hyper-connectivity speak directly to each other, and to the generation of always on, at all times, which society is hurtling towards at breakneck speed. This seamless blend of physical and virtual environments that surrounds people for almost every moment of the day in the form of text, voice, video, sensors, augmented/virtual/mixed reality, apps, social media - it all produces, uses and transmits data to generate an ambient digital experience for the individual. Which is just a very flowery way of saying that people are moving towards a world in which their digital experience is tailored specifically and automatically to them, with minimum input from them.

Daunting data

Imaging being able to dynamically interact with an application in a way that can potentially last for an extended period. The experience would blend the physical, virtual and electronic environments, and use real-time contextual information as the ambient environment changes or as the user moves from one place to another. That concept is very cool. Scary - but cool.

However, this seamless connectivity with all the 'things' that surround the users, requires users to be able to analyse way more than 0.5% of the data and information being generated every day. Way more, and way faster.

Enter the idea of smart machines. No, I am not talking robots or terminator-style world domination. As cool as the idea is of an 'Arnold-like' intelligence (accent and all) being in 'control' of the digital mesh that will eventually surround everyone, I am referring more to companies being able to identify and extract strategic value from the vast amount of information being generated, using intelligent algorithms and advanced machine learning.

At the end of the day, the world revolves around money. More precisely - the making of money. Being part of a definable digital mesh will make it so much easier for companies to 'sell' whatever it is they are selling. Coffee, stocks, houses, more mesh. You can bet your bottom dollar companies, business and governments the world over are spending top dollar testing and trialling smart machines capable of extracting relevant, contextual information rapidly from the mesh.

To not do so, to not invest heavily in the technology that will allow more than 0.5% of data to be analysed, would be foolish. Much like shooting yourself in the foot. Society is on the cusp of a new way, a new path. Perhaps even a new bit of human evolution.

[1] http://www.northeastern.edu/levelblog/2016/05/13/how-much-data-produced-every-day/
[2] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/514346/the-data-made-me-do-it/

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