EMC has announced the Human Face of Big Data project, launching across the globe in a staggered series of events that will conclude this evening (South African time) in New York, with an address to be given by EMC president Joe Tucci.
The Human Face of Big Data (HFBD) project is being sponsored by EMC and is an initiative of Against All Odds productions, the company founded by renowned photographer Rick Smolan and his partner Jennifer Erwitt.
The HFBD project kicked off on 27 September and has seen (by yesterday morning) 106 000 volunteers sign up worldwide.
The project will see many more volunteers sign up and participate in a global data collection effort, taking place over the next six weeks.
The project has several components: The Human Face of Big Data app, Mission Control, Data Detectives, The Book, and an iPad app.
Says Dave Menninger, head of business development and strategy, Greenplum, EMC: "Big data is kind of like watching the planet developing a central nervous system - people carrying smartphones are becoming the central nervous system for the planet, collecting information. Five exabytes of data was generated by humans through to 2003; we have been generating that every two days since then."
But data is just data, it's what you can do with it once you have some context and can make sense of it that's interesting. Part of the HFBD project is showcasing those interesting things. It involves sending out 100 or so photojournalists all over the world to gather photos and stories of how data is impacting humans - like analysing previously discarded EKG data to work out which patients are at most risk of second heart attacks, or using data from household devices to work out which consume the most electricity, and allow householders to manage consumption better as a result. These stories have been fed into the Mission Control and The Book parts of the project.
"We're trying to display the human face of big data," Menninger comments.
Digital Detectives, says the project's Web site, will happen this November, and see "students around the world in grades 6-12 and their teachers engage in data collecting activities to measure, analyse, and map their worlds. The activities will connect thousands of students around the world and allow them to compare their opinions, thoughts, concerns, and beliefs through exciting data visualisations and graphics."
The HFBD app is a crowd-sourced data collection project. Anyone wanting to take part can go to www.humanfaceofbigdata.com and download the Android or iOS app. The data collection project has three parts; the first involves participants passively allowing their phones to collect and transmit data over the course of one day - things like distance travelled. The second part involves 50 questions which the participant has to answer, "thought-provoking questions like: if you could alter your unborn child's DNA one way, to give them immunity, intelligence or longevity, which would you choose? You can use Facebook and Twitter to share these questions with other people," says Menninger.
Once they've answered all the questions, participants can search for their data doppelganger - that one person anywhere in the world who is most similar to them from a data perspective.
It is this ability to compare data across demographic and geographical areas that makes the exercise valuable, Menninger says.
The Book is a large format hardcover, featuring images from 100 of the world's leading photographers in over 30 countries, who went out and captured images that illustrate The Human Face of Big Data. The book will be released on 10 November, and be delivered to 10 000 key influencers around the globe - all on the same day.
The iPad app will bring the project to life by adding an interactive element to The Book, allowing readers to go with the photographers on their journeys in search of the images in The Book.
Comments Adrian McDonald, president of EMC EMEA: "Any child born in 2012 will generate and have generated about them more information than has been created to date. In its first year, that child will generate/have generated about them more information than is currently held in the Smithsonian. Ten percent of photos ever taken were taken in 2011. We believe the big data industry is the next big innovation/crux point for market, government, society, ecology, education - truly bringing incremental change to the citizens of the world."
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