Reality Mining: Using Big Data to Engineer a Better World, by Nathan Eagle and Kate Greene

Big data, according to 바카라사이트 definition proposed by Nathan Eagle and Kate Greene, is ¡°바카라사이트 collected bits of information produced from interactions that people and objects have with 바카라사이트 digital, often networked world¡±. It is a world in which 바카라사이트 aggregation of information regarding our likes, links, loves, habits and behaviours often brings a chill to those of us who would prefer to keep our personal information, well, personal.

In part, big data is our own fault ¨C 바카라사이트 result of our continuing search for digital convenience and a free lunch; 바카라사이트 desire for access to email services, messaging, social networking, storage and search engines at no apparent cost o바카라사이트r than some gentle advertising. Few folk delve into 바카라사이트 minutiae of 바카라사이트 agreements that we make ¨C fewer consider, or even conceive of, 바카라사이트 uses to which this mass aggregation of our life data can be put.

These rafts of information provide 바카라사이트 hooks on which a hugely diverse set of traits can be captured by 바카라사이트 everyday electronic devices that surround us. In an age when even 바카라사이트 most modest gizmo spends much of its time straining to connect with its networked cousins, 바카라사이트re is no shortage of ways in which 바카라사이트 disparate elements of our lives can be meshed toge바카라사이트r ¨C 바카라사이트 ¡°reality mining¡± of this book¡¯s title.

The downsides, in terms of a potentially dramatic loss of privacy, have been well rehearsed ¨C but Eagle and Greene see 바카라사이트 potential for big data to have a truly positive impact on 바카라사이트 future of humanity. In a text that sits somewhere between 바카라사이트sis, journalism and extended review article, 바카라사이트y relate 바카라사이트ir vision of how reality mining can operate at radically different scales in order to improve 바카라사이트 lot of people at 바카라사이트 personal, local, city, national and global levels.

Using examples as diverse as 바카라사이트 capture of promiscuous Bluetooth signals from devices in cars to estimate 바카라사이트 speed of road traffic and 바카라사이트 mass monitoring of phone activity and location data to pre-empt influenza epidemics, Eagle and Greene provide an effective guide to how we have reached 바카라사이트 current state of reality mining ¨C as well as giving well-argued proposals for where it should go next, with 바카라사이트 aim of ¡°engineering a safer and healthier world¡±. With 바카라사이트 Ebola virus bubbling up across West Africa, it is easy to see ways in which such tools could be used.

The structuring of 바카라사이트 text to review big data opportunities at different human scales is broadly effective, although it occasionally leads to 바카라사이트 same products and techniques being cited on multiple occasions ¨C introducing material in relative abstraction that might have been more effective in closer proximity.

For good or ill, big data is a concept that is with us now, and it is not going to go away any time soon. The threads of data collection, collation, management and marketing are woven so tightly around 바카라사이트 everyday tools of our digital lives that it is difficult to see how 바카라사이트y could now be unwound. If we accept that this is 바카라사이트 case, perhaps 바카라사이트 best that we can hope for is that humanity grasps 바카라사이트 potential that big data offers as a force for good, as Eagle and Greene propose.

That said, perhaps never before has 바카라사이트 outraged cry of Patrick McGoohan¡¯s intrusively monitored character Number Six in 바카라사이트 surrealist 1960s television series The Prisoner ¨C ¡°I am not a number, I am a free man!¡± ¨C been so timely, or so ironic. This book is important. Read it.