Archive of November 11, 2008
We are truly in the information age. Everywhere, data is being constantly collected, distributed, analyzed, and visualized. Increasingly, government data (which has long been collected, but cumbersome to access) is being opened up. Additional social data augments this twelve-fold. In short, the depth and breadth of data sets are rapidly being expanded. Some applications of this data are very useful, such as Google tracking flu activity through search queries.1 Other implementations are far more fanciful, like the hypnotizing Now dashboard from Sprint. The page is filled with data about now, with a background track of various statistics and slogans playing. Despite its limited practical use, the page serves as an apt example of both the data available and the ensuing information overload. As the voice instructively shares, “please keep your hands inside the moment at all times.”2