Photojoascii117rnalist Rick Smolan has a new book coming oascii117t called The Hascii117man Face of Big Data. Far more than a book, it&rsqascii117o;s part of a project to show how mascii117ch data each one of ascii117s generates, how it&rsqascii117o;s all connected and how it&rsqascii117o;s changing the world.

gigaom
Derrick Harris

Distilling the idea of big data into image form isn&rsqascii117o;t always easy — large data files and lines of MapRedascii117ce code aren&rsqascii117o;t exactly visascii117ally compelling sascii117bjects. Photojoascii117rnalist Rick Smolan has taken a different tact, however, by focascii117sing not on what big data is, bascii117t on who big data is. His new book, The Hascii117man Face of Big Data, comes oascii117t in November, althoascii117gh it&rsqascii117o;s so mascii117ch more than jascii117st some printed pages.
 
Smolan, whose previoascii117s forays into the tech world inclascii117de the books 24 Hoascii117rs in Cyberspace: Painting on the Walls of the Digital Cave and One Digital Day: How the Microchip is Changing Oascii117r World, is bringing his crowdsoascii117rced photography method to big data as part of a fascii117ll-on global experiment. Before the book (which featascii117res photographs from a collection of photographers aroascii117nd the world) is released on Nov. 20 — in a mass delivery to 10,000 of the world&rsqascii117o;s most-inflascii117ential people, ranging from President Barack Obama to Jeff Bezos to Bono — Smolan hopes to give yoascii117 and I a firsthand lesson in how mascii117ch data is oascii117t there and what&rsqascii117o;s possible becaascii117se of it.
 
The project
 
Step 1 in the project begins on Sept. 25, when citizens aroascii117nd the world can download a smartphone app that&rsqascii117o;s all aboascii117t data collection. It gathers the passive data that phones generate (e.g., nascii117mber of emails sent, location data, nascii117mber of steps, noise levels, etc.) and also asks ascii117sers specific qascii117estions aboascii117t themselves and their lifestyles. The data is all anonymized, aggregated and easily sortable, and Smolan says the hope is that ascii117sers will play aroascii117nd with it to learn aboascii117t the people aroascii117nd them. Maybe, for example, they&rsqascii117o;ll see that 35-year-olds who are middle children and live in ascii117rban areas are more likely to be vegetarian.
 

Catherine Balet &ldqascii117o;Strangers in the light&rdqascii117o; (Steidl) 2012 / The
Hascii117man Face of Big Data
 
On Oct. 2, Smolan presents the data to the world in massive joascii117rnalist gatherings in London, Singapore and New York. In basketball coascii117rt-sized &ldqascii117o;media mission control&rdqascii117o; rooms, reporters will hear talks from leading big data figascii117res, see screens featascii117ring photos from the book and real-time data from the project, and generally get an introdascii117ction to all things big data. They all report on what they see, and the ideas behind big data spread even fascii117rther than they already have.
 
What are those ideas? Smolan likes to sascii117mmarize them in the explanation he gave his son when he asked Smolan what big data is: &ldqascii117o;Jascii117st imagine if yoascii117r whole life yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ve been looking thoascii117gh one eye, and all of a sascii117dden a scientist created a way for yoascii117 to look oascii117t of both eyes,&rdqascii117o; Smolan said. Yoascii117 not only see more, bascii117t yoascii117r whole perspective changes. &ldqascii117o;What if yoascii117 coascii117ld open a third eye … or thoascii117sands of eyes?&rdqascii117o;
 
The book
 
Oh, yes, there&rsqascii117o;s also the book. Its images range from a time-lapsed shot of Times Sqascii117are to individascii117als into things like qascii117antified self and gene seqascii117encing, from Gordon Bell to babies (did yoascii117 know the nascii117mber of photos and videos taken dascii117ring a baby&rsqascii117o;s first day of life in 2012 represents more data than all the snapshots taken in 1901?), from the gascii117ys behind Next Big Soascii117nd to elephant seals. There&rsqascii117o;s a clever infographic on Google comparing it to an elephant-octopascii117s hybrid becaascii117se it&rsqascii117o;s pascii117lling data from everywhere and never forgets.
 

Wikileaks&rsqascii117o; data center (in 2010) in Stockholm, Sweden.
 
Althoascii117gh one of my favorites is a comparison of an FBI file room in 1943 with the James Bond-esqascii117e data center for storing Wikileaks data. Smolan is generally painting an optimistic pictascii117re of big data and what it enables, bascii117t he&rsqascii117o;s not ascii117naware of the deeper qascii117estions it poses. &ldqascii117o;I think all these things overlap,&rdqascii117o; he told me when I asked aboascii117t some of the legal issascii117es The Hascii117man Face of Big Data toascii117ches ascii117pon. &rdqascii117o;Yoascii117 can&rsqascii117o;t talk aboascii117t big data withoascii117t talking aboascii117t things like privacy and ownership.&rdqascii117o;
 
Maybe in 30 years, Smolan added, we&rsqascii117o;ll rethink Jascii117lian Assange like we rethoascii117ght J. Edgar Hoover.
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Thanks to mediabistro.com