The next gold rush: Reality Mining
There is a gold rush underway and thankfully it does not involve any long slogs out West with pans and pickaxes. This rush is for data which is increasingly becoming the bedrock of much of what the Web 2.0 and future developments will rely upon for dishing out increasingly complex and hyper specific information for just about everything. One of the hotspots in this data mining is information not only about one's online self, but about one's self in the real world, particularly one's habits and movements. Some may say this is getting too close to information on a personal level, akin to the digital equivalent of the close talker from the Seinfeld era. MIT researcher, Sandy Petland in an MIT Technology Review article offers that this is not the case. Instead, such data about one's activities in the real world can be tracked collectively at the level of the masses rather than specific individuals. This mining of "reality" can give one a very good look at patterns with particular applications in tracking disease outbreaks for instance and patterns that can better help people in the real world. Petland's work uses data from cell phone logs and proximity data from bluetooth enable modules on the phones. However, as we see more and more robust mobile devices, connecting in the cloud and tracking myriad information about ourselves, such reality mining can expand to other devices not currently available. The ability to aggregate data from mobile devices is key to all of this. As location based services and GPS become mainstream and embedded in just about anything not tethered to a desk, the ability to collect this type of data will become more pervasive. In terms of education, this type of work can lead to some creative looks at human communication and mobility patterns and can offer students of social sciences new streams of information to analyze. Michael Wesch also commented on this study on his MediatedCultures website where he noted that MIT has identified Petland's reality mining as one of notable emerging technologies in 2008. Increasingly, data is all around us. And now we create it by just moving around. Instead of panning we are now developing the tools and creativity to dip into the digital river and pull almost anything swimming in it. Some will find digital gold dust, but inevitably one will also find considerable nuggets (brought to my attention by Wesch's Library of Congress YouTube talk).
Keene Haywood (University of Texas@Austin - DIIA)
