Is Big Data in Danger of Becoming Its Own Worst Enemy?
I’m a big fan of what we can learn from patterns and information taken on a massive scale. I think the psychology of data is pretty fascinating. That we can predict with really pretty great accuracy what types of things people need, actions they’ll take, etc. It’s pretty incredible.
Clearly there’s a line. I don’t know, really, where that line is though – is it personal information? Is it limitations on combining information from different sources? Is it the use of the information, rather than the gathering of information? And, of course, the grand-daddy of all questions… is it too late to control any of this? To mold it to not be ruffling feathers?
I think it’s too late to control.
I think the only real option at this point is to embrace it and learn from it and be better because of it. I simply can’t see how you can push the genie back in the bottle. I think, too, that if we pretend to do that, all it will really do is mean that people that tend to live by the rules will be faced with less information and others (the "bad guys") will just continue on anyway. I think the only solution is to work through it and figure out how we are all better for it.
I’ve seen a number of articles talking about Big Data and the "creepy" things companies can do with it, are going to push people to not accept "big data." A few things about this. First, "big data" still isn’t really a thing. It’s a term that encompasses really big blocks of information – processed in ways that help the information curator. So, to say that big data is, well, anything is silly.
Second, I think the uses of big data (predictive stuff, responsive stuff, learn from your past stuff) is helpful, once you get past the "ew, how’d they know I wanted that?" phase and into the "sweet – I really wondered about xyz, and there it is!" If we can figure out what we all need from massive amounts of information and analysis, we’ll be in a better place. Ironically, it’s sort of the Borg(tm) – learning as a collective – though applying on a individual basis.
We used to call learning from experience… well, er, experience. It was a good thing – who wanted to hire someone with no experience – nope, we want the person with years and years of experience. WHY? Because they knew (wait for it) what to expect based on past history. There was fabulous leverage in someone who had been there, done that.
Why is it so creepy that we can automate that experience and learn from it at the speed of light?
What do you think? Good? Bad? Somewhere in the middle? What’s your take on big data as it pertains to you personally rather than professionally? Is there a difference?
Drop me a note at swynk@sswug.org or comment below…