Migratory data Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

I spent most of last week at O'Reilly Media's Strata Conference on Big Data in Santa Clara, where I was talking about the data you carry with you. Something I've started to call migratory data.

Big data isn’t just about multi-terrabyte data sets hidden inside eventually-concurrent distributed databases in the cloud, or enterprise-scale data warehousing, or even the emerging market in data. It’s also about the hidden data you carry with you all the time, about the slowly growing data sets on your movements, contacts and social interactions.

Until recently most people’s understanding of what can actually be done with the data collected about us by our own cell phones was theoretical; there were few real-world examples. But over the last couple of years this has changed dramatically.


Interview with Mac Slocum at Strata
Mac Slocum caught up with me about half way through the week to talk about the data on your cell phone, and other mobile devices, along with the possibilities for making use of that hidden data to reveal things about our lives that we might not realise ourselves, about data privacy and data leakage, and about where all this might lead.