Big Data Gets Its Own Photo Album

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The New York Times
Monday, September 17, 2012

Big Data Gets Its Own Photo Album

By STEVE LOHR

Rick Smolan, the photographer and impresario of media projects, has tackled all sorts of big subjects over the years, from countries ("A Day in the Life of Australia" in 1981) to drinking water ("Blue Planet Run" in 2007). He typically recruits about 100 photographers for each, and their work is crafted into classy coffee-table books of striking photographs and short essays.

But Mr. Smolan concedes that his current venture has been "by far the most challenging project we've done."

Small wonder, given his target: Big Data.

Massive rivers of digital information are a snooze, visually. Yet that is the narrow, literal-minded view. Mr. Smolan's new project, "The Human Face of Big Data," which is being formally announced on Thursday, focuses on how data, smart software, sensors and computing are opening the door to all sorts of new uses in science, business, health, energy and water conservation. And the pictures are mostly of the people doing that work or those being affected.

In these digital times, the book is only one part of the Big Data project. Later this month, on Sept. 25, a software application for iPhones and Android phones will be released. The idea is to get as many people from around the world as possible to use the application.

The program will be able to collect data on travel and movement (through the smartphone's GPS and accelerometer), food (take a picture and shortly after the program identifies the food, including estimates of calories and fat content) and attitudes (the user answers questions posed by the app). The data will be fed into a "Measure Our World" database, and people can see how their habits and attitudes compare with others by, say, where a person lives, gender and age.

Later, on Nov. 8, a Big Data-related program for students, in collaboration with TEDYouth, will get under way. When the book is released on Nov. 20, some 10,000 copies will be delivered by Federal Express to influential people around the world, Mr. Smolan said. It's an eclectic group, including President Obama; Carmelita Jeter, the Olympic sprinter; Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue; Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress; and Jiang Jiemin, chairman of PetroChina. For the less influential who are not getting free copies, the price will be $50, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

An iPad application, based on the book but including interactive features, will come soon after. And a documentary film, scheduled for next year, is planned.

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