Big Data is made up of lots of little data: numbers entered into cell phones, addresses entered into GPS devices, visits to websites, online purchases, ATM transactions, and any other activity that leaves a digital trail. This book on Big Data cuts through the hype to explore the potential of Big Data. It shows the ways in which the analysis of Big Data can be used to improve human systems as varied as political polling and disease tracking, while considering user privacy.

The authors describe Reality Mining at five different levels: the individual, the neighbourhood and organization, the city, the nation and the world. For each level, they first offer a non-technical explanation of data collection methods and then describe applications and systems that have been or could be built. Thus, making it understandable to everyone. Some examples are a mobile app that helps smokers quit smoking; a workplace “knowledge system”; the use of GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile phone data to manage and predict traffic flows; and analysis of social media to track the spread of disease. Their argument being how Big Data, used respectfully and responsibly, can help people live better, healthier, and happier lives.

The book will be useful for students of management, computer science, media studies and professionals as well.

“We look at digital devices as things that are meant to serve us. In Reality Mining we are taken on a journey from individuals to countries, to illustrate the true transformative power that the collective use of these digital devices brings to humanity. A fascinating trip guided by researchers who have successfully bridged discovery with entrepreneurship!”

—Albert-Laśzlό Barabasi, Robert Gray Doge
Professor of Network Science, Northeastern University; author of Linked

“A smart look at how Big Data transforms our lives, from the microcosm of the individual to the macrocosm of the planet. Eagle’s pioneering research in data-mining human behavior is inspiring, while Greene’s insights on what it all means make Reality Mining an indispensable book. And importantly, privacy issues are not an after-thought but are interlaced throughout. as it should be”

—Kenneth Cukier, coauthor of Big Data:
A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

Introduction.

I. The Individual (One Person) —1. Mobile Phones, Sensors, and Lifelogging: Collecting Data from Individuals While Considering Privacy. 2. Using Personal Data in a Privacy-Sensitive Way to Make a Person’s Life Easier and Healthier.

II. The Neighborhood and  the Organization (10 to 1,000 People)—3. Gathering Data from Small Heterogeneous Groups. 4. Engineering and Policy: Building more Efficient Businesses, Enabling Hyperlocal Politics, Life Queries, and Opportunity Searches.

III. The City (1,000 to 1,000,000 People)—5. Traffic Data, Crime Stats, and Closed-Circuit Cameras: Accumulating Urban Analytics. 6. Engineering and Policy: Optimizing Resource Allocation.

IV. The National (1 Million to 100 Million People)—7. Taking the Pulse of a Nation: Census, Mobile Phones, and Internet Giants. 8. Engineering and Policy Addressing National Sentiment, Economic Deficits, and Disasters.

V. Reality Mining the World’s Data (100 Million 7 Billion People)—9. Gathering the World’s Data: Global Census, International Travel and Commerce, and Planetary-Scale Communication. 10. Engineering a Safer and Healthier Word.

Conclusion. Notes. Index.