VINTlabs Big Data Bookmarks: @MennovanDoorn

As researchers we do a lot of reading. Every week one of the researchers shares the most valuable articles he has read. Consider these posts as a curated reading experience. This week: Menno van Doorn. What if Big Data Was a person, who would you like it to be? What would he look like? Anthropologist for Intel, Genevieve Bell, attempts to describe this hypothetical person. She describes eight characteristics in her interesting nine minutes talk. Meet the Urban Datasexual The same cultural zeitgeist that gave us the metrosexual- the urban male obsessive about grooming and personal appearance – is also creating its digital equivalent: The datasexual looks a lot like you and me, but what’s different is their preoccupation with personal data. I stumbled upon this blogposting on bigthink.com. Is it just another word for “Quantifiers”? or will “the bigger your data the sexier you are” really make datasexuals more popular? http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/meet-the-urban-datasexual How can you experience abstract information? The bachelor thesis “Experiencing Abstract Information” by Jochen Winker and Stefan Kuzaj introduces theoretical principles and shows them with some interactive examples. There are four essential parts in making abstract information experiencable: information itself, relevant senses, fitting emotion and a direct reference of the presentation to the information. To demonstrate the systematics, they built three interactive installations. By using them you become an interactive diagram in a virtual mirror, cause virtual water-pollution in a water-basin or compare the time you have to work in different countries to buy a big mac or some bread. All of these installations show a different approach of immersive data transfer.