Big Data is just that - big. But, it's a term that is largely misunderstood and difficult to explain.

Rick Smolan

Categorized in : Big Explain Data Difficult

Every time there's a new tool, whether it's Internet or cell phones or anything else, all these things can be used for good or evil. Technology is neutral; it depends on how it's used.

good internet technology time

Those who fear that we are losing our individualism couldn't be more wrong: Americans have never been more free to create and recreate themselves.

free never losing fear

There's a company in Boston called Ginger IO that has a smartphone app that can predict, two days before you get depressed, that you're going to get depressed.

predict you company two

Photographers have always been each other's biggest fans.

other been always fans

If you ask anyone on any street corner in the world what the Soviet Union looks like, they would probably have very strong opinions. And they probably would be wrong.

street you strong world

In 1978, 'Time' magazine sent me to do a story about children in Southeast Asia fathered by American GIs. What I saw was very upsetting, but the story they published was whitewashed.

story me time children

The people who are thinking most about big data right now are corporations and governments.

big data people thinking

As individuals, we have very little say about how our data is being used. I'm not worried about the privacy implications of it so much. But it seems to me that, as an individual, if I'm the one generating the data, I should have some kind of say in how it's going to be used.

say me privacy data

I wonder if 50 years from now we'll look back, and maybe Julian Assange will be the hero and J. Edgar Hoover will be the enemy of the state.

will look hero enemy

Targeted ads, I think, are useful because I don't want to see all the crap. I'm not interested in buying a Mercedes Benz, but I am interested in buying a new MacBook Air. So if organizations like Facebook can actually make the ads more relevant to me, if they know what I am interested in, I have no problem with that.

i-am think me problem

You can't talk about big data without talking about things like privacy and ownership.

you privacy data talking

Americans are changing right before our eyes. They are choosing different lifestyles, families, traditions and ways of living.

right eyes living different

The ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real time is something the human race has never had before. This new set of tools, often referred by the lofty term 'Big Data,' has begun to emerge as a new approach to addressing some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.

new never challenges time

Some of the pictures in 'The Human Face of Big Data' will bring tears to your eyes; others are so surprising or memorable that you just have to show them to your friends and family.

face eyes you family

If we were to reengineer the DVR, we would cut America's energy bill by 5%.

cut were energy america

There are a number of fascinating stories included in 'The Human Face of Big Data' that represent some of the most innovative applications of data that are shaping our future.

face big future data

'America 24/7' will be a landmark series in documentary photography and the watershed event of the new digital photography age.

new will digital age

The goal of 'Data Detectives' is to spark the imagination of students around the globe by making them think about new technologies that will impact humanity in ways similar to language and art.

language imagination humanity art

Netflix and Amazon know when you stop and start a program, whether you wanted the whole thing, all of that.

stop start know you

Programmers have been wandering out and shooting a shotgun into the night sky and hoping they hit something, and I end up paying $150 for channels full of nothing I want to watch.

end nothing sky night