Mapping a World of Human Activity
Sunday, November 20th, 2011 by Eugenia Cimatti
Human imprinting on the Earth as seen from above
Big Data can be exploited in diffrent ways for different purposes. An example is the work of anthropologist Felix Pharand-Deschenes who has used the information to map the human connection systems (from roads to airplanes to pipelines to the internet) in the Anthropocene (the era of humans domination on the Earth). The Cartography of the Anthropocene is an effort to illustrate the many different ways that global humanity connects and is interdependent. Apart from its initial educational purposes, this information retrieved from multiple sources, provides an interesting perspective for further speculations both in academic and business environments.
Big Data are like underearth treasures: they are there waiting to be dug and exploited by those who have the knowledge and vision to take advantage of them. Here is the new gold rush!
Tags: anthropocene, Big Data, connections, mapping