Synopses & Reviews
The images and stories captured in
The Human Face of Big Data are the result of an extraordinary artistic, technical, and logistical juggling act aimed at capturing the human face of the Big Data Revolution.and#160;Big Data is defined as the real time collection, analyses, and visualization of vast amounts of the information.and#160; In the hands of Data Scientists this raw information is fueling a revolution which many people believe may have as big an impact on humanity going forward as the Internet has over the past two decades. Its enable us to sense, measure, and understand aspects of our existence in ways never before possible.and#160;
The Human Face of Big Data captures, in glorious photographs and moving essays, an extraordinary revolution sweeping, almost invisibly, through business, academia, government, healthcare, and everyday life. It's already enabling us to provide a healthier life for our children. To provide our seniors with independence while keeping them safe. To help us conserve precious resources like water and energy. To alert us to tiny changes in our health, weeks or years before we develop a life-threatening illness. To peer into our own individual genetic makeup. To create new forms of life.and#160; And soon, as many predict, to re-engineer our own species. And we've barely scratched the surface . . .and#160;Over the past decade, Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt, co-founders of Against All Odds Productions, have produced a series of ambitious global projects in collaboration with hundreds of the world's leading photographers, writers, and graphic designers. Their
Day in the Life projects were credited for creating a mass market for large-format illustrated books (rare was the coffee table book without one).and#160;and#160;Today their projects aim at sparking global conversations about emerging topics ranging from the Internet (
24 Hours in Cyberspace), to Microprocessors (
One Digital Day), to how the human race is learning to heal itself, (
The Power to Heal) to the global water crisis (
Blue Planet Run).and#160;This year Smolan and Erwitt dispatched photographers and writers in every corner of the globe to explore the world of and#8220;Big Dataand#8221; and to determine if it truly does, as many in the field claim, represent a brand new toolset for humanity, helping address the biggest challenges facing our species.and#160;The book features 10 essays by noted writers:Introduction: OCEANS OF DATA by Dan Gardner
Chapter 1: REFLECTIONS IN A DIGITAL MIRROR by Juan Enriquez, CEO, Biotechnomomy
Chapter 2: OUR DATA OURSELVES by Kate Green, the Economist
Chapter 3: QUANTIFYING MYSELF by AJ Jacobs, Esquire
Chapter 4: DARK DATA by Marc Goodman, Future Crime Institute
Chapter 5:and#160; THE SENTIENT SENSOR MESH by Susan Karlin, Fast Company
Chapter 6: TAKING THE PULSE OF THE PLANET by Esther Dyson, EDventure
Chapter 7: CITIZEN SCIENCE by Gareth Cook, the Boston Globe
Chapter 8: A DEMOGRAPH OF ONE by Michael Malone, Forbes magazine
Chapter 9: THE ART OF DATA by Aaron Koblin, Google Artist in Residence
Chapter 10: DATA DRIVEN by Jonathan Harris, Cowbirdand#160;The book will also feature stunning info graphics from NIGEL HOLMES.1) GOOGLING GOOGLE: all the ways Google uses Data to help humanity
2) DATA IS THE NEW OIL
3) THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TWITTER
4) AUCTIONING EYEBALLS: The world of Internet advertising
5) FACEBOOK: A Billion Friends
Review
and#8220;In a gripping series of graphs, charts, and essays, the authors capture the meaning of the digital revolution.and#8221; --
Entertainment Weekly and#160;and#8220;and#8230;an enormous volumeand#8230; that chronicles, through a splash of photos and eye-opening essays and graphics, the rise of the information societyand#8230;. a curious, wonderful beast -- a solid slab that captures a virtual universe... This is one of those rare animals that captures its era in the most distinct of ways. It's the kind of thing you'd put in a time capsule for your children today to show them, long after you're gone, what the world was like at the beginning of their lives.and#8221; --Ted Anthony, Associated Pressand#160;"Big Data Gets its own Photo Album" --
The New York Timesand#160;"Its a beautiful book!" --Soledad O'Brien, CNNand#160;"Far more than a coffee table book" --
The Wall Street Journaland#160;"Visceral, emotional and tangible." --
Wiredand#160;"Mind-blowingly powerful." --GigaOmand#160;"Inspiring." --
San Jose Mercury Newsand#160;"A curious, wonderful beast - captures a virtual universe with eye-opening essays and graphics." --
Huffington PostSynopsis
Acclaimed photographer Rick Smolan captured the astounding story of Robyn Davidson, who crossed the Australian outback accompanied by four camels and a dog. Her adventure is about to become a major motion picture, and this volume presents both Smolan's photographs plus those from the upcoming movieand#8212;complete with smart-device technology that brings the original images to life as scenes from the film.
Synopsis
Through stunning images, acclaimed photographer Rick Smolan tells the astounding story of Robyn Davidson, who crossed the desolate Australian outback accompanied only by four camels and a dog. Now, Davidson's exhilarating wilderness adventure is about to become a major motion picture, and this remarkable volume presents both Smolan's original photographs along with those from the upcoming movie. As an exciting bonus, the book incorporates Aurasma technology that enables readers to point their smart devices at one of the pictures from the original journey and then watch that scene as it is brought to life in the movie.
Synopsis
Acclaimed photographer Rick Smolan (the internationally bestselling
Day in the Life series) offers an unprecedented glimpse of a how Big Dataand#8212;the accumulation and analysis of information gathered from home computers, supermarket scanners, checkpoints, digital cameras, and moreand#8212;can bring people together. This stunning volume documents the world's largest crowd-sourced data-gathering event, a 24-hour period celebrated in more than 220 images and essays by leading scientists, businesspeople, and journalists, as well as an iPad app, TV special, and a traveling exhibit.
and#160;
About the Author
Robyn Davidson was born in 1950 in a small country town in Queensland, Australia. She studied biology at Queensland University and music in Sydney, and later returned to Queensland to study Japanese and philosophy. Davidson then moved to Alice Springs where her trek across Australia's outback began. Tracks (Pantheon Books), Davidson's internationally acclaimed account of the year she spent crossing Australia's outback, won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and has appeared in more than ten foreign language editions. In the years since Tracks, Davidson has lived in London, New York, and Australia. She returned to Alice Springs to write her first novel, Ancestors (Simon & Schuster). Rick Smolan, a former Time, Life, and National Geographic photographer, created the bestselling Day in the Life book series and coedited the bestselling book on health, healing, and medicine around the world, The Power to Heal (Prentice Hall). More than three million copies of the Day in the Life books have been sold since Smolan began the series in 1981, four of which have been cover stories for Newsweek and Time. In 1989 he was one of the founders of Light Source Computer Imaging, a software company specializing in scanning and enhancement of computer images. His book, The Human Face of Big Data, was published by Sterling in 2013. Smolan is currently president of Against All Odds Productions.