the Big Storyof Small Data

Alan DixTalis & University of Birmingham

http://alandix.com/alanwalkswales/

about meand what I do

University ofBirmingham

Tiree

Tiree Tech Wavenext March 2015

today I am not talking about …• intelligent internet interfaces• visualisation and sampling• situated displays, eCampus,

small device – large display interactions• fun and games, virtual crackers,

artistic performance, slow time• creativity and Bad Ideas• modelling dreams and regret• Tiree: mobile heritage

& youth communication

… or even lots of lights

http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

… let alone

http://hcicourse.com/

now atinteraction-design.org

I am talking about ...

data

Big Dataeveryone is talking about it

Twitter, Google, Facebook, NSA, universities, … and funding

Big Data does it with MapReduceSemantic Data does it with RDF

the long tail

size ofdata set

a few very large data setse.g. Twitter, streams,Open Govt., OS, geonames, dbpedia the small data of ordinary life:

from local bus timetables to squash club league tables

stories of small data …

Walking Wales

Musicology

Learning analytics

Open Data Islands and Communities

Alan Walks Wales

1058 miles (1700km)3 million footfalls3 ½ monthsApril-July 2013 focus on IT at the margins

one thousand miles of poetry, technology and community

vision

personalencircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,

practicalIT for the walker & IT for local communities

philosophicalreflections on walking and space, locality and identity

researchpersonal agenda and living lab lots of

data

data

locationGPX ... batteries ... sporadic signals ....

bio-sensingECG (heart), EDA (skin) and accelerometers

audio and imagesin the moment

textafter the event

implicit

explicit

The largest ECG trace in the public domain

challenges (1)

locationGPX – merging and mending

bio-sensingECG & EDA – special formats & volume

audio and imagesvolume, transcription and annotation

textsemantic markup, synchronising sources

challenges (2)

documentationmethodology of creation, data formatsfor other people to use!

meta-datafor machines to use

PRtelling the world about it!

academic culturewe do not value data!

an offer

multiple synchronisable data streamslargest public domain ECG trace

post-hoc analysissimulate real use

please use it!

In Concert

Concert ephemera1750–1800 Calendar of London Concerts1815–1895 Concert Life in London1894–1944 Concert Programme Exchange (BL)

External sourcesMusicBrainzMBz id as connect into Linked Data, BBC, etc.

Authoritative sources (future)e.g. British Library BNB, Concert Programmes metadata

concert databaseclassic digital humanities?

original sources

selectedsources

systematicsample

transcription& extraction

(medium expertise)

interpretation(high expertise)

digitisedsources

authoritativedata

analysis & use(high expertise)

academicpublication

large digitalarchive(e.g. BBC)

possiblycreatelinkage

Barriers to progress

effort and expertiseauthority and qualitydigital acontextualityopenness

Openness and Reward

Career developmentLeverhulme & REFBuilding the discipline?

Re-envisioning the Digital Archive:Curation and Use

big bang to incremental

digitisedsources

authoritativedata

academicpublication

...

big bang to incremental

problem focused augmentationtransform cost-benefit

digitialarchive

academicpublications

...

partialenhancement

& interpretation

Learning analytics

macro-analyticsuniversity strategyMOOCs

micro-analyticsindividual course, student, resource

world

organisationalsocial & political

context

directinteraction

data visualisation

visual analytics the big picture

?decision

action

processing

simple model: actors, agents and events

individualresources structures

& courses

repository

?

??

?

academiclife

studentlife

learning supportsystems

creation& reuse

delivery

peerinteraction

community ofpractice

feedback

tutor – studentinteractions

analytics

analytics and action

action

??

?

recognise issues

current coursefuture course

allowMacawber management

analyticsvisualisation

automatic

drivers capability

value

careerdevelopment

resources

time

course materialscommunication

time frames for learning analytics

days and hoursemail, during lectures and labs, stduent meetings, gaps

weekpreparing for teaching, exercises

months/mid-semesterreporting points, staff meetings, cohort/student progress

end of semester/term/yearexams, exam boards, course revew,

start of semester/term/yearpreparing for new courses or re-runs, rollover!

yearsnew courses, professional development, appraisal, promotion

Open Data

everyone is doing it

Governments, Cities, local gov.

In C21 Data is Power

why not an island?

island data flows

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

othercommunities

12

3

4

island data flowsfrom community to world

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

1• visibility and

control• identity and

empowerment• level of detail• local knowledge

island data flowsfrom world to community

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

2 • making the mostof open data• local decision

making• lobbying and

negotiation

island data flowswithin the community

Community

groups and individuals

3

• gossip is not enough!• sparse, dispersed population• social cohesion and economic benefits

island data flowsbetween communities

Community

groups and individuals

othercommunities

4

• sharing best practice• brand presence• interlinked data

benefits to …

the communityempowerment and controlavailability of informationcommunication within and between communities

the worldimproved quality of datalevel of detail of datalocal knowledge and understanding

themes and take-aways ...

data in context

heterogeneity and linking

value and values

ethics and empowerment

…. and please use my data