Data That Matters(to me, to people)
Mimi Onuoha asks — “How does our attitude towards data change if we see it as the result of a relationship rather than an end in itself?” Imagine you were to start collecting data about yourself over the next ten years (2020–2030) to store in a time capsule. What data would you collect and why?”
The questions Mimi Onuoha raises ask for a change of attitude: that the meaning for data is not just to be collected, but to be used as a tool to communicate, to express our human values. Giorgia Lupi also advocates in her TED talk, asking for the revive of Data Humanism, to put humans in the center of data.
There’s also one point Onuoha brought up I find quite interesting, which was “As we collect more data, we prioritize things that fit patterns of collection.”, relates to “the tool we use shape us”
So to speculate on what data I would want to collect, it instantly comes to my mind as these questions:
- What is the data that would prove, and at the same time, would encourage me to do great things, to be a better person and to be remembered?
- What is the data that I usually forget about but are important in my following life?
To answer the first question:
I would like to start collecting the data as following:
- The enlightenment moments, when & where they happened, and what am I thinking.
- Every wish that I’ve made, whether big or small, on the spectrum from individual to the society, when & where they happened, and what are they.
- The moments when people say “thank you” to me (when I did something good).
To answer the second question, I’d like to collect:
- My distance from home
- Picture of my friend’s and family’s, the time and length of the phone call I’ve made with them, the emotion I have at that moment.
