Addiction to data collection

I was recently attending a planning meeting outside university.

The aim was to provide some input as a user in a project to establish a new public service to be provided by private and public organisations.

It felt as if we were having a good discussion, and I was feeling somehow proud to have been able to convey some key ideas on how the new service should run.

And then the question that unconsciously I was dreading to hear came:

• So what sort of data are we going to collect from service users? 

Followed by its natural sibling:

• How can we make sure that the data collection is not intrusive? 

We live in a time where data is the uninvited but essential guest.  Like the lost relative that always shows up to spoil the party.

We have become addicted to data.  And to collect it.  But all in an almost secret manner.  

We need data to keep a trail, to know who is doing what, to infer why they did or did not turn up. 

And we act like the browser cookies. 

I am sure a good number of jobs have been created in for profit and non-profit organisations in order to manage the data.  In these jobs essential requirements are the ability to capture and analyse data, followed by the ability to sum up data and present it to key decision makers.  

I hope the data analysts that are reading this post forgive me.  Nothing wrong with the job.  What seems to be wrong in my view is the addiction processes that keep feeding this and other jobs.

So the discussion in the meeting turned into a kind of design of how the management of data was to proceed.  Naturally (yes, naturally) then the next question that followed was:

• How can we capture the data using existing systems?

Because yes, there could be more than one system that already captures some data.  And we don't want to duplicate efforts.  We cannot afford to do so.  

Listening to the last question, I almost jumped onto the conversation to say that I had a few ideas about databases and information systems.  

But I stayed silent.  

Because it takes a supplier to keep the addiction going on.  

All I can think now to tell my students is that if data emerges, let it emerge, but don't force its collection or analysis.  If there is someone who is keen to collect data, then there is a hidden motive. Try to get to the bottom of this.  Try to block the cookies if you see what I mean.  

The data to be collected should serve a much higher purpose than just keep a memory of what goes on.  

Mind the mobile

I have recently become interested in meditation and mindfulness.

Mindfulness, or focusing our attention in the present as it is, offers a way of dealing with worries and anxieties.  

There are lots of mobile applications that can help people enhance their ability to be mindful.  

Some of them can give access to whole networks of users and electronic resources.  They also offer different exercises. 

And there are other applications to help us relax, balance our energy and so on.  

A few weeks ago I I tried headspace which is a very popular application.  After ten (10) free sessions I was then invited to pay an annual membership and continue enjoying the benefits of guided meditation and other aids.  

This is just an example.  I enjoyed using it.  However I still need to see more 'real' practice.  Because I tend to think that on my own I need to be 'excellent' in what I have to do. So I get anxious and impatient. 

This is a personal trait.  I am a perfectionist.  And with this type of mobile applications I have not found a way of telling them or my mobile who I am.  There is a kind of forced routine I had to have. And worst of all I had to start paying for it! 

Is this the illusion of mobile apps, inviting you to be better at what you do? What to do with people like me who get anxious if we cannot achieve it? 

For sure in the future there could be applications that could measure my level of anxiety and help me manage it.  Other applications could be designed for people like me.  No need to 'get better'. 

I think it is important for IT designers and users to better understand how we can deal with our own issues.  There is no point in flooding the market quickly with lots of apps if we don't pause and listen to the user.  

So mind the mobile.  It could be helping you and it is great if it does.  

But if not, mind who you are, listen to yourself and act accordingly.  

From second class to no class - we have been boxed!

The world is upside down...

The Internet, the network of networks is becoming just a bunch of silos.  

We have stopped sharing links, opening up to diversity and dissent.  

We have been boxed into belonging to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. 

We have been persuaded to like things or go against them...in a few characters.  If we disagree then we cannot say much.  

It is like becoming a no-class citizen.  No way to even know who we are, or what we can do about things.  Reality is created daily as a series of feeds.

We keep missing what happens in our lives.  We need to stay connected, tuned, we need to be online.

We need to take pictures, and they had better be happy.   

We even lost track of what it means to have a second class deliver of a letter or a parcel.  Either you pay for premium or first class or you don't know when things are going to be delivered.  Only premium services can be tracked.  Only those can give you some certainty. 

Why is this? 

Maybe it is because we have left to intelligent systems and intelligent companies decide what it is best for us.

We have stopped questioning what online engines suggest we should read first and second.  We have stopped complaining when we don't understand how they operate.  

We just click to accept the endless lists of terms and conditions.  

We have been defined what counts as real and important.  

As Ellen Rose said once,  it is about time we consider ourselves intelligent and smart technology users, and take responsibility for our inactivity and for our choices.  Even if those choices means going against the tide of mainstream opinion or trend.  

Or even if these choices involve fighting addictions to the technology itself.  

Myself I am still guilty of checking work emails at night; guilty of believing stories about technology like the ones I have criticised in previous posts here in this blog.  I am guilty of doing online research for the sake of it.  I am guilty of often taking things at rank value (face value according to engines).  

I'm guilty of continuously checking my bank accounts online and checking my google scholar citations as if they were bank accounts too ! 

So I confess.  

I am believing more in the online world than in the real world that I have in front of my eyes. 

I need to get out of this way of thinking, get out of this box. 

What about you?