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Last month The Economist published a very interesting special report about the ‘Data Deluge’ and how to handle it. Interesting how? Well, first of all it’s one of a number of recent publications that focuses on the negative impacts of the information explosion, rather than the benefits. Secondly the very fact that The Economist dedicated 14 pages to information management suggests that it’s a very pertinent socio-economic issue.
Finding ways to manage and filter information effectively will become increasingly important – not only for individuals – but for businesses too. Companies like Tesco, Amazon, Google and Last FM have put information at the heart of their business, using it to create a more meaningful customer experience and ultimately drive profits. But for some businesses the increase of information creates inefficiencies that can cripple their productivity.
So how are we supposed to deal with this ever growing cornucopia of data?
At Digit, we’re interested in how people consume information passively. We do this all the time, constantly monitoring our surroundings, reading people’s moods, levels of light, the weather etc. Our passive consumption of information is quick and effortless.
Bob the Lamp is the result of our exploration into passive consumption. He’s an intelligent lamp that physically responds to the BBC news feed, changing the colour of his glow and the posture of his neck depending on how positive or negative the news is.
When we set out to create Bob, we looked at objects that surround us every day and asked ourselves how we could make them intelligent. We wanted to explore the idea of passive consumption in our own work, to find ways to remove the need for people to seek information out. Sometimes technology can be a barrier to getting what you need, we wanted to hide the technology so that the experience was both simple and human (yes, this is our mantra).
There are some great examples of pieces of technology that do this in some interesting ways. We really like the availabot from Berg, which physically represents your friends’ availability on Instant Messenger apps and The Wattson that shows you how much electricity your home is using, making energy saving easier.
There are no signs that the rapid growth of digital information is slowing down. In fact is believed that the total volume of digital data in the ether is soon to double every 11 minutes. So through our internal R&D process we’ve set ourselves a challenge, to create interfaces for people to interact with information in a more meaningful, passive, and human way. More coming soon!
[...] Information cornucopia – “Last month The Economist published a very interesting special report about the ‘Data Deluge’ and how to handle it. Interesting how? Well, first of all it’s one of a number of recent publications that focuses on the negative impacts of the information explosion, rather than the benefits. Secondly the very fact that The Economist dedicated 14 pages to information management suggests that it’s a very pertinent socio-economic issue….” [...]
[...] I was fresh out of University, and decided to call it a done a year later. I occasionally blogged here when I worked at Digit in London. Now I work at Undercurrent in New York, and I’ve decode to [...]