"The Human Face of Big Data" Large Format Illustrated Book is Being
Delivered Today by FedEx to 10,000 of the World's Most Influential
People, Including World Leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Nobel
Laureates
SAUSALITO,
Calif., Dec. 4, 2012
/PRNewswire/ -- Today, in 30 countries around the globe,
10,000 copies of an extraordinary illustrated book called The
Human Face of Big Data are arriving courtesy of EMC®
(NYSE: EMC) and delivered by FedEx, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp.,
the official shipping sponsor, on the desks of the world's most
influential people, including: United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon, European Central Bank
President Mario Draghi, UK Prime
Minister David Cameron, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Actor Robin Williams, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Warren
Buffett, Amazon CEO Jeff
Bezos, Oprah Winfrey and
Jane Goodall.
The book contains more than 200 stunning images and
compelling essays, created by a team of over 100 of the world's
most talented writers, designers and photojournalists, illustrating
just some of the ways big data is already helping to shape and
address many of the biggest challenges facing our planet. The
concept of the book, and of The Human Face of Big Data project,
revolves around the idea that our planet is developing a nervous
system that many data experts believe will soon have a greater
impact on our lives than the Internet. The book is accompanied by
an interactive iPad app, which also launched today.
This ambitious project, conceived by "Day in the
Life" series creator Rick Smolan and his
partner Jennifer Erwitt, is made
possible by primary sponsor EMC, along with support from Cisco and
FedEx.
"Our goal is to help people better understand, visualize
and navigate the wild and uncharted territory of Big Data," said
Rick Smolan. "Big Data is just that
- BIG. But, it's a term that is largely misunderstood and difficult
to explain. This book and the accompanying interactive iPad app are
designed to take readers on a journey of discovery about a topic
that is going to completely transform the world our children will
inherit. It's already enabling our kids to live healthier and
happier lives; providing our seniors with independence while
keeping them safe; helping us conserve our precious resources like
water and energy; allowing us to peer into our own individual
genetic makeup, and soon may allow us to alter our own species. All
this and we've barely scratched the surface of what's
possible."
The aim of simultaneously placing the book into the hands
of 10,000 global influencers is to ignite a conversation about an
extraordinary knowledge revolution that's sweeping, almost
invisibly, through business, academia, government, health care and
everyday life. This revolution is enabling humanity to sense,
measure, understand and affect aspects of our existence in ways our
ancestors could never imagined in their wildest dreams.
The Human Face of Big Data book will be the first book of
its kind to be powered by an interactive viewer app from Aurasma.
The free app brings the book's content to life by enabling readers
to access video and other additional Internet content by simply
pointing the camera on their smartphone or tablet towards flagged
photos within the book. The free Human Face of Big Data Viewer app
is available for download on iOS
(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/human-face-of-big-data-viewer/id573317206?mt=8)
and Android devices
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aurasma.skinned.human_face_of_big_data_viewer).
Groundbreaking iPad App
In addition to the book, a groundbreaking Human Face of
Big Data iPad app will enable users to interact and explore
stories from the book, including videos, interactive charts and
graphics. It will transport users into a Big Data ecosystem that is
beginning to address some of the biggest challenges facing our
species. The app costs $2.99 and is
available for download today
(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/big-data-tablet-app/id579041860?ls=1&mt=8).
All proceeds from app downloads will be donated to Charity: water,
a non profit organization bringing clear, safe drinking water to
people in developing nations.
Some of the stories told in the large format book and
iPad app, include:
- Elephant seals equipped with antennas on their heads to
map the oceans
- Satellites being used to target mosquitoes to help us
better understand malaria
- An SMS system preventing the sale of counterfeit
medicines in Ghana
- Smartphones that can predict you're going to get
depressed
- Credit cards that know two years before you do that
you're headed toward divorce
- Pills that transmit information directly from your body
to your physician
Essays featured in the book and iPad
app:
- Big Data May Know Us Better by
Dan Gardner
- Reflections in a Digital Mirror by
Juan Enriquez
- Our Data, Ourselves by Kate Green
- Dark Data by Mark Goodman
- Pulse of the Planet by Esther Dyson
- How Crowdsourcing is Changing Science
by Gareth Cook
- A Demographic of One by Michael Malone
- The Art of Data by Aaron Koblin
- Data Driven by Jonathan Harris
Excerpted Quotes from the Book:
- "From the dawn of civilization until 2003, humankind
generated five exabytes of data. Now we produce five exabytes every
two days ... and the pace is accelerating." – Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman,
Google
- "We now have the chance to become the center of our own
knowledge universe, one that constantly reconfigures itself to
match our needs." – Michael S.
Malone, op-ed contributor to the Wall Street
Journal
- "Today a street stall in Mumbai can access more information, maps,
statistics, academic papers, price trends, futures markets, and
data than a U.S. president could only a few decades ago." –
Juan Enriquez, Managing Director
Excel Venture Management
- "Soon we will salt the oceans, the land, and the sky with
uncounted numbers of sensors invisible to the eyes but visible to
one another." – Esther Dyson,
Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and Commentator
- "Criminals, terrorists, and hackers understand the power
of our interconnectivity: if you control the code you control the
world." – Marc Goodman, Global
Security Advisor and Futurist
The Human Face of Big Data is a global crowdsourced
project that also includes: an iPhone and Android app,
Mission Control Events in New York, London and Singapore, Data Detectives--a
global student initiative--and a documentary film that will be
released in 2013. For more information on any of these elements of
the campaign visit -
www.humanfaceofbigdata.com.
Quote from Primary Project Sponsor EMC
"The Human Face of Big Data is the most engaging and
captivating attempt ever to tap into, and put a human face on, the
societal impact of Big Data," said Jeremy
Burton, Executive Vice President, Product Operations and
Marketing, at EMC. "This ground-breaking book and iPad app will
raise public consciousness of the vital role that Big Data is
playing in addressing some of the world's biggest challenges and
will help ensure that this project will have a lasting and
meaningful impact."
Quotes from Supporting Sponsors Cisco and
FedEx
"The FedEx networks have the unique assets, expertise and
connections to make a project of this kind – with shipping needs
spanning air, land and ocean – possible," said Rob Carter, Executive Vice President and Chief
Information Officer for the FedEx Corporation. "With information
logistics, we are changing the way people move and receive
information, providing customers with unprecedented visibility into
key events happening in their businesses and their lives. So, FedEx
is proud to be the official shipping sponsor for the Human Face of
Big Data project, helping to generate more meaningful conversations
about this important subject."
"Cisco is proud to sponsor The Human Face of Big Data
project and to help share compelling stories and inspiring images
of how data transforms our world," said Carlos Dominguez, senior vice president at
Cisco. "We see great potential for value in the real time data
created by connecting more things and people to the
network."
About the Sponsors:
The Human Face of Big Data project is editorially
independent and is made possible through the generous support of
EMC Corporation, which serves as the primary sponsor. Supporting
sponsorship comes from Cisco Systems, FedEx, VMWare, Tableau and
Originate.
EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses
and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT
as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud
computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC
accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments
to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset –
information – in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way.
Additional information about EMC can be found at
www.EMC.com
Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking that
transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. As data
grows bigger, our planet continues to shrink, connecting people and
things in new and innovative ways. It's an exciting time of
possibilities and change for the entire world. These changes are
happening day-by-day, minute-by-minute, as the amount of internet
traffic traversing the network continues to grow, providing
infinite paths to improve our world. From solving global health
issues to predicting natural disasters to improving education, the
human potential is both daunting and amazing. At Cisco we
understand the potential of data and we have a passion for creating
intelligent solutions to collect, manage, and evaluate data at the
speed of human communications. Cisco is proud to be a sponsor of
The Human Face of Big Data. More at-
www.cisco.com
The Cisco Networking Academy, with 10,000 academies in 165
countries, trains over a million students each year with the skills
needed to build, design, manage, and secure computer networks. The
academy helps students prepare for industry-recognized
certifications and entry-level information and communication
technology (ICT) careers in virtually every type of industry. To
learn more visit
www.cisco.com/go/netacad/us
FedEx is proud to be the Official Shipping Sponsor of The
Human Face of Big Data. In 1978, FedEx chairman and CEO
Fred Smith said, "The information
about the package is just as important as the package itself."
Today, FedEx provides customers with access to near real-time
information that has enabled new supply chain models and
efficiencies. This unprecedented access to information is
connecting customers around the world to economic markets and
communities. FedEx, the company that revolutionized global business
practices by providing next-business-day delivery service,
leveraged the reach, strength, and reliability of its network to
ship 10,000 individual copies of The Human Face of Big Data photo
book around the globe. From the earliest commercial handhelds in
1980, to equipping vehicles with radio computers in 1984, to making
package tracking available on the world's first transactional
website in 1994, FedEx has always sought the edge of
innovation.
About The Human Face of Big Data
The Human Face of Big Data is a
globally crowdsourced media project focusing on the new ability to
collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in
real time. The project includes a free mobile app, Mission Control
briefing events, a student Data Detectives initiative, a
large-format book with more than 200 photographs along with essays
and infographics, an iPad app and a documentary.
The Human Face of Big Data was
produced by Rick Smolan and
Jennifer Erwitt, co-founders of
Against All Odds Productions, which specializes in the design and
execution of large-scale, crowdsourced global projects that combine
compelling storytelling with state-of-the-art
technology. To produce these projects, Smolan and Erwitt invite
teams of leading journalists and photographers (plus members of the
general public) to come together to focus on emerging topics such
as the global water crisis, the effect of the Internet on
civilization or how the human race is learning to heal itself.
Their projects result in bestselling illustrated books, TV
specials, apps, exhibits and hundreds of millions of media
impressions. Fortune magazine described Against All Odds
Productions as "one of the coolest companies in
America."
To learn more, go to
www.HumanFaceOfBigData.com and
follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.
EMC® is a registered trademarks of EMC Corporation in
the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property
of their respective owners.
SOURCE Against All Odds Productions