Microsoft researcher Kate Crawford describes several myths of big data. Myth #4: It makes cities smarter.
“It’s only as good as the people using it,” Ms. Crawford said. Many of the sensors that track people as they manage their urban lives come from high-end smartphones, or cars with the latest GPS systems. “Devices are becoming the proxies for public needs,” she said, “but there won’t be a moment where everyone has access to the same technology.” In addition, moving cities toward digital initiatives like predictive policing, or creating systems where people are seen, whether they like it or not, can promote lots of tension between individuals and their governments.
Yep. I hear those people things can introduce a lot of challenges.
Please read my riposte to Quentin Hardy’s column at http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/big-data-vs-big-reality.html
I like #2- there isn’t a lot of talk in big data about who is being sampled- even if younger more affluent people are using twitter, what about the younger, more affluent people who aren’t? How are these people different from the users?