The Human Face of Big Data Book Ships 10,000 Copies

In 30 countries
around the globe, 10,000 copies of an illustrated book called The
Human
Face
of Big Data
are arriving courtesy of EMC
Corporation
and delivered by FedEx, a subsidiary of FedEx
Corp.
the official shipping sponsor, on the desks of the 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 images and essays, created by a team of over 100 of
writers, designers and photojournalists, illustrating some of the
ways big data is helping to shape and address many of the challenges
facing our planet. The concept of the book, and of the project,
revolves around the idea that our planet is developing a nervous
system that 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 is avalaible.

This 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 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 placing
the book into the hands of 10,000 global influencers is to ignite a
conversation about a 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 dreams.

The book will be the
first 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
pointing the camera on their smartphone or tablet towards flagged
photos within the book. The free Viewer app is available for download
on iOS
and Android
devices.

iPad App
In addition to the
book, a 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 challenges facing our species. The app costs $2.99 and is
available for download. 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 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

"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," said 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," said 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," said Juan Enriquez, MD, 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," said 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," said Marc Goodman, Global Security advisor and futurist.

The Human Face of Big Data is a 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.

"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, EVP, Product Operations and Marketing,
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."

"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, EVP and CIO, 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, SVP, Cisco Systems. "We
see great potential for value in the real time data created by
connecting more things and people to the network."