Beautiful Data

Chapter 1. Seeing Your Life in Data

Nathan Yau

IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT PAST, THE WEB WAS ABOUT SHARING, BROADCASTING, AND DISTRIBUTION. But the tide is turning: the Web is moving toward the individual. Applications spring up every month that let people track, monitor, and analyze their habits and behaviors in hopes of gaining a better understanding about themselves and their surroundings. People can track eating habits, exercise, time spent online, sexual activity, monthly cycles, sleep, mood, and finances online. If you are interested in a certain aspect of your life, chances are that an application exists to track it.

Personal data collection is of course nothing new. In the 1930s, Mass Observation, a social research group in Britain, collected data on various aspects of everyday life—such as beards and eyebrows, shouts and gestures of motorists, and behavior of people at war memorials—to gain a better understanding about the country. However, data collection methods have improved since 1930. It is no longer only a pencil and paper notepad or a manual counter. Data can be collected automatically with mobile phones and handheld computers such that constant flows of data and information upload to servers, databases, and so-called data warehouses at all times of the day.

With these advances in data collection technologies, the data streams have also developed into something much heftier than the tally counts reported by Mass Observation participants. Data can update in real-time, and ...