Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Data Flakes: An Afterword to
“Raw Data” Is an Oxymoron
Geoffrey C. Bowker
Figure 9.1 Google Ngram (http://books.google.com/ngrams) showing data and information on historic rise
and knowledge and wisdom in historic decline.
Note:
Information and data peak in the late twentieth century
(data is the darker line); wisdom and knowledge are in gradual decline.
L
et me be hyperbolic and assert that we are entering into the dataverse. “Entering” is
a key word here—it is through the labors of millions of sensors, click-workers and of
course our collective selves that we are being entered.
It has been a longer-term process than most would have thought, before they read
this marvelous volume. It has also been ineluctable. Harry Harrison imagined “the stain-
less steel rat” who could continue to swarm in worlds of concrete, glass, and cameras
