At the conference organized together by Microsoft Europe and Louvain University, Adeline Decuyper proposed a fresh look at Big Data. She rightly made the point that Big Data can also serve non commercial purposes and contribute to Greater Good.
She gave some amazing examples of how cell phone data can be used in a variety of settings to improve the lives of millions of people and even save lives.
Big Data applied to mobility issues
She started by showing how cell phone data can be used to visualize commuting flows. This is perhaps the most obvious application but I must admit I had seldom seen a real example (and I’m still in desperate wait of such a study applied to Belgium where mobility is a top issue).
Big Data and public transportation
The second example Adeline dealt with was public transportation in Abidjan. She showed how cell phone data were used to visualize the busiest bus lines and adapt public transportation schedule.
Big Data and epidemics monitoring
The third example also came from Africa where phone data was used to monitor epidemics. Diseases propagate with people and people can be traced with their cell phone.
Big Data and population statistics
Although in Europe population statistics are easily accessible and updated regularly, there is no such thing in most African countries. Cell phones can then serve as a proxy to measure density and count population.
Big Data to save lives (Great Japan earthquake case)
Big Data was used after the great Japan’s earthquake of 2011 to monitor population flows after the earthquake and before the tsunami. Phone data showed that after the earthquake people came back towards to coasts to save their relatives. That’s how they got trapped. In particular the analysis of people’s flows showed that one bridge was too narrow and blocked people when they tried to escape (watch the movie below; it’s just amazing).
Conclusion
Big Data is nowadays most of the time addressed as a set of techniques used to make money. The speech by Adeline showed that beyond the mere commercial interests, Big Data can also serve positive purposes and even save lives.
Posted in big data, Marketing, Misc..
