User:Whimspeck/newsandbox

Datafication
Datafication is a technological process that transforms daily interactions of technology users to be rendered into a data format. First coined by Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schöenberger in 2013, it generates a new form of quantifiable value that can be put to social and enterprising use. It is considered the conversion of qualitative aspects of life into quantified data. As datafication is the process of tracking aspects of everyday life into quantified online data, it allows for real-time tracking and predictive analysis. Such aspects of societal interactions were previously considered qualitative as it was impossible to track detailed social movement. However, this changed with the advent of social media, smartphones and wearable technology. The process of datafication has allowed organisations and enterprises to convert such data into new forms of value.

Datafication of emotion and sentiment
The prevalence of self-reporting on social media leads users to provide intimate details. Market research companies use a method called ‘scraping’ to obtain and create detailed profiles of people and groups of people relating to brands, social issues, products, services and political leaning using the details provided on social media platforms.

Speech datafication
The use of speech analytics software is more prevalent as conversations are increasingly recorded and stored as part of interactions with call centres, as well as with other users. The range of voice-based data and meaning is improving, leading to the possibility for conversations to be captured in intelligible format.

Human resources
Data obtained from social media, smartphones and apps is replacing personality tests typically used for job recruitment. The data is used to identify potential employees and their characteristics to match suitability for a position. The use of this data is changing the way personality measuring and testing will be developed.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
New CRM techniques using datafication allows a company to manage and analyse its interactions with its past, current and potential customers. This is for the purpose of improving business relationships with their customers and is done by obtaining from the language and tone of voice used within emails, phone calls and social media interaction.

Smart Cities
Datafication is used in smart cities from data collected by sensors that are implemented into the city. This is a means to track and manage issues such as transportation congestion, waste management, logistics and energy generation and consumption in real-time. Sensors that can measure air and water quality can obtain a detailed understanding of pollution levels and may enable new environmental regulations based on real-time data.

Social and political impact
The use of datafication can produce certain forms of acting and knowing in the world. One example of this is the Cambridge Analytica scandal surrounding the 2016 US presidential election. British marketing firm Cambridge Analytica illegitimately acquired data from millions of unknowing and non-consenting Facebook users and used it to contribute to US President Trump’s 2016 election campaign. This was done by displaying certain news articles and content to some users and different content to others. The scandal sparked debate and awareness on the lack of privacy protection in social media and forced Facebook to promise drastic reduction of data released through its Application Programming Interface. It is in this way that datafication does not just have power and politics, they help to produce certain forms of acting and knowing.

Currency derived from datafication
Metadata and data derived from the process of datafication has become a currency for users to pay for their means of access to the public world such as communication services, GPS mapping and some forms of security. Few people are aware of or care about the use of their data so there is little to no regulation for how the currency is derived or used. For this reason, there is a rising trend of data activism; groups or individuals who cooperate to address data privacy concerns.

Cognitive incapacity to make sense of data
Datafication is a powerful tool to process and store large volumes of data. However, assessing implications still falls to humans and their capacity to make sense of it. Sense making is the process of deriving meaning from experience which is currently a challenge for humans and computers.