Visualizations of our collective lives [and] (Ab)using indentifiers: indiscernibility of identitiy

Visualizations of Our Collective Lives, S. Joy Mountford, Osher Fellow, Exploratorium

The lines between art, design, and information are dissolving as we experience new places and objects. Consider, for example, the organic flow of air traffic over North America at daybreak, the bursts of search query memes spreading around the globe, and the pointillist surge of mobile phone usage on New Year's Eve. Using the new techniques of generative data visualization, a new generation of artist/designers/engineer/scientists are creating gorgeous, dynamic experiences driven by massive sets of data about our own lives. Their work comes to life in architectural spaces, on walls of wood and metal and light and shimmering glass clouds suspended overhead. Of course it must be touched to be appreciated and engaged with, simple gestures launch a thousand images and possibilities. Many of these projects have received international recognition. They are primarily 3D applications that can run in real time, but really can only be appreciated by watching them, as movies. These data movies aim to make information easier to understand while being enjoyable to watch. Surprising insights surface through looking at our 'data life' in new ways, and may compel us to design in different, even better ways.

(Ab)using Identifiers: indiscernibility of Identity, Ben Gross, doctoral student, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

People segment aspects of their everyday lives to manage their time, impressions, and relationships. Much of modern electronic communication hinges on digital identifiers--email addresses, instant messenger IDs, usernames, domain names, URLs, phone numbers, and social network IDs. These identifiers are increasingly relevant in shaping how we wish to present ourselves to others and how they present themselves to us.

Issues of privacy, security, and usability are intimately intertwined with our identifiers in ways we take for granted. What we think is reasonable, commonplace, or even possible in terms of protecting or violating online privacy shifts constantly. Recent developments in tools and techniques for tracking online behavior with Flash cookies and HTTP cache-control headers combined with advances in techniques to identify individuals from supposedly anonymized data sets should cause us to reevaluate what is possible.