We live life in the network. We check our e-mails regularly, make mobile phone calls from almost any location, swipe transit cards to use public transportation, and make purchases with credit cards. Each of these transactions leaves digital traces that can be compiled into comprehensive pictures of both individual and group behavior, with the potential to transform our understanding of our lives, organizations, and societies.
However, these digital traces are being wiped away and/or stored in their respective silos. Efforts are currently underway in attempts to begin documenting and exploring the behaviors, interactions and the subsequent networks that emerges from our behavioral cues.
Basically, it's a way to get more intimate in knowing ourselves (are you acting differently lately, maybe you need a vacation). Not only is the micro understanding going to be helpful, but also the macro trends that emerge from interactions. A big issue now though is privacy. How do you get the important information without compromising people's privacy and safety.
Extracted from, Computational Social Science by Lazer et al., 2009 in Science vol. 323, p. 721-22.
Check out this site for a glimpse at the socio-badge: http://hd.media.mit.edu/badges/
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