Datafication

Datafication is a technological trend turning many aspects of our life into data[1][2] which is subsequently transferred into information realised as a new form of value.[3] Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger introduced the term datafication to the broader lexicon in 2013.[4] Up until this time, datafication had been associated with the analysis of representations of our lives captured through data, but not on the present scale. This change was primarily due to the impact of big data and the computational opportunities afforded to predictive analytics.

Datafication is not the same as digitization, which takes analog content—books, films, photographs—and converts it into digital information, a sequence of ones and zeros that computers can read. Datafication is a far broader activity: taking all aspects of life and turning them into data [...] Once we datafy things, we can transform their purpose and turn the information into new forms of value[2]

There is an ideological aspect of datafication, called dataism: "the drive towards datafication is rooted in a belief in the capacity of data to represent social life, sometimes better or more objectively than pre-digital (human) interpretations.”[5]

  1. ^ Newell, Sue; Marabelli, Marco (2015). "Strategic opportunities (and challenges) of algorithmic decision-making: A call for action on the long-term societal effects of 'datification'". Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 24 (1): 3–14. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2015.02.001. S2CID 20948367. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Cukier, Kenneth; Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor (2013). "The Rise of Big Data". Foreign Affairs (May/June): 35. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  3. ^ O'Neil, Cathy; Schutt, Rachel (2013). Doing Data Science. O’Reilly Media. p. 406. ISBN 978-1-4493-5865-5.
  4. ^ Biltgen, Patrick; Ryan, Stephen (1 January 2016). Activity-Based Intelligence: Principles and Applications (1 ed.). Norwood, MA: Artech House. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-60807-876-9. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  5. ^ Hintz, Arne (2019). Digital citizenship in a datafied society. Lina Dencik, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen. Cambridge, UK. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-5095-2716-8. OCLC 1028901550.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)