Unit 2: Problem Solving

Data Collection

Today we discussed the data that we give off as individuals. We wrote in our journals about the information that we give to people everyday. People thought of ideas like what we write on facebook or twitter, things we say when we talk to people, the texts we write, attendance at school, the homework we do, the papers we write, what we purchase at restaurants, what we search for on the internet, what we purchase on the internet, the books we check out from the library, how far we drive or walk, statistics of what happens in the games we play (i.e. number of sacks in a football game), the people we talk to, etc. All these things tell a story about our lives.

Then we read a few articles online to help us think about how important our data is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html
http://blog.netflix.com/2010/03/this-is-neil-hunt-chief-product-officer.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html

We discussed the articles and talked about our privacy and how the everyday data that we give off tells a very detailed story of who we are, and that is not something that is appropriate to be publicized. We agreed that good things can be done with our data, like a custom experience at a store, but for the most part it is best to keep that data private.

We also brainstormed ideas of the data we would collect to solve the problem of installing a more useful public transportation solution (more public busses, bus routes, and bus stops). We figured out that collecting data through survey and population records would help us make the best decisions in planning bus routes and stops.

---