WHAT THIS BOOK DOES NOT CONTAIN AND WHAT IT DOES CONTAIN

Beyond online platforms, data are nowadays used as key economic resources in a broad array of contexts. Huge amounts of data are, for example, generated in sectors as disparate as agriculture, home appliances and wearables. In the agriculture sector, data collected in farms can inform on the quality of soils and thus on the need for intrants or to ‘monitor crop development‘. In the home appliances sector, data generated throughout the use of ‘smart‘ devices may for example reduce electricity consumption and support individuals in their cooking experience. Data generated through the use of wearable fitness trackers can provide information, for example, on the sleeping patterns of individuals wearing them, which could be used for medical purposes.

That data are valuable economic resources has become so self-evident that every book on data worthy of the name is expected to start with a discussion on this phenomenon together with a metaphor that, according to the author, best describes data as economic resources. Are data ‘the new oil‘insofar as they are turned into the infrastructure for today‘s economy and society? Or are they squarely‘the lifeblood‘ of society? Or, alternatively, should data be compared as air, speaking to their volatility? Or maybe data are best described as rivers, that concern all the persons through the property of whom they flow? Or yet another flourishing metaphor views data as labor.