A movement in technology known as “datafication” converts many human experiences into data, which researchers then transform into knowledge and realize as a new kind of value. In 2013, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier introduced the word “datafication” to a wider audience. Previously, researchers had linked datafication to the examination of data-captured representations of our lives, but not to the extent that it has become today.Predictive analytics’s computational advantages and the influence of big data were the main causes of this shift.
Digitization, which takes analog content (books, movies, photos) and turns it into digital information (a series of ones and zeros that computers can read), is not the same as datafication. The process of “datafication” involves taking all facets of life and turning them into data. Things can be datafied to change their function and yield new types of value from the information,
According to the definition of dataism, an ideological component of datafication, the belief in data’s capacity to represent social life drives the movement toward datafication, sometimes more effectively or objectively than pre-digital (human) interpretations.
As an example
Twitter’s datafication of random thoughts and LinkedIn’s datafication of HR are two examples of datafication as it relates to social and communication media. Aspects of the built environment and design through engineering and/or other tools that link data to formal, functional, or other physical media outcomes are among the many alternative examples. One example is the gathering and processing of data for optimal control (like shape optimization).
Impact
- Human Resource : Companies gather information from social media, apps, and mobile devices to identify possible hires and their unique traits, such as personality and risk-taking style. This data will replace traditional personality tests. By using the data obtained through datafication, current exam providers will shift from traditional personality tests or exams that measure analytical thinking. Additionally, they will create new personality tests using this data.
- Banking and Insurance : Information is utilized to determine a person’s risk profile and loan repayment propensity.
- Relationship management with customers: A number of industries use datafication to better understand their clientele and develop triggers tailored to the individual personalities and behaviors of each. They gather this information by analyzing a person’s language and tone in emails, phone conversations, and social media posts.
