Communications of the ACM
Total Recall: Data Diaries Explain Who You Really Are
The always-on stream of data about an individual could be saved in e-memory.
Credit: Niels Rameckers / stock.xchng
The collection, archival, and search of everyday personal experiences that are recorded by cameras and other devices could support the digital diaries envisioned by Microsoft scientist Gordon Bell and others.
Bell has outlined a methodology in which a person's whereabouts are digitally captured by a camera and a global positioning system device, while all phone calls, meetings, conversations, emails, and viewed Web pages are stored as well. Additionally, any paper documents a person reads would need to be scanned into the diary, and the user would be able to perfectly recall their location, activities, companions, and what they were reading and looking at with the help of a searchable database. "By having everything in e-memory you don't have to remember any more," Bell says. He envisions software that will enable people to sort and mine through digital memories to unearth patterns and insights that would never be realized without assistance.
In a similar vein are personal informatics initiatives that a growing number of people are following. They are sharing techniques to monitor, collect, and sift through their data at Qualified Self sessions. Online communities also have been created that pool the results of personal data collections to uncover larger patterns.
From New Scientist
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Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
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