Is Big Data governing future memories?

Knowledge production and its governance are intertwined with memory on its various forms. The development and use of Information and Communication Technologies and the hyper-connection entailed have lead to massive content creation, different forms of knowledge and also to humongous amounts of data, that has became known as ‘Big Data’. This digital momentum has generated another hype, that of enhancing our democracies. So, ideas of ‘democratisation’ have been strongly associated with knowledge creation, expertise, civic action, etc., as well to the practices of memory. Whereas Institutions of Memory were tackling with immateriality of contents and trying to find a solution for managing digital memories appropriately, Big Data – defined by Volume, Velocity and Variety in contents’ creation – and the actors behind it, a deeper issue of governance arose: what contextual dimensions entice the digital memories practice? Is (co-)creation of memories actually a democratic practice in the digital context? Or, is this suggestion just an underhand strategy for making Big Data worth considering? Under the realm of Big Data, who is governing memories? Who is going to set the limits and at what cost? Some authors also include a fourth V for Big Data, which stands for Veracity. It refers to ensure integrated data for doing a good interpretation from it. From a memory perspective, Veracity could also include the concept of trustworthy records. The technical capability of preserving huge amounts of data - instead of applying appropriate appraisal procedures - triggers a lower level of attention to quality of contents and hinders a critical approach to governance of future memories Will Big Data entail a misconception of what are memories or will it ensure a wider representativeness of memories? In this context, we will set the basis for a reflection about the meanings of democratisation of digital memories, looking at how preservation is currently being moved from traditional Institutions of Memory hands to distributed others. Our contribution's goal is to start a proper societal debate about the future of our memory (and knowledge creation and preservation) and how this is being (co-)constructed in the era of Big Data.

GHEZZI Alessia;  AGUILAR MORENO Estefania;  MARTINHO GUIMARAES PIRES PEREIRA Angela; 

2014-11-25

BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL DE PORTUGAL

JRC92302

978-972-565-541-2,