Big data gets its own book: 'The Human Face of Big Data'

During the first day of a baby's life, the data generated by humanity is 70 times the information contained in the Library of Congress.

(Credit: Catherine Balet; from "The Human Face of Big Data.")

Big data, one of tech's biggest buzz phrases of the moment, is about to get its own book. Fittingly, a really big, 7.5-pound book.

Called "The Human Face of Big Data," this is the latest project by longtime photojournalist Rick Smolan, the one-time National Geographic photographer who's best known for creating the "Day in the Life" series of books.

Smolan's approach for this work was the same as the one he's used for his main prior projects: He dispatched an small army -- in this case 100 photographers and 22 researchers going at it for a year and a half -- to capture and illustrate one topic. Big data is a tough one, for sure, not as visually obvious as, say, "The Obama Time Capsule," which chronicled Obama's first presidential run and his first 100 days in office.

Rick Smolan

(Credit: Techonomy)

Which is why Smolan needed some convincing. "It just sounded so fluffy," said Smolan, whom I met up with at this week's ... [Read more]