It's called 'sparse data,' and it could be a big deal
Connecting state and local government leaders
The small bits of data coming from sensors recording everything from temperature changes to coffee pot use could make a big difference in the way we manage things.
You might start hearing a lot about sparse data in the near future and its impact on network infrastructure. If well-managed and planned for, sparse data can make an entire organization more efficient. But if left to grow and populate on its own, it could easily overwhelm government servers with a flood of information, resulting in a kind of death by a thousand small cuts.
Sparse data is a term used to describe information coming from sensors or other non-IT devices. It’s also sometimes called thin data, though sparse is probably the better term.
This isn’t someone doing a database query or getting real information from a server, like a report or budget numbers. It’s a sensor recording the temperature and humidity levels, or how often something is used. When the sensor reports that data, it’s really just a blip of information within the overall structure, hence the name. Sparse data almost always goes one way, from the sensor to the network. Although it’s just a bit of data now, in the future, there may be many more of these devices, and in unique areas.
Jerry Gentry, vice president, IT program management at Nemertes Research, sees a future where everything from the coffee maker to your office chair is implanted with sensors.
In his vision, devices such as doors report how often they are used, chairs report when they are moved and the coffee machine reports how many cups it produces each day. That may seem like a bunch of junk data, or perhaps a world of Big Brother gone mad, but if you compile all that data in a reasonable way, it can tell you things about your office, such as which routes will be taken in an emergency, or how much harder your HVAC has to work if more desks are placed in a certain area.
Government agencies, like other operations, could use this kind of data to more efficiently manage buildings, but compiling sparse data is already being used in other ways, such as monitoring traffic on bridges and roadways, or in a variety of weather monitors or tsunami prediction systems. Sensors are increasingly being deployed by agencies, which means sparse data likely will become a term you'll hear more often.
In an even more futuristic outlook, Gentry envisions implanting sensors into seeds, which would then grow with a plant, and signal farmers when the crop is in distress or ready to be harvested. I guess we would eventually eat them.