An essay that aims to discover the hidden meaning of the small data that we sow daily on the Web with our tablets and smartphones.
There are footprints we leave behind that look nothing like the soles of our feet but have more to do with our fingertips. They are the traces we leave on our devices every day, when we enter queries on the web, send emoticons on social media and swipe on apps. These small data contain so much of us human beings and can explain behaviours, consumption choices, language codes and cultural tensions. Digital ethnography is precisely the subject whose purpose is to accurately map small data on the web.
The ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of our hyperconnected present, to improve brand communication strategies and to intercept the faint signals of the future on the horizon. After all, online territories are not inhabited by anonymous users but by real people with needs, fears and dreams. This book tells us where the most subtle data are collected and how they are turned into stories worth telling.