Big data is increasingly suspect. We fear big companies are taking our personal data without asking and selling it to others without our knowledge. But who owns our personal data and decides how it is used? Otto Scharmer suggests that big data can be used to transform people and communities by showing us who we are. Big data used in this way is called deep data. Surface data is about what others do and say. Deep data is used as a reflection tool. It can shift mindsets from me to we, from ego to eco. An example is GDP data, which is usually used to measure economic progress. Asking more profound questions, it becomes deep data and could measure real outcomes, such as life expectancy and quality of life. The key to transformative change is to make a system or a person see itself. Deep data can do that.
