Category: data log

Data Log – Zachary Collins

• Debit Card Purchase – Bought coffee and food at the Student Center using my debit card; The transaction’s recorded by my bank and by Dunkin’ Donuts.
• Dining Hall Meal Swipe – Got dinner in the dining hall by swiping my ID to access my meal plan.
• Dorm Tap In – Every time I came back to my dorm I had to tap in to recognize my entrance.
• Facebook Messages – Sent messages to a friend about the club we are involved with using Facebook Messenger.
• Text Messages – Sent text messages back and forth with my brother
• Spotify Streaming – I listened to music for a little bit using Spotify
• Twitter Use – Went on Twitter a few times; My actions (scrolling, clicking, typing, etc.) were definitely recorded
• Search Engine Queries – Searched a few things on Google for homework
• Overwatch Games – Played a few games of Overwatch; Game data was definitely recorded
• Stream Celtics Game – I streamed a Celtics game using Xfinity on Campus
• Sent Email – I sent a few emails for a club I’m a part of
• Downloaded Problem Set – I downloaded one of my problem sets from stellar
• Printed Problem Set – I then printed it using the Athena Cluster in my dorm
• Posting this Blog Post – Submitting this blog post in itself is recorded on the website

Maintaining your own data log, being mindful of the data you create, can open your eyes to the many ways you may unintentionally/unconsciously create data. And that raises the question: What counts as data? For the sake of this blog post, my working definition is that data is any saved, intelligible information or state or log that (almost) directly results from my actions.

• Homework
  • Search history from looking up things I didn’t know about in my reading about positioning methods
  • created an basic weather checking app that sends requests to a weather API
  • blogged this post
  • highlighted and wrote notes (digital highlights and stickies) on a pdf of a reading I had for CMS.701 Current Debates in Media
  • a text file for notes on CMS.631 (this class!) readings.
• Trip to Trader Joes
  • purchase data (credit card bill)
  • Uber request/trip/payment info
    • location data sent to Uber’s servers
• Video for a Friend
  • took several photos
  • took several videos
  • edited these together to make another video
  • purchased a drink from a friend using Venmo
• Social Media/Communication
  • emails and actions taken to interact w/ email (e.g. delete or star emails)
  • text messages on Messenger and over the phone
  • Facebook
    • liked a few pictures
  • every single request (HTTP, etc.) going out of my Chrome browser
  • stored cookies (visiting certain websites)
  • my Chrome web history

Reviewing my data log, I see that the majority of the bullet points I listed was media I explicitly created for human viewing. On the other hand though, the majority of data (in terms of size) was probably data that I wasn’t intentionally creating–my search/web history, HTTP requests and more.

• Internet Browsing (data logged = unique/concurrent user): news, Reddit, this blog, readings for other classes
• Email (data logged = text, files): TA staff emails, contacting professors, etc., one email had an attached html/jpg file
• Chat/Text (data logged = text): I texted my family and talked to friends on Messenger
• MITx progress (data logged = video views, question scores)
• Video Browsing (prerecorded) (data logged = 1 view, other data to Google about my viewing preferences): I watched YouTube for fun and to see the Asian Dance Team (ADT) setlist.
• Dance (data logged = video of me dancing, preferences about dances): I went to ADT auditions, and they filmed us dancing the choreography at the end. I also had to fill out a form that logged what dances I liked and my availability.
• Music Preferences (data logged = thumbs up for songs on Pandora, stations listened to for Pandora)
• Game Data (data logged = progress in game, network stability is also logged for League): I played Fire Emblem, Pokemon Go, and League of Legends.

On Thursday, February 9, I produced the following digital data:

• Played Pokemon Go – hit the pokestop at my apartment building a bunch of times and caught a few pokemon
• Fitbit – got 10,549 steps (met my step goal for the day despite the weather!)
• Surfed the Internet – among many other things, I checked my email and Facebook, watched an episode of “Santa Clarita Diet” on Netflix, watched Wednesday night’s episodes of “The Daily Show” and “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” and used the WatchESPN app to watch the Duke vs UNC basketball game
• Text messages – texted with a classmate about a group project and a friend about the Duke vs UNC basketball game
• Swiped my MIT ID at a Pharos printer to print the readings for next week’s classes
• Used my credit card to buy an external hard drive on Best Buy’s website

• Woke up and left my room. Recorded by cameras and wireless signal logs.
• Checked email, news, other misc. websites which were tracking me.
• Ate lunch/dinner at Maseeh by swiping my MIT ID.
• Wrote some code for my UROP project, uploaded a new dataset to Dropbox.
• Returned a book at the COOP, refunded to my credit card.
• Watched videos and did exercises on MITx.
• Picked up a package at the front desk, recorded by their system.
• Used my MIT ID to print at Athena cluster.
• Scanned a few pages from my notebook into Google Drive.

• 10:30 AM – Added course staff emails and phone numbers to 6.042 staff website
• 11:00 AM – Uploaded staff personal websites to 6.042 student website
• 1:15 PM – submitted form to 6.03 staff indicating schedule
• 1:30 PM – added PE course into my Google Calendar
• 2:00 PM – created neighborhoods on SimCity
• 3:30 PM – entered credit card information into Eat24 for food delivery
• 5:45 PM – wrote this blog post
• 6:15 PM – emailed professor to ask about adding category for assignment
• 6:45 PM – placed trade on Robinhood
• 8:30 PM – edited more staff info on 6.042 website
• 9:45 PM – edited htaccess file for 6.042 repo
• 10:30 PM – submitted this blog post