Introduction
If you look up to the sky at night you will see the moon on a clear night and depending on the light pollution in your area you may be able to see some stars. Have you ever wondered what else is out there observing us, and collecting data about this floating rock in space we call home? I am not speaking of ET or life on other planets, but something much closer to home and man-made. The eyes in the sky.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, thousands of satellites orbit our home. Satellites are watching us, monitoring us, and collecting data about changes on Earth for the betterment of mankind. Data is open-source, and you need just a computer, processing power, and technical skills to interpret and use the data.
Please watch the following video for an introduction to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus program.
A Personal View
We need to think about ethics when using satellite data for development, to ensure the eyes in the sky work for the betterment of humanity. A quote I read recently, stayed with me, and made me question the use of big data.
“Mapping is an inherently colonial activity … using a god-like satellite to take images from above and using that to decide how resources should be distributed.”
— Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer at the School of Media and Communications, the University of Westminster, UK.
Bearing this in mind, I will look at big data from satellite imagery from opposing directions in upcoming blogposts. I am one of a group of students from Malmo University with a passion for C4D and ICT4D. I work with big data but question the lack of regulation surrounding its use and the potential for data misuse. There are many websites and articles promoting the use of big data from satellite imagery such as this one from the European Space Agency, ESA – Tailoring satellite data for international development.
I will initially look the ethical challenges in the use of satellite imagery data for development. In a later post I will also look at the positive potential of data from satellite imagery.
To read more on big data please view our main blog, Home Page, or my second blog post on the ‘Ethical concerns in the use of satellite imagery for development’.
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