In 2013, riding the wave of Google Flu Trends,
our research group found
that Google search queries from Thailand could actually be predictive
of the number of cases of malaria in Thailand.
But what would happen when we looked a little bit closer
is we found that some of the key queries
that were matching what happened in terms of the number of cases,
actually had to do with microscopes and not malaria.
People were searching about the function of a microscope
or about different components of a microscope.
So what is the moral of this story?
Well, more data can be good, predictive, real-time,
but if we actually want to understand what's happening,
we have to look a little closer.
In this case, we had laboratory technicians
who were using microscopes
to actually diagnose malaria from blood smears
or the ones who are doing a lot of the googling
and when there are more cases of malaria,
we saw more Google searches about microscopes.
Is this something that's only relevant
to the world of global public health, or research, and academia?
Actually no.
This concept is affecting us, each one of us, every day.
That's because we're in this new knowledge society.
So what does the knowledge society even mean?
We can look to technical definitions which talk about
when an economy is more driven by knowledge than previously
such as things by agriculture or other industries.
But actually, each one of us is facing this giant change on everyday basis.
This is what we're seeing: social media posts from our friends,
2477 breaking news on the television,
emails from our mom about bananas that can cure cancer,
rankings about where we should potentially send our children to school,
TEDx talks from all around the world.
So how do we manage to use all of this information
we're being bombarded with?
How do we make our journey through the knowledge society?
How do we turn data into information, into knowledge?
Previously, this was a lot more straightforward
when we had a more hierarchical system of things;
for example, if I wanted to look up something,
there was one encyclopedia I could go to;
if I wanted to ask a health related question,
I would just wait and talk to my doctor or nurse.
But now, if I want to look up something, I can go to Wikipedia, I can go to Google;
if I have a health-related question,
you or I can just, right at home, access WebMD
and learn about common symptoms and treatments for different conditions.
We actually made use of this real-time and accessible features
of the new knowledge society
through our project "Go Viral"
in which we were able to get a more comprehensive sense
of what's happening in terms of disease in the community,
so by connecting individuals through Internet and their mobile tools,
we can actually understand who is sick and also what types of viruses they have
rather than just waiting for information from doctors offices and hospitals,
which might generally capture only the most severe cases
and those who are able to access these in healthcare institutions.
But alongside all of these benefits, of course, there are challenges.
It's a two-sided coin, like many things.
While we have real-time, geo-location. high-resolution.
The ability to capture our daily footprints,
we now also have challenges of privacy.
Here we have access to diverse opinions,
but that can also lead to what some dubbed "the post-facts society,"
where we have a lot of opinions going around with no evidence.
We can also have major gaps in our knowledge
by only being centered on certain sources.
But this is not a new problem.
Scientists have been looking at and assessing information
for centuries, if not longer,
so there are a few themes that we might be able to learn
from how they accomplish this
then we can incorporate into our daily lives.
One of them is critical thinking, assessing content and being critical of it
instead of getting satisfied
with just a superficial snapshot or a bit of information.
Another is references and sources -
actually looking at why something is being said, from every source,
instead of just accepting or dismissing content
based on the name or words from.
Finally, data and research -
looking towards evidence for what is being said
instead of simply accepting every opinion.
These are all great things in theory,
but it's not an easy problem.
There's not a list of five websites we can always go to
and numbers and types of information are always growing.
How do we translate this into our daily lives; some of this theory?
One approach is that we can assess what our values are
and then let that guide what we do and keep us centered
just like these whirling dervishes have to keep centered on something
in order to keep going around.
So for example, this can take a lot of different approaches.
One: do we really want to accept diverse opinions?
If so, do we assess what we have
and actively search out information that we might be missing?
What do we want to do with all this information?
Do we want to achieve monetary gain and sell things,
or do we also want to be open to helping people or other outcomes?
Finally, do we want to take responsibility
for what we share as part of the knowledge society
and take that time to look through content
that we're actually sourcing
instead of just passing the buck and hitting 'Send' on the next email.
So this is not a TEDx talk with all the answers.
It's not sexy, I don't have three lessons, lifelong lessons for you.
But hopefully, we showed how you and I are actually part
of this knowledge society every minute of every day.
We're the ones that make it up.
This talk will hopefully inspire you
to think about how you want to make that journey.
Thank you.
(Applause)