Samenvatting

This article focuses on the question how Big, Open and Linked Data systems (BOLD) are shifting human-data relations. BOLD is creating a new type of society which is both data-focused and data-driven. Both governments and citizens are measuring, analyzing and verifying data and acting upon these types of analyses. As BOLD is itself becoming intelligent, the process of collecting, linking, and analyzing data is no longer merely the domain of humans. Machine-learning is picking up speed and algorithmic accuracy is being maximized as data are becoming more complex and unpredictable its output. Both citizens and governments will increasingly have to deal with non-human actors in the form of intelligent data-driven systems. By referring to literature on human-animal relations this article makes the argument that data systems are gaining autonomy and a certain level of wildness. As such systems are mediating human relations, the article argues that social relations are shifting to becoming triad relationships in which intelligent information systems are a significant actor.