Two connected stories / the information
From tally marks to tomorrow.
People saved facts long before they had laptops.
The story of datasets
A dataset is information. A data center is a place that runs computers. People saved facts long before those buildings existed.
- 1790
Count a new nation
The first U.S. census counted people. Workers put the results into tables. A table makes a long count easier to read.
- 1890
Holes help count
Herman Hollerith's machines read holes in cards. Each card held a person's census facts. Machines helped add up the results.
- 1950s
Facts move to computer tape
At the Census Bureau, computers and magnetic tape began to replace punch cards. More of the work could be done by a computer.
- 1970
Tables learn to work together
Edgar Codd published a new way to organize facts in related tables. This helped shape the databases used in many apps today.
- 2008–2009
Public facts reach more people
Landsat images became free to use in 2008. Data.gov opened in 2009. People could find more public facts and build new tools.
- Today
Sensors collect. People check.
Cameras and sensors make new datasets. Some AI tools learn from examples. Good examples matter. A tool must also be tested on facts it did not learn from.
