There is a practically limitless amount of information on the social web. With over 400 million members, Facebook alone provides enough data to keep researchers busy for decades. While this makes many privacy advocates nervous (and we ourselves have expressed concern over the amount of personal data on the web), the interesting thing is, the majority of that information has been put there willingly by social media users in order to optimize and expand their personal social network.

Now maybe we didn’t plan it this way, but everything we share online, from the Fan Pages we like to the RSS feeds we subscribe to, can be used to form a snapshot of who we are. What’s more, all of that data can be used to make a snapshot not only of us, but of our friends, our families, our communities, our cities, our states, and even our countries. If a smart enough programmer dedicated enough time to analyze the information we’re sharing online, he or she would be able to draw fascinating conclusions on economics, sociology, consumer trends, media consumption, and more.

But who would be the one to step up to this monumental task? Who would have the technical chops, time, and inclination to embark on such an endeavor? According to ReadWriteWeb, there is a man, and his name is Pete Warden.

Pete Warden: The Facebook Whisperer

As detailed in the article, Pete Warden, dubbed the Facebook Whisperer by Andrew Hyde, is an ex-Apple engineer and entrepreneur who has been working for the past six months on a massive analysis of public profile pages on Facebook. Thus far, Warden has over 215 million public pages indexed.

So, why has Warden collected over 100G of Facebook data? For that most noble of causes, education. Once he has completed his analysis, Warden plans to share the information online for academic researchers to study further. Quoting from the RWW article,

“I am fascinated by how we can build tools to understand our world and connect people based on all the data we’re just littering the Internet with. Nobody thinks about how much valuable information they’re generating just by friending people and fanning pages. It’s like we’re constantly voting in a hundred different ways every day. And I’m a starry-eyed believer that we’ll be able to change the world for the better using that neglected information. It’s like an x-ray for the whole country – we can see all sorts of hidden details of who we’re friends with, where we live, what we like.”

Warden had originally planned on publishing some of his findings on Wednesday, but he has held off so that Facebook can take more time to understand the privacy implications of releasing his research. When Warden finally does release his data, however, there’s no doubt that it will prompt some very interesting findings about how and why we use Facebook. In the meantime, if you want to see some of the potential uses for the data, Warden has already put together some cool maps showing high-level analysis of how Facebook operates at a regional level.

Truthfully, a major analysis of Facebook has been a long time coming. That being said, it will be fascinating to see what this data can teach us (both positive and negative.) When Warden does decide to release his data, we’ll let you know, and we’ll be here to look through it. If you’re interested in learning more about Mr. Warden, I recommended following him on Twitter or checking out his blog.