As a qualitative researcher here at The Pert Group, I tend to defer to my quantitative market research friends to deal with the numbers, especially when there are gigabytes and terrabytes of them. So you can imagine what I think when I see “big data” come up in blogs posts, live-tweets from conferences, and industry publications. I stay on top of industry buzzwords, but admittedly big data was just one that was intimidating.
I realized I was not alone after coming across an article entitled “What The Hell Is…Big Data?” on the front page of my LinkedIn feed. Or after seeing this quote from Dan Ariely, respected professor at Duke University: “Big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.”
It wasn’t until the Future of Consumer Intelligence Conference that I finally started getting over my fear of big data and started realizing that it’s not just a research thing. Perhaps it’s easier to understand how big data can impact the world at-large before understanding its impact on the business world.
Is big data a misnomer? The word ‘big’ makes it sound so ominous, but there really isn’t another suitable term. That’s because big data is just that. It’s much bigger than we are. To give it context, people of the 15th century experienced less data in their entire lifetime than we do each day. Our smartphones, our cars, our televisions, they all emit a trail of data, and when that data is cross-referenced and overlaid with each other, there is room for all sorts of innovation. Scary? Maybe. Fascinating? Undoubtedly.
While several of the speakers at the Future of Consumer Intelligence conference wove big data into their presentations in one way or another, it was Rick Smolan, author of “The Human Face of Big Data” who really created the a-ha moment for me. Smolan, a photojournalist by trade, took on the project of “humanizing” big data through his book The Human Face of Big Data.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Smolan says he chose to take on this project because “The ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real-time is something the human race has never had before. This new set of tools, often referred by the lofty term “Big Data” has begun to emerge as a new approach to addressing some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.”
When asked about one of his favorite stories in the book in another interview, Smolan chose Schwetak Patel, who “just started his third company…he invented a chip capable of recognizing the digital signature of every appliance in your house. It provides a readout of how much electricity your toaster, dishwasher and more generate.”
And if you’re not already geeking out on this stuff already and searching the book on Amazon, check out this video.
At the end of the day, sometimes it is important to take off our researcher hats and see the big picture. Only then can we drill down and start to see how big data can impact our planet, our countries, our communities, our households — and our businesses, too.
Still can’t get enough of this big data talk? Check out what’s new in the world of big data in this infographic or better yet, see Smolan’s talk to the Oxford Said Business School on YouTube.
Have you read The Human Face of Big Data? Have you seen big data impacting your daily life? Your business?