The big data explosion sets us profound challenges - how can we keep up?


Blog 1: The big data explosion sets us profound challenges - how can we keep up?

Amy Le - 黎草嵋


D0731311
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2016/jul/02/the-big-data-explosion-sets-us-unprecedented-challenges-how-can-we-keep-up

Big data analysis promises huge opportunities but raises huge issues. How do we ensure we are masters of the data revolution and avoid being enslaved by it?

Big data is a term we hear being bandied about more and more. Indeed, data is growing exponentially. A whopping 90% of the data that currently exists was created in just the last two years. In 2014 there were 204 million emails every minute. This volume, variety, and velocity of data is unprecedented, its territory uncharted - and its potential mostly untapped. That potential has been described by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as “so significant that it could transform every business sector.” This isn’t an overstatement. The dawn of the data age could have far-reaching implications across all sectors of society and in all corners of the country. Of course, in tandem with great opportunities come great challenges, and the challenges here are profound.

Pinning down a definition for something so intangible is inevitably challenging, but there is broad consensus that massive increases in data create opportunities to gain new insights but also demand new techniques and methods. In its Information Economy Strategy, the UK Government uses the term to refer to “ways of handling data sets so largely, dynamic and complex that traditional techniques are insufficient to analyze their content”. Government has designated big data as one of its ‘eight great technologies’ and allocated funding for its development in order to unlock economic growth for our country, and the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee recently led an inquiry into big data.

However, as I’ve suggested, the challenges are by no means insignificant. We need to ensure, for example, that our country possesses the digital skills necessary to remain at the forefront of big data research. Only with the right infrastructure in place can we hope to interpret and analyze the increasing amounts of complex data available.

This is new terrain. The digital world is likely to expand and change at a rapid pace – far more quickly than parliamentarians can easily legislate to keep up with. That’s why I’ve set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Data Analytics, with the help of Policy Connect, to serve as a forum for debate and discussion on the benefits and barriers of the big data revolution. We must ensure that we are the masters of the data revolution, and avoid the risk of being enslaved by it.

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