Blog Column

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Is Big Data a fad, or something legit?

by jiyanwei • May 8, 2012

Originally published on Gigaom (May 2012) “The field of [big data] draws on findings from statistics, databases, and artificial intelligence to construct tools that let users gain insight from massive data sets.” – Michael Pazzani, Intelligent Systems Pazzani’s quote was originally published in February 1999 and did not reference big data; it referenced knowledge discovery […]


How openness fuels Big Data

by Jiyan • May 3, 2012

This is Part 3 of a 5-part series devoted to exploring the concept of Big Data to determine what makes it different from other hyped data “revolutions” of the past. On his first day in Office, President Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, a platform aimed at fostering greater accountability from the […]


Big Data and Social Media

by Jiyan • April 27, 2012

This is Part 2 of a 5-part series devoted to exploring the concept of Big Data to determine what makes it different from other hyped data “revolutions” of the past. Back in 2005, Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired wrote, Three thousand years from now, when keen minds review the past, I believe that our ancient […]


Defining Big Data

by Jiyan • April 27, 2012

About three months ago I posted a simple question to my Facebook wall, asking whether my next computer should be an Apple or a PC. Over the next five hours I received over thirty opinions from students, senior executives, computer programmers, analysts and a random assortment of other friends and family.  The feedback helped me […]