The term ‘Big Data’ is much abused. What is ‘Big Data’?

The definitions abound. At a recent talk given by a psychologist, he used the following definitions:

1. A dataset which is large for the discipline concerned
2. Requires advanced data processing tools
3. Requires (or gives rise to) complex mathematical models to make sense of the data.

There is the extra dimension of the various types of data –

Internal
Financial or management reports, logistic details, personnel records, etc.

External
Demographic or economic data, industry reports, traffic densities, crime, etc.

Structured
Data held in an organised form e.g. in a database of spreadsheet

Unstructured
Data buried in a text document or arriving over the web via social media, etc.