The Rise of Big Data

Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger in Foreign Affairs: “Everyone knows that the Internet has changed how businesses operate, governments function, and people live. But a new, less visible technological trend is just as transformative: “big data.” Big data starts with the fact that there is a lot more information floating around these days than ever before, and it is being put to extraordinary new uses. Big data is distinct from the Internet, although the Web makes it much easier to collect and share data. Big data is about more than just communication: the idea is that we can learn from a large body of information things that we could not comprehend when we used only smaller amounts.”
Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs, sits down with Kenneth Cukier, data editor of The Economist (video):