Living (and Coping) with Big Data
Jinfo Blog

By Victor Camlek

Abstract

As we launch our series devoted to big data we begin to see that many articles and features, even when they are not tagged as "big data", definitely fit within this domain. Victor Camlek reviews recent FreePint articles and features and presents his view on three developments related to big data, in fields ranging from sales to social media and academic publishing.

Item

This is an exciting time for me as a newcomer to FreePint as we launch our efforts to develop a series focused on "big data". Given all the clamour associated with this concept, we need to provide some unique focus that will offer value to our readers. Based on recent input from you it appears that big data is very much on your minds. However, you’ve also indicated in many cases that we are not truly locked in on a definition. We’re hopeful that the series will reach a level of consensus as a preliminary step toward delving deeper into to various concepts involved in embracing big data within our business activities. Stay tuned for more news about our FreePint Topic Series: Big Data in Action.

Big Data Can Hide in Many Places

Interestingly, not all coverage of big data comes complete with the keywords or tags that spell out a direct content hit. For example, I looked around FreePint’s recent coverage and found three items that, although not labelled as big data centric, are definitely well within the domain.

From Sales

I’d like to start with Jan Knight’s product review of InsideView. Jan provides some keen insights into this multi-faceted sales intelligence tool, such as ways to search for information that will result in datasets and content that further qualify sales leads focused on companies and individuals, and which are searchable by numerous triggers. After reviewing the various features and capabilities that Jan describes it becomes very clear that InsideVIew deserves consideration as a source of big data. Products like InsideVIew offer creative users the potential to manage and employ a wide array of content and data - that could lead to increased sales and business success.

To Social Media & Publishing

Meanwhile, Penny Crossland reported on the recent acquisition of Pulse by LinkedIn. Penny acknowledges that with this move, LinkedIn “will able to make the leap into publishing content”. I agree, and would like to further add the view that this pairing has created enormous potential for big data. Given the marriage of a crowdsourced collection of people networking on a global basis with a huge array of published content that may be customised and aggregated by users and their networks via Pulse, the result will likely be an enormous dataset that will only increase over time. This move propels the now joined big data aspects of LinkedIn and Pulse further into a potent source of metrics and analytics within the world of the business user and their associated networks.

And Academic Publishing

There was another development within in the STM market that both Penny and I looked at: the acquisition of Mendeley by Elsevier. Penny appears to be impressed by the potential for this acquisition to spur Elsevier to deliver a greater open access to scientific information - despite the obvious cynicism from certain Mendeley’s users. I also mentioned the potential for some upheaval based on the merger of two very different business models. However, beyond the likely bumps in the road I believe that Mendeley adds considerable user-generated data that may be used within various big data outputs ranging from additional global research studies to altmetrics solutions that are all within the realm of big data. Love it or hate it, the new Elsevier has ramped up its big data potential in an enormous fashion.

So, within the space of a fortnight we have numerous developments that at first glance provide a specific array of product features. However, when viewed from the outside-in it becomes clear that each of these recent developments deserves at least a tag making them official components of the growing world of big data and the information professional.

Editor's Note: Big Data in Action

This article is part of the FreePint Topic Series: Big Data in Action, which includes articles, reports, webinars and resources published between April and June 2013. Learn more about the series here.

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