Big Data's Role in Driving the Knowledge Economy
Jinfo Blog

By Andrew Lucas

Abstract

Andrew Lucas concludes FreePint's recent focus on big data by considering what the appointment of the new head of the UK's Alan Turing Institute tells us about the continuing government, academic and commercial interest in big data. He also looks at what we have learnt from other FreePint articles on the subject of big data.

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The increasing significance of "big data" in both commercial and government thinking was underlined by the recent announcement that the City of London financier Howard Covington, the former chief executive of New Star Asset Management, has been appointed chairman of the UK's new big data research facility, the Alan Turing Institute.

The appointment of such a heavyweight figure from the financial world to lead a research institute highlights an interesting nexus between the government, academic institutions and business in understanding and using big data.

UK Poised to Lead the World in Big Data?

The Financial Times reported that the government hopes that the institute will help the UK become "a world leader in the analysis and application of big data".

The institute is being set up with an investment of £47 million from the government's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council together with £35 million from leading UK universities and other foundations. The institute will partner with more than 35 academic, cultural, research, scientific and media organisations.

The new institute is based at the British Library until its new headquarters is completed. The area of London around King's Cross, Euston and Bloomsbury is now being promoted as the "Knowledge Quarter". It will also contain the Francis Crick Institute - a biomedical research facility - which is currently under construction next door to the British Library.

Driving Big Data Developments

FreePint explored some of the themes of academic research and their commercial application in recent articles on big data, in which we looked at the importance of maths education in developing a knowledge economy when we reported on the Wolfram Research conference in the Subscription Article "Unlocking Data... Wolfram Applies Complex Maths to Real-World Problems".

The importance of innovation in keeping the forefront of developments was highlighted by the introductory blog for the series, "New Entrants Shake Up Big Data Technology Market", where we looked at how traditional technology players in the big data market are being undermined by the newer, nimbler market entrants.

Companies to Watch in Analytics and Visualisation 

There were further insights in our Q&A session with the data blending technology company Alteryx - "Blending Data for Advanced Analytics", where EMEA VP Stuart Wilson explained for the uninitiated what data blending is. He also explained how the company is helping data analysts overcome the challenges of blending data from multiple sources to use in advanced analytics in fields from retail to investment banking.

The Alteryx Q&A also linked to the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible"  which explored information discovery and included a mini review of Tableau Desktop  which is one of the data visualisation services that Alteryx partners with.

This focus on big data was not just about the theoretical approach to the subject - we also had a very practical hands-on account of the application of big data in Chris Wall's case study "Big Data and GIS - a Case Study on Social Care Chartered Surveyors". Chris described how Carterwood, a small chartered surveying practice based in Bristol, combines a national care home database, data from the 2011 census and powerful mapping software to extract data that drives the insights in the reports they write for care home operators.

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FreePint's upcoming Topic Series "All About Usage" launching in July offers articles, reviews, webinars and Communities of Practice on subjects from content sharing to data mining. Register now to keep informed and to receive a free PDF report containing selected Subscription content.

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