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Big Data

Does Size Matter?

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
What is Big Data, and why should you care?
Big data knows where you've been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you'll buy, where you'll be the victim of crime and when you'll have a heart attack. Big data knows you better than you know yourself, or so it claims.
But how well do you know big data?
You've probably seen the phrase in newspaper headlines, at work in a marketing meeting, or on a fitness-tracking gadget. But can you understand it without being a Silicon Valley nerd who writes computer programs for fun?
Yes. Yes, you can.
Timandra Harkness writes comedy, not computer code. The only programmes she makes are on the radio. If you can read a newspaper you can read this book.
Starting with the basics – what IS data? And what makes it big? – Timandra takes you on a whirlwind tour of how people are using big data today: from science to smart cities, business to politics, self-quantification to the Internet of Things.
Finally, she asks the big questions about where it's taking us; is it too big for its boots, or does it think too small? Are you a data point or a human being? Will this book be full of rhetorical questions?
No. It also contains puns, asides, unlikely stories and engaging people, inspiring feats and thought-provoking dilemmas. Leaving you armed and ready to decide what you think about one of the decade's big ideas: big data.
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  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2016

      Comedian and journalist Harkness, who has presented documentaries such as Data, Data Everywhere and written for publications such as the Independent, delves into the history of data collection, from the discovery of a wolf bone with 57 notches to a computer (a person's job title) to the computer (the machine today). The author describes breakthroughs that big data has allowed in physics (glimpsing the Higgs boson) and medicine (the realization that smoking causes lung cancer). Data is everywhere, and Harkness notes that it can be manipulated to show causation. One of the main points is that while information itself is unbiased, the way it is used isn't; data can answer many hows but few whys. Harkness's first-person perspective and humorous footnotes make this a solid starting point for newcomers to the topic. VERDICT Those who enjoy technology, statistics, or works by authors such as John C. Havens will appreciate Harkness's view and the interviews she has compiled to show its importance.--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 16, 2016
      Harkness, a London-based science writer and comedian whose repertoire features a stand-up comedy routine on neuroscience, tackles the subject of Big Data, delving into how it is collected and used, its value, its potential dangers, and the questions its uses raise for modern society. Harkness is particularly adept at plucking out interesting examples that capture how Big Data is transforming the world. She clearly describes the work of researchers who hope to develop a global database of insects to the fight against malaria and other diseases, how the CERN atom smasher collects data when searching for exotic quantum particles, and the ways the creators of the Tinder app collect information about each and every one of its users. These examples—along with others explaining the use of Big Data by business entities, police and fire departments, and political parties—provide a comprehensive and accessible overview of the ubiquity of data collection in modern society. Harkness wisely notes the limitations and inherent dangers of using Big Data, exploring fears of a “Big Brother” society and individuals’ loss of privacy in a balanced and thoughtful way. Throughout, Harkness puts her comedian persona to good use, and her clever asides make this tour of Big Data both smart and fun.

    • Kirkus

      June 1, 2016
      A pleasing excursion into the daunting terrain of computer-driven information. British comedian and writer Harkness debuts with an anecdote-laden account of our propensity for making a data set out of anything that can be turned into numbers. "Routinely collected, stored, shared, linked together and analysed," big data, writes the author, are now used to monitor diseases, predict crime, shape our elections, surveil our private moments, and track our purchases at supermarket checkouts--an extraordinary reach for a term coined in 2006. With a focus on how this enormous information-gathering has affected each major area of our lives, Harkness visited experts in places from Brooklyn to Silicon Valley and engaged in lucid conversations about numbers-crunching, from early recording-keeping (death and census data) to Alan Turing's use of mechanized reasoning to break secret World War II codes to our present widespread use of big data in business, science, politics, and other realms. "Basically any interaction between man and machine, or machine and machine, these days is being logged," one researcher told her. The author confesses her appreciation of big data's benefits--its ability, for example, to trace links between behavior, environment, and health outcomes--but also her wariness of its growing intrusiveness. "Our most personal information, our private exchanges, our network of friends, are used by others without our consent," she writes. Since the invention of the filing cabinet, governments have tried to run society by watching data, warned a privacy advocate: "If only we had more data we could control things better!" Harkness' style is light and conversational, but she makes clear her serious concerns about a society in which it is now possible to predict the likelihood of a person's future involvement in homicide or other serious crime based on the police records of friends and acquaintances. "I'm not a data point, I am a human being," she writes. "And so are you." A readable guide for the non-IT set.

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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