“Big data” is trending up as a catch phrase describing the challenges and opportunities presented by the virtual mountains of data generated every second of your day. As evidence of the popularity of this new buzzword, search Twitter for #bigdata and you’ll get a peek at the dialog surrounding this very old problem, now exacerbated by the ease with which one can compile data as humans become more digital. [NOTE: At this moment, Oracle even has a sponsored tweet at the top of these search results as seen here.]
By saying this is a “very old problem” I’m drawing attention to the fact that we’ve virtually always had the challenge of converting data into insight, and even action. Further, the amount of data has always exceeded our ability to “process” it and apply our insights before a window of opportunity closes. So, the “big data” catch phrase is now trending, but what we really need to see trending is “big insight.”
I’ve got this in mind as I prep for a marketing research summit at the University of Georgia, where graduate education in marketing research began 30 years ago (a bit before I graduated from the program). The agenda looks great and I’m looking forward to the insights I’ll gain from the summit while connecting with friends on the forefront of converting data to insight. Here’s to #biginsight .
