Big Data Introduction

The lecture covered the following topics, mainly via illustrative examples:

* Providing context - the patchy development of big data use (and preparation) in various sectors across the world.
* Providing a long-term perspective, highlighting that we are just at the beginning of the (uniquely important) digital revolution and that adaptability is crucial to importance.
* Difficulties of 'social' problems in comparison with technical problems.
* Alluding to the fears of 'big brother' and contrasting with experience in Asia.
* Planning - the correct balance of light weight centrally developed framework, and detailed development from below.
* Conceptualising data collection, processing and exploitation as an evolving 'infrastructure'.
* Economic issues - cost benefit analysis of data collection - efficiently predicting utility of data - going the last mile to deliver actionable information.
* Strategy of recognising three categories of expert and supporting all three working together.