Big data
Subtitle: a very short introduction
By: Dawn E. Holmes
Edition: First edition.
Series: Very short introductions -- 539; Very short introductions -- 539.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 125
ISBN-13: 9780198779575
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Big data; Data mining
Description: "Since long before computers were even thought of, data has been collected and organized by diverse cultures across the world. Once access to the Internet became a reality for large swathes of the world's population, the amount of data generated each day became huge, and continues to grow exponentially. It includes all our uploaded documents, video, and photos, all our social media traffic, our online shopping, even the GPS data from our cars. 'Big Data' represents a qualitative change, not simply a quantitative one. The term refers both to the new technologies involved, and to the way it can be used by business and government. Dawn E. Holmes uses a variety of case studies to explain how data is stored, analysed, and exploited by a variety of bodies from big companies to organizations concerned with disease control. Big data is transforming the way businesses operate, and the way medical research can be carried out. At the same time, it raises important ethical issues; Holmes discusses cases such as the Snowden affair, data security, and domestic smart devices which can be hijacked by hackers."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-120) and index.
Table of contents: title: The data explosion; title: Why is big data special?; title: Storing big data; title: Big data analytics; title: Big data and medicine; title: Big data, big business; title: Big data security and the Snowden case; title: Big data and society; title: Byte size chart; title: ASCII table for lower case letters.