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abstract
Big data is big money and big news, in academia no less than elsewhere with numerous new research groups, conferences, journals and, not least, funding initiatives. However, in this talk I will weave together a number of stories about smaller data: from learning analytics, from musicology, from small communities, and from my own 1000 mile walk round Wales. Previously I’ve talked about the value of looking at the ‘long tail of small data’, not just vast monolithic data sets such as Twitter streams, DBpedia, or MOOC analytics, but instead those that arise, bottom up, from individuals, small groups, and even islands. These small data sets together can make ‘big data’, but typically non-homogeneous and more complex than monolithic big data, thus posing algorithmic and interaction challenges. However, perhaps more important are the social and political challenges: the way we value or fail to value data as academics, and how the control of the production and use of data is fundamental to power, democracy and identity.