Challenges and opportunities with big data

Abstract

The promise of data-driven decision-making is now being recognized broadly, and there is growing enthusiasm for the notion of "Big Data," including the recent announcement from the White House about new funding initiatives across different agencies, that target research for Big Data. While the promise of Big Data is real -- for example, it is estimated that Google alone contributed 54 billion dollars to the US economy in 2009 -- there is no clear consensus on what is Big Data. In fact, there have been many controversial statements about Big Data, such as "Size is the only thing that matters." In this panel we will try to explore the controversies and debunk the myths surrounding Big Data.