Big data is attracting plenty of hype – what should local government do with it?

Here are five thoughts to help hone your approach.

1. Big data is not a helpful term – for a start nobody can really define it.  It hovers uncomfortably between being defined literally (i.e. a lot of data – though it is unclear how many gigabytes, terabytes or petabytes actually qualify as big data) and as a movement.  In either case it is evolutionary rather than revolutionary.  Ever since the Romans conducted a census to aid tax collection in Britain, Governments have been using data to help them manage more effectively.  Using data – even lots of it – is nothing new.