How to make device-based data meaningful

This article identifies some of the drawbacks of big data, arguing that it should actually be called 'device-based data' and that hybrid approaches are the best way forward.

How to make device-based data meaningful

Justin SampsonBARB

'Big data' should be described as what it actually is: data derived from devices that people use in their daily lives. But the exaggerated claims made for so-called big data have obscured many of its drawbacks. Here he describes how BARB is devising a hybrid programme that incorporates those datasets into its existing research methodologies to provide deeper and broader understanding.

Many readers will be familiar with the Hype Cycle that has been devised and made famous by Gartner, the technology research specialist (Figure 1).

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