Why big data is a big deal at a big school

Cosmic background noise for placement only

The big data activities of three Harvard School of Public Health professors are discussed in the recent issue of Harvard Magazine (Mar.Apr 2014).'Why Big Data is a Big Deal' looks at their work, and it emerges that, basically, there is a pretty obvious connection with what is posited now as 'big data' and a couple of trends long enfolding.  Especially, computer analysis and data gathering in the social sciences - over many years – has grown – grown to the point that its tenets seem evident, natural, and broadly applicable beyond their initial use cases. The Harvard profs exemplify the emerging style. What is new? It is most evident in the case of Gary King, Weatherhead university professor and head of Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. He has used data with special imagination, yes. He has also found ways to use social media information and cell phone data as part of the analysis, even in places far afield. Like others he attaches a bit of mysticism – or 'capacity to drive good' - to the concept 'data' . Data as a lynchin-pin for a  movement is growing. And the Harvard crew is emblematic. 'Improved statistical & computational methods-not in growth of storage or computational capacity'  – Jack Vaughan