INTRODUCING 'BIG DATA': PRESENTING INFORMATION IN NEW WAYS

TRACK 3 - NEW FRONTIERS IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
SESSION: INTRODUCING 'BIG DATA': PRESENTING INFORMATION IN NEW WAYS

KEYNOTE: THE ROLE OF DATA IN SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS
(Richard Boulderstone, Director of e-Strategy & Information Systems, The British Library, UK)

SMARTER DECISION MAKING: USING 'BIG DATA' TO GAIN NEW INSIGHTS
(Will Reilly, Director, Information Management, IBM, USA)

Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. In fact, ninety percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Dealing with the growth in data volume and the variety of different information sources is better known as Big Data. Big Data spans three dimensions: Variety, Velocity and Volume.

Variety
“ Big Data extends beyond structured data, including unstructured data of all varieties: text, audio, video, click streams, log files and more.

Velocity
“ Often time-sensitive, Big Data must be used as it is streaming in to the enterprise in order to maximize its value to the business.

Volume
“ Big Data comes in one size: large. Enterprises are awash with data, easily amassing terabytes and even petabytes of information.

The challenge is twofold
“ how to deal with all of this information to find new insights, and how to integrate those insights into your existing systems and technology. Across every Industry, data is constantly available and streaming in
“ from sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, transaction records of online purchases, and from cell phone GPS signals to name a few.

As data growth accelerates and new data sources proliferate, we have the opportunity to turn information overload into an asset for smarter decision-making. Smarter enterprises are looking for ways to use this data to identify new markets, safeguard their assets, optimize business process and improve customer services “without breaking the bank.

This session will delve into why Big Data is more than just a challenge; it is an opportunity to find insight in new and emerging types of data and content -- to make businesses more agile, and to answer questions that, in the past, were beyond reach.

maDAM AND BEYOND: DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT SERVICE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
(Lorraine Beard, Head of Information Systems, John Rylands University Library, UK)

The University of Manchester was one of the pilot projects for the JISC Research Data Management program, with its MaDAM (Manchester Data Management) project. The project aimed to develop a pilot infrastructure for storing, sharing and preservation of research data for pilot user groups in two of its Faculties - Life Sciences and Medical and Human Sciences. A detailed requirements exercise was carried out for the pilot user groups and a research data management solution developed to meet these needs, which is integrated with the University's institutional repository, Manchester eScholar to enable preservation of research data. The University is now developing a research data management policy and a business model to enable the development of a sustainable research data management service for the whole University, building on what it has learnt through the MaDAM Project.

3 learning points:
1: Importance of a partnership approach
2: Key user requirements for research data management
3. Sustaining research data management beyond the pilot

Moderator: Stephen Dale, Conference Chairman, UK