Big Data, Open Data and Data Development

1The Big Data Revolution

The amount of data generated by people, Internet-connected devices and companies is growing at an exponential rate. Financial institutions, companies and health service providers generate large quantities of data through their interactions with suppliers, patients, customers and employees. Beyond those interactions, large volumes of data are created through Internet searches, social networks, GPS systems and stock market transactions. This widespread production of data has resulted in the “data revolution” or the Age of Big Data.

The term “Big Data” is used to describe a universe of very large sets of data composed of a variety of elements. This gives way to a new generation of information technology designed to make available the increased processing speeds necessary to analyze and extract value from large sets of data, employing – of course – specialized materials and software. The phenomenon of Big Data not only refers to the explosion in the volume of data produced, which was made possible by the development of information storage and dissemination capacities on all sorts of platforms, but the term also refers to a second phenomenon, which involves newfound data processing capabilities.

In general terms, the concept of Big Data describes the current state of affairs in the world, in which there is a constant question of how to manage lumps of data in a better way, and how to make sense of the massive volume of data produced daily.

Data sources are ...