The Threat of Big Data, or Not?
What is big data? Tech giant IBM says that big data spans four dimensions: Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Veracity – the 4Vs.
- “Volume: There is ever-growing data of all types.
- Velocity: Big data must be used in a timely manner to maximize its value.
- Variety: Big data is any type of data – structured and unstructured data such as text, sensor data, audio, video, click streams, log files and more.
- Veracity: 1 in 3 business leaders don’t trust the information they use to make decisions.”
On its website, IBM further adds that “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data.”
We all contribute to the big data that IBM is referring to – we take pictures, record videos with our smartphones. Most of us have a presence on social media platforms where we post status updates, and announce where we are, and some of us have blogs so we are constantly creating content. David Meerman Scott talks about newsjacking in his book (Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage
), a process where you add your ideas and insights into breaking news stories to generate media coverage, and if we are smart, we can use big data to newsjack, maximizing its value.
Too much information – big data – can overwhelm us, but only if we allow it to. Data and information by itself is useless, it’s what we do with it that counts. Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, says that the human mind can be classified into five categories (Please read The Interview as a Teacher):
- Data: symbols
- Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to “who”, “what”, “where”, and “when” questions
- Knowledge: application of data and information; answers “how” questions
- Understanding: appreciation of “why”
- Wisdom: evaluated understanding.
What if we took some of the big data that is relevant to our situation, perhaps data that impacts our job, and process it by asking questions such as who can benefit from this information, in what ways can it be used, where and when can it be used? Suddenly the data is transformed into information. The process doesn’t stop there. You can transform the information into knowledge by asking how the new information relates to what you already know and how you can apply what you've learned in new contexts. Why is the newfound knowledge important for you and others, and how has your thinking or work changed as a result of interacting with big data. What new insights have you gleaned from the process, and what can you combine with the new insights to form additional new insights.
Imagine if you quickly worked your way through the information hierarchy, the amount of newsjacking you can participate in. The threat of big data, or not, is merely a matter of perception – it all depends on where you are standing and what you decide to do with what you are seeing!
Examples of Newsjacking from David Meerman Scott
Proof that you can succeed at Newsjacking too
When newsjacking is in poor form and can damage your brand
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Book links are affiliate links.