Big Data: A Revolution that will Transform How We Live, Work and Think - Hardcover

Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schonberger

Q. What did it take to write Big Data?

A. Kenn has written about technology and business from Europe, Asia, and the US for The Economist, and is well-connected to the data community. Viktor had researched the information economy as a professor at Harvard and now at Oxford, and his book Delete had been well received. So we thought we had a good basis to make a contribution in the area. As we wrote the book, we had to dig deep to find unheard stories about big data pioneers and interview them. We wanted Big Data to be about a big idea, but also to be full of examples and success stories -- and be engrossing to read.

Q. Are you big data’s cheerleaders?

A. Absolutely not. We are the messengers of big data, not its evangelists. The big data age is happening, and in the book we take a look at the drivers, and big data’s likely trajectory: how it will change how we work and live. We emphasize that the fundamental shift is not in the machines that calculate data, but in the data itself and how we use it.

Q. In discovering big data applications, what was your biggest surprise?

A. It is tempting to say that it was predicting exploding manholes, tracking inflation in real time, or how big data saves the lives of premature babies. But the biggest surprise for us perhaps was the very diversity of the uses of big data, and how it already is changing people’s everyday world. Many people see big data through the lens of the Internet economy, since Google and Facebook have so much data. But that misses the point: big data is everywhere.

Q. Is Big Data then primarily a story about economic efficiency?

A. Big data improves economic efficiency, but that’s only a very small part of the story. We realized when talking to dozens and dozens of big data pioneers that it improves health care, advances better education, and helps predict societal change—from urban sprawl to the spread of the flu. Big data is roaring through all sectors of the economy and all areas of life.

Q. So big data offers only “upside”?

A. Not at all. We are very concerned about what we call in our book “the dark side of big data.” However the real challenge is that the problem is not necessarily where we initially tend to think it is, such as surveillance and privacy. After looking into the potential misuses of big data, we became much more troubled by “propensity” -- that is, big data predictions being used to police and punish. And by the “fetishization” of data that may occur, whereby organizations may blindly defer to what the data says without understanding its limitations.

Q. What can we do about this “dark side”?

A. Knowing about it is the first step. We thought hard to suggest concrete steps that can be taken to minimize and mitigate big data’s risk, and came up with a few ways to ensure transparency, guarantee human free will, and strike a better balance on privacy and the use of personal information. These are deeply serious issues. If we do not take action soon, it might be too late.

Financial Times Business Book of the Year Finalist
Illuminating and very timely . . . a fascinating and sometimes alarming survey of big data s growing effect on just about everything: business, government, science and medicine, privacy, and even on the way we think. New York Times
It seems like big data is in the news every day, as we read the latest examples of how powerful algorithms are teasing out the hidden connections between seemingly unrelated things. Whether it is used by the NSA to fight terrorism or by online retailers to predict customers buying patterns, big data is a revolution occurring around us, in the process of forever changing economics, science, culture, and the very way we think. But it also poses new threats, from the end of privacy as we know it to the prospect of being penalized for things we haven t even done yet, based on big data s ability to predict our future behavior. What we have already seen is just the tip of the iceberg.
Big Data is the first major book about this earthshaking subject, with two leading experts explaining what big data is, how it will change our lives, and what we can do to protect ourselves from its hazards.
An optimistic and practical look at the Big Data revolution just the thing to get your head around the big changes already underway and the bigger changes to come. Cory Doctorow, boingboing.com
[AU PHOTO] VIKTOR MAYER-SCHONBERGER is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University. A widely recognized authority on big data, he is the author of over a hundred articles and eight books, of which the most recent is Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age.
[AU PHOTO] KENNETH CUKIER is the Data Editor of the Economist and a prominent commentator on developments in big data. His writings on business and economics have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and elsewhere.
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