The Big Data Initiative was a decade-long program at GVSU to elevate data analytics throughout the curriculum, in scholarship programs, and in co-curricular activities.
“Big Data” refers to the sharp increase of the size, arrival rate and complexity of data that is being generated and collected by business, government, non-profits and other organizations. The rapid increase in the amount of data will create new opportunities that will transform many fields of study, such as business, health, the sciences, and politics. It will also create new challenges as organizations try to learn how to store, manage, analyze, and preserve our ever-increasing bodies of data. “Data Science” or “Data Analytics” is the name of the academic area that studies “Big Data,” but different disciplines have their own terminology for it, such as “business intelligence,” “marketing analytics,” or “information management.”
The effects of big data are profound. Everything from tracking disease across the world, managing cities and crisis situations, employing marketing techniques to specify individual consumers, targeting business solutions, and winning elections are just a few of the ways that our society has been changed by big data. And the most obvious effect is the ethical implications of all of this -- questions of privacy and ethical use.
