Everyone is talking about Big Data1, but it is the small data that is holding everything together. The small slowly changing reference tables are the linchpins. Unfortunately, too often politics gets in the way as those small tables, maintained by humans, don’t get the attention they deserve; or in other words their owners, if they exists - many of these little tables are orphans, make changes without understanding the potential consequences on downstream systems.
David Chan from City University is organising an interdisciplinary symposium on tackling the ‘Big Data’ challenge on 1 March 2012. It is an open seminar trying to bring together academics and practitioners from across industry to tackle the challenges posed by “big data” - the growing amount of information that needs to be stored, searched, analysed and visualised in the digital age. The event will take place in the Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB.