Global Big Data Week: Celebrating Data Instead of Cursing it

While more and less familiar commemorative celebrations such as Earth Day, Law Day, World Book Day and even World Intellectual Property Day are already in the 2014 books, this week kicks-off Big Data Week, a week-long global celebration of data and our (in)ability to aggregate it, process it, mine it, calculate it, action it and learn and prosper from it.

While you might think dedicating and entire week to one ‘overhyped’ marketing buzz word is beyond overkill, try some of these statistics on for size … According to CSC big data research, data production will be 44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009 (while individuals create 70 percent of all digital data, enterprises are responsible for storing, protecting and managing 80 percent of it). Intel reports that the number of networked devices is equal to the global population. By 2015, the number of networked devices will be twice the global population. Still not convinced? Check out DOMO’s ‘Every Minute of Every Day’ digital big data infographic to blow your mind.

In total, #BDW14 involves 40+ cities, 5,000+ people and 250+ events all connected through locally hosted meetups, networking functions, data visualization demos, debates, discussions and hackathons. Events are designed to provide a platform to educate, inform and inspire – organized by data scientists, business executives, technologists, data analysts and big data content providers … anyone passionate and knowledgeable about data. While data is growing at a ridiculous pace, the combination of technologies, people and process can reign in the bits and bytes and bake the yummy big data pie we are all longing to get out hands on. Consider Big Data Week the test kitchen!

My hometown Atlanta is one of the more prominent venues with 25 meetings and events around town this week. Here are some Big Data Week ATL highlights:

#BDW14 Kickoff Keynote Panel w/ Delta, Home Depot, Bloomberg, etc.

Business Intelligence Meets Big Data

Artificial Intelligence: What’s Possible and how it will change your business

The Growth of Digital Content w/ GigaOM, Bloomberg, CNN

Other cities with an abundance of big data-themed sessions and programs this week include Berlin, Chicago and Kuala Lumpur.

If there’s a common theme among the hundreds of sessions and events this week, it’s the collaboration between the public sector and industry in showcasing how big data technologies can deliver critical information to make our lives healthier (health care big data), safer (crime fighting big data), and void of traffic jams (transportation/transit big data).

So what does this mean for Legal – the individual legal professionals, law firms and GCs/government legal and how we run our firms, companies and governments?  Have we transitioned from “Big Data, big promise?” to “Big Data, big priority!”

Stay tuned this week for our Legal Big Data ‘State of the Union’ and in-depth coverage of big data events taking place in Atlanta and other spots throughout the globe.

Follow us at @InsideLegal and #BDW14 for all things Big Data Week 2014.