Big data and the long tail: Use and reuse of little data

An abstract for and slides from this seminar are available at http://works.bepress.com/borgman/269/

The Oxford e-Research Centre was pleased to welcome Professor Christine Borgman, to present a seminar on Tuesday 12 March 2013, as part of our Hilary 2013 seminar series to which all are welcome.

Christine Borgman is Professor and Presidential Chair in Information Studies at UCLA. She is the author of more than 200 publications in the fields of information studies, computer science, and communication. Here in Oxford she is Oliver Smithies Visiting Fellow & Lecturer at Balliol College and an Academic Visitor at both the Oxford e-Research Centre and Oxford Internet Institute.

Abstract

Big data gets all the attention but little data are the norm in most fields. Scientists, social scientists, and humanities scholars alike tend to work in small groups and on projects of a year or two in length.  The resulting datasets tend to be small, local, and not easily shared. The talk will characterize the problem of long tail data and identify factors that determine how well data can be transferred between contexts. These include provenance, metadata, documentation, and features of the data and of the research methods.

This seminar is open to all and will start at 2pm in the Oxford e-Research Centre Access Grid Room (room 277 - access available via 7 Keble Road).