Big data is a by-product of our digital lives.
Experts and pundits have begun to use the term “digital exhaust” to describe the data which we as a global community throw off each day. Some of this data comes from academic centers (think CERN or the Human Genome Project). But the lion’s share flows from the digital footprints left by individuals, businesses and institutions through the day.
Here’s a rough breakdown provided by Deloitte:
- Web & social media – click-stream and web interaction data
- Machine-to-machine – data from senors, meters, “internet of things”
- Big transaction data – customer/partner transaction data
- Biometric – data includes fingerprints, genetics, retinal scans
- Human-generated – unstructured data like email, social posts, video
And for a deeper dive, see below:
Ulterior Concepts 