Big Data: How the Information Revolution is Transforming our Lives

by Brian Clegg

It's hard to avoid 'big data' - but we've lived in an information age for decades. What's changed?

An easy to absorb tour of this transformative technology, finding out how big data enables Netflix to forecast a hit, CERN to find the Higgs boson and medics to discover if red wine really is good for you.

Less positively, we explore how companies are using big data to benefit from smart meters, use advertising that spies on you, and develop the gig economy, where workers are managed at the whim of an algorithm.

Is the Brexit vote successful big data politics or the end of democracy? Why do airlines overbook, and why do banks get it wrong so often? With big data unquestionably here to stay, a bright future beckons if we can embrace its good side while guarding against its bad. This book reveals how.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Computers, Mathematics, Popular Science

176 pages, Paperback

Published August 3, 2017

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Alireza · Rating 2 out of 5]

ترجمه و ویرایش خیلی بد بود. انتظار دیگری از نشر نو داشتم. در مجموع می‌توان گفت کتاب یک سری کلیات از کلان داده می‌گوید که برای خواننده‌ی کنجکاوی که چندان هم آشنا با موضوع نیست می‌تواند جذاب باشد.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too generic and not providing sufficient in-depth information to my expectation. Most examples are commonly known story retold...

[Mairita (Marii grāmatplaukts) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Izrādās, ka par šo tēmu zinu pietiekoši, lai šī grāmata atsvaidzinātu zināšanas, bet nesniegtu neko jaunu. Nezinātājiem šī grāmata būs viegli uztverams ievads. Vienmēr vērts atcerēties, ka no datiem iegūtā informācija ir tikai tik laba, cik labi ir dati (garbage in, garbage out) algoritmi var būt kļūdaini un korelācija vēl nenozīmē patiesību, bet datos ir milzu spēks, tāpēc ļoti jāuzmana tos, kuri šos datus iegūst un apstrādā.

[Amir matin Ghariblu]

اگر پیش‌تر با این موضوع مواجهه داشته اید ؛ تخصص و تحصیلات یا مطالعاتی که اجازه فهم و تعامل با آن را تا حدودی به شما می دهد دارید و سابقا درباره آن اندیشیده اید و طبعا چند باری از طریق دانشنامه ها ، بلاگ ها و یا مقالات آکادمیک آشنایی ضمنی با آن پیدا کرده اید به سختی مبحث جدیدی برایتان در کتاب پیدا شود ، اما اگر کاملا مبحث برایتان گنگ و جدید است ، خواندش قطعا خالی از لطف نخواهد بود که امروز موضوعی بسیار اساسی است و پر از چالش ، چه برای اشخاص منفرد و چه حوزه گفتمان عمومی !

[ahmad · Rating 2 out of 5]

کلان داده کل زندگی ما رو احاطه کرده. اکثر برندگان جایزه نوبل اخیر خصوصا در زمینه اقتصاد کسانی هستن که روی داده ها و کلان داده ها کار میکنن حتی طبق ادعای کتاب کشف ذره بوزون هیگز در آزمایشگاه سرن هم یک رویداد کلان داده ای بود.
کتاب کلان داده کتابی کوچک برای آشنایی ما با این مفهوم بزرگ است که در حال دگرگون کردن جهان ماست. در این کتاب علاوه بر توضیحاتی که در مورد کلان داده می دهد. ما را با خطرات و همینطور فواید کلان داده اشنا می کند. اطلاعاتی است که از گذشته شما جمع کرده اند. هنگامی که وارد اینستاگرام می شوید. الگوریتم های اینستاگرام سرچ های شما را جمع اوری کرده و با استفاده از یک حلقه بازخوردی به شما محتوایی را نشان می دهد که تشخیص داده به آنها علاقه مند هستید (و یا کسانی که آنها را دنبال می کنید به آنها علاقه مندند). نتفلیکس توانست با استفاده از همین الگوریتم ها به بزرگترین تولید کننده محتوای ویدیویی در جهان تبدیل شود. البته کلان داده روی زشت و پلیدی هم دارد. کلان داده می تواند شما را با استفاده از الگوریتم های شبکه های اجتماعی طوری هدایت کند که مطلوب افرادی که کلان داده را در اختیار دارند است.
شرکت های وام دهنده می توانند با استفاده از کلان داده تشخیص دهند ایا شما مشتری بد حسابی هستید یا خیر. حتی در انتخابات می توان متوجه شد که چه کسی پیروز خواهد شد. (در جریان مرحله پایانی برنامه عصر جدید یک کاربر توانسته بود برندگان را با توجه به سرچ هایی که در اینترنت انجام شده با دقت بسیار بالایی حدس بزند. این کاربر فقط در انتخاب دو نفر آخر اشتباه عمل کرده بود)
خلاصه که کلان داده چیز بسیار خوبیه و باید در موردش خیلی چیزها بدونید. توصیه میکنم این کتاب کوچیک رو اگر هیچی از کلان داده نمیدونید حتما بخونید. اما اطلاعاتی که میده رو عموما میشه توی وبلاگ ها پیدا کرد و چیز خاصی نمیگه. اگه یک آشنایی حداقلی دارید نیازی به خوندن کتاب نیست. فقط واسه آشناییه.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

We live in a world of big data, with government, corporations, social media, and all kinds of organizations in possession of vast amounts of quite personal data about us--most of which we've handed over ourselves.

That's just one piece big data, though. The accumulation of enormous amounts of data, and the use of modern, advanced computers to process it, has affected every area of our lives and our world. Not much over two centuries ago, medicine was still largely a matter of trial and error, and medical theories we know to be completely wrong. The 19th and 20th centuries saw considerable advances, but there were still serious limitations on the ability to test new drugs and new treatments on enough people, and a sufficiently diverse and balanced sample, to get truly reliable results on effectiveness, and on who they'd be effective on. Because no, humans aren't all alike, and don't all react the same way to the same treatments.

But with the late 20th and early 21st centuries, we now do have the means to gather and analyze almost unlimited data, and to keep gathering that data, making far better medical decisions possible.

On the individual level, getting the best personal results from that means handing over even more personal data. And that data is no longer sitting on paper, in locked filing cabinets in our doctors' offices. It's in computers, which generally have to be networked to get the best results out of them. I can log into one patient portal from my home computer, and access test results, upcoming appointments, and information about my prescriptions from several different specialists and the hospital I'm usually taken to when necessary. My own primary care physician isn't part of this patient portal, because he's 80 and has an attitude of deep suspicion toward the reliability of computer security that, in theory, I wholly endorse. And yet. I like having access to all this information. Oh, and a lot of the results from my primary care physician are there anyway, because my specialists have requested them in order to properly coordinate care.

I'm sure they've taken lots of care to keep all this medical data, for me and all their other patients, as secure as possible. I also believe no system is unhackable. It's a risk. It's one that on balance, I'm comfortable taking, for the benefits. But that's me. I don't have any medical conditions I consider embarrassing--and I'm autistic. I love data, and what experts can make it do. Some people have conditions they'd have a problem with random people knowing. Sometimes because certain conditions can change how other people may respond to you, and sometimes because they don't have my relatively detached attitude towards personal medical data. Both those feelings are valid, but, as I indicated above, even finding a PCP like mine who is much more conservative about sharing and accessibility of electronic data doesn't mean your information isn't going to wind up in them. Especially if you have conditions that require specialists.

There are less personally fraught uses of big data, though. CERN uses big data and the computers that process it to find, for instance, the Higgs Boson. Our space telescopes, including Hubble, Kepler, and now the James Webb, have gathered huge amounts of data, and computers have played a critical role in analyzing that data, making new discoveries about the workings of our universe possible.

I haven't even touched on the financial and economic uses of big data, and the enormous impact of that on our lives, for both good and ill. Brian Clegg does. This isn't a long book, but it's packed with information and understanding of how big data affects our lives.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

[Amir · Rating 2 out of 5]

این کتاب شاید برای 15 سال پیش کتاب خوبی بود ولی برای سال 2017 نه
البته مفاهیم و داده های جدیدی نیز داشت به عنوان مثال داستان سه برابر بیمه گرفتن از مردان جوان نسبت به زنان جوان.

داستان از این قرار است که اتحادیه اروپا در سال 2012 حکمی صادر کرد که مطالبه حق بیمه متفاوت برای اتومبیل از مردان در مقایسه با زنان تبعیض آمیز است. اما آیا واقعا تبعیضی در کار بود یا فقط طبق داده ها این تصمیم گرفته شده است؟
طبق داده هایی که شرکت هایی بیمه دریافت کرده بوده اند مردان جوان سه برابر احتمال بیشتری داشت که تصادف کنند (به هر علتی.) و به همین خاطر تصمیم گرفتند که بیمه مردان را سه برابر بیمه زنان در نظر بگیرند...

پ ن:اولین کتاب 2022. امیدوارم امسال با قوت بیشتری پیش برم.

[Zainab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to big data and the variety of applications it is used for with the benefits and downfalls. I would recommend this for beginners but look elsewhere if you want a more thorough examination of big data.

[Mohd Nordin Che Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introductory book to Big Data. Brian Clegg simply describe the importance of data and how to use it properly for the beneficial of us in analyzing the past and predicting the future.

[Happy Dwi Wardhana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terlalu dangkal untuk disebut buku sains populer. Ini tak lebih makalah presentasi anak SMA.

Seratus limapuluhan halaman isinya mengglorifikasi kehebatan internet. Betapa internet memudahkan hidup kita. Lihatlah perbedaan kehidupan di tahun 1995 dan sekarang: bagaimana kita belanja, mendengarkan musik, mengirim surat, menonton TV... Lihatlah! Sangat jauh lebih mudah, bukan?! Buruknya lagi, itu diceritakan dari pengalaman penulis -yang tentu saja semua orang, SEMUA, mengalaminya!

[Jacob Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely scratches the surface. This (short) book hardly goes into detail. I don't think I learned anything as everything seemed either obvious or basic knowledge. There are some interesting and worthwhile reflexions at the end on the pros and cons of data. The author's style of writing is strange: he presents ideas in subchapters spanning 2-4 pages each, and tries to link the subchapters together in a way that I found bizarre.

[Hootan Mohaghegh · Rating 2 out of 5]

حرف تازه‌ای برای گفتن نداشت. پیش از این کتاب “زندگی ۳.۰” را خوانده بودم که بخشی از آن به دیتا می‌پرداخت. انتظار داشتم این کتاب به جزئیات بیشتری بپردازد که چنین نبود، اگر به مباحث دیتا و هوش مصنوعی و ��ینده‌ی آن علاقه‌مندید، زندگی ۳.۰ را به شما پیشنهاد می‌کنم

[Leyla M Yashar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I strongly don’t recommend to read this book to anyone. Even schoolchildren can give more information about the big data than this book.

[طاقچه]

دنیای امروز ما، شرکت‌های بزرگ و موفق اینترنتی و ... همه و همه از کلان داده استفاده می‌کنند. در حقیقت آن‌ها با کمک این کلان داده‌ها که به نام بیگ دیتا (Big Data) شناخته می‌شوند به راحتی می‌توانند کسب و کارشان را متحول کنند. با کمک این مثال‌ها، درک این مطلب واضح‌تر می‌شود: آیا شما هم از خودتان پرسیده‌اید شرکت‌های اینترنتی از کجا می‌دانند که ما به چه چیزی فکر می‌کنیم؟ روبات‌های فروش چطور می‌فهمند ما به چه نیاز داریم؟ چگونه داده‌ها به اطلاعات و اطلاعات به دانش تبدیل می‌شود؟

براین کلگ در این کتاب به این پرسش‌ها پاسخ داده است. این کتاب ۷ فصل دارد و در هر کدام از این فصول به یکی از این موارد پرداخته شده است. حجم داده‌ها و اطلاعاتی که امروزه در اختیار ما است به کمکمان می‌آید تا مسائل و مشکلات را حل کنیم، به درخواست‌های مصرف کنندگان پاسخ دهیم و یا به پیشبینی وضعیت آینده بپردازیم. اما کلان داده این قابلیت را دارد که هم کیفیت زندگی را بالا ببرد و هم سیستمی ایجاد کند که طبقه‌بندی شده و تمامیت‌خواه باشد. بهرحال نمی‌توان کلان داده را نادیده گرفت.

براین کلگ در این کتاب ما را با این مفهوم آشنا می‌کند. آن را از زوایای گوناگون بررسی می‌کند تا در نهایت تصویر واضحی از آن به دست بیاوریم.
https://taaghche.com/book/87897/%DA%A...

[Joy Pouros · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book nearly 2 years ago, but put off reading it. As much as I was interested in the topic, I was afraid it was going to be too technical. Luckily, I was wrong.

This book is very accessible. It starts simple and as the book progresses, the chapters build upon each other. We start by defining data and examples that most people experience firsthand before we get to behind-the-scenes data that people are less familiar with.

Nonetheless, all the book is relatively basic. He does a nice job connecting the different applications of big data in a way that makes this easy to read. I'm glad it's not overly technical, but the book could have been double the size easily with more information!

Clegg touches on some of the dilemmas of big data, but a lot more could be said about the ethical and moral questions we need to address in the very, very near future.

Overall, a good overview, but could have been much more in depth and still been accessible, I think.

[Tammam Aloudat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good account of how big data came to be and how it is being used. However, it is a little too simple for my taste. I am all for popular science, and this book is diverse and covers a lot of the uses and some of the abuses of big data but it takes pains to avoid anything technical that I don't think the word computer comes into it at any point. I missed two aspects:

A little information on how big data should be to be useful as big data and how does it get processed and managed. Some information on the infrastructure of big data would be useful.

The Big Brother section is slim, I wonder how would we understand the misuses of big data if nothing is mentioned about mass surveillance and the use of it by oppressive regimes. I realise that this book is mainly directed at western audiences but this should not have been skipped.

[Alfath F. R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rate 3+

Buku ini berisi perkembangan pengambilan data, khususnya data konsumen oleh para pedagang atau produsen. Mulai dari yang manual seperti bagaimana seorang pedagang di satu desa mengenali calon pembeli, kesukaan pembeli terhadap barang tertentu, lalu memperkirakan kapan perlu restock barang lagi dsb secara manual. Kemudian teknologi berkembang (semisal ada telpon), dan pedagang bisa lebih cepat menawarkan adanya barang baru kepada pelanggannya. Hingga akhirnya teknologi berkembang cepat dan para calon pembeli bisa memilih untuk membeli barang darimana saja di seluruh dunia selama ada akses.

Buku ini cukup menarik, dan membuat saya ingin mencari buku sejenis dengan bahasan yang lebih sederhana.

[N. Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cukup menarik melihat banyak pemaparan lain perihal mahadata di luar yg sudah saya tahu bagaimana data bisa mempengaruhi bagaimana sistem memberi rekomendasi dalam hal ini berupa tautan barang yg diinginkan atau layanan tertentu seperti pariwisata.

Tapi memang sebagai buku yg cukup tipis, ini hanyalah semacam pengenalan ringkas namun padat untuk beberapa orang yg agak awam terkait topiknya.

Hanya saja, memang tidak banyak hal baru yg bisa kita temukan dalam pembacaannya, di luar hal yg kita sadari masih sering terjadi akibat penyalahgunaan data pada kejahatan.

Namun sebagai pengenalan, buku ini bisa memberi gambaran luas bagaimana data itu dibuat dan digunakan secara meluas.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much junk starting from page one

> Take a look at a success story of the big data age: Netflix. Once a DVD rental service, the company has transformed itself as a result of big data […]

The company has transformed as a result of visionary management. And to call that a company transform itself it's pretty much sign of dimness.

Else, the usual rants of old white men rightfully feeling they can't grasp the new concepts. The talk about the village and god save the king and his post office.

[Qukatheg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting at the very basic question "What is data?", this little book explains the concept of 'big data' in easy to understand terms. It gives plentiful examples of where and how big data is used in various industries like retail, banking, book publishing, social media, advertising and the sciences. Both the upsides and the downsides are covered.

Though this book focuses mainly on popular American companies, I think similar methods are being used and developed around the world so it is relevant no matter where you live.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very accessible introduction to big data, ideal for people who know little or nothing of the topic. If you already have a grasp of big data, artificial intelligence and algorithms, this book could feel frustratingly simplistic. It was helpful for me. I've increasingly heard terms like 'AI' and 'machine learning' at work, but had minimal understanding of what they mean. This book is short, uses relatable examples and non-technical language. Clegg discusses the origins of big data, its application and some of its ethical pitfalls. Glad I read this.

[Aiden · Rating 1 out of 5]

A truly useless book. Clegg never defines what he means when referring to “big data”, and the book is mostly him pointing at various things and saying “that’s big data”, interspersed with unnecessary personal anecdotes (oddly enough the camera shop owner who gave Clegg a recommendation to wait a week before buying a new camera has next to nothing to do with how online retail uses your data). The best way to describe the book is it’s as if your friends’ dad cornered you and started monologueing over how “things were different back in my day you know, we never had any of this smartphone malarkey, back in my day you had to code uphill in the snow both ways etc.”

There is little to no insight here that isn’t already known by anyone familiar enough with the field to want to read a book called big data- it feels like a BBC bitesize revision guide going over the most surface level observations possible.

The ambivalence the book shows to moralising gets grating after a while, especially after you read the line ”I suspect that at the moment Facebook is ethical and unbiased”, presented with no irony. For a book subtitled “How the information revolution is transforming our lives” there is really no interest in the ethics or consequences of the scale of data farming currently seen.

Avoid at all costs.

[Srdan Dukic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant synthesis of the “Big Data” topic, with good examples of which industries will be affected and how. Doesn’t go too deep into any technical details rather talks about theoretical limits and the role humans have to play still. Very well written. Only critique is that it sometimes reads a little like a brochure, left me wanting to explore more on a particular track. There is a “further reading” section at the back of the book though with references.

[Aleximparat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair introduction to the “big data” debate. But it falls short exactly on the topic it discusses: the data. It’s basically a collection of arguments whithout revealing what is argued; like somebody who tries to makes excuses for something he did, but nobody knows what he did or who he is. It’s a light and simplistic read that has good pieces of information scattered here and there, but lacks all the essentials.

[Richard Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book that gives a nice introduction to the topic. I liked the writing style, and the fact that many examples were based around UK scenarios rather than the normal US bias found in other works.

I felt, however, that I had just read a write-up of a research project rather than an insightful view from a subject matter expert.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed reading this, it was interesting, sometimes funny and was obviously well thought and well researched. Big data is something that is slowly becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives. Clegg has taken the time to map the history of it’s development (which was really interesting in and of itself) to then try and guesstimate where we’ll end up with it. This isn’t a difficult read at all and it’s not very long either so if you have the time, definitely give it a look.

[cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semakin manusia modern 'terbiasa' menggunakan internet dan smart phone, semakin banyak hal pula kita bergantung pada informasi dan pengetahuan yang disediakan oleh mahadata. Buku ini menjelaskan secara awam sekali tentang data dan penyediaan informasi serta efek-efek yang menyertainya. Enak dibaca sebagai tambahan pengetahuan, bukan buku teknis yang mengkaji mendalam tentang masalah ini.

[Gaurav Prabhu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful introduction & coverage on the topic. There are so many case studies and the information is presented in a lucid manner. Presents big data in an unbiased light, the good, the bad & the ugly. This is a good start for someone planning to dive into this technology.

[Sinéy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute must read for anyone terrified of big data and for anyone who uses it, so therefore just everyone ! Enlightening and thought provoking piece on the good and bad of big data in the small and large areas of our lives!!

[Querijn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as entertaining or informative as I would have hoped. Doesn't go into detail behind how big data is used, merely talks about simple everyday things that incorporate (big) data. Disappointing, because the topic itself allows for lots of in depth discussions