Susan Etlinger is an industry analyst who focuses on data and analytics. She has authored two reports on social media ROI and social analytics. She advises clients on measurement strategies and extracting insights from social data. She also works with technology companies to refine their strategies. Big data refers to very large data sets that cannot be analyzed using traditional techniques. It is characterized by volume, velocity, and variety. Analyzing big data can help solve problems and generate value. The amount of data is growing exponentially from various sources like customer transactions, photos, and genome sequencing. This growth is driving changes in analytics approaches and capabilities. Data science brings together techniques from computer science, statistics, mathematics, and domain knowledge to extract insights from