This document summarizes a critique of big data presented by Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers. The critique outlines 5 points: 1) A reputational shift to large infrastructures over other analysis modes, 2) A shift from interpretation to pattern recognition, 3) A shift in analytical commitments to visualizations, 4) A shift to relying on small data science teams, 5) A shift to relying on available signals rather than seeking unavailable ones. The document also discusses examples of big data hype declining and issues with tools like Google Flu Trends vastly overestimating influenza rates.

1. BIG DATA CRITIQUE
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers
New Media & Digital Culture
University of Amsterdam

2. Overview
1. Whither Big Data? (Wohin?)
2. Recent shift in Big Data from hype to disillusionment
3. Five Big Data Critiques
4. After Critique: Enriching Big Data
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

3. Google Flu Trends:
Predictive algorithms in action
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

4. Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam
Google&Flu&
Trends&vastly&
overes2mates&
rate&of&influenza&
in&2012&and&
2013&in&the&USA&
Is&Big&Data&measuring&societal&
trends&or&media&effects?&
Sources:&D.&Butler,&Nature,&494,&2013;&D.&
Lazer&et&al.,&Science,&343,&2014.&

5. Big Data – a recent dip in hype and
first indication of disappointment
“Big Data”
July 2013 * *July 2014
Source:&Gartner,&
Hype&Cycles,&2014&

6. BIG DATA CRITIQUE
FIVE POINTS

7. Big Data Critique – 5 points
1. Reputational shift to large-scale infrastructures and
their analysts (Big Data handlers)
• Big Data and Big Analytics are preferred modes of
analysis and are awarded funding and contracts over
other modes.
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

8. Big Data Critique – 5 points
2. Paradigm shift from interpretation (hermeneutics) to
pattern-recognition, or from ‘close reading’ to ‘distant
reading’
• Big Data focuses on overall trends and anomalies -
the obvious and the obscure.
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

9. Big Data Critique – 5 points
Twitter co-hashtag analysis
of Dutch federal civil
service use, 2012-2013.
Visualization by Gephi
(Borra and Rogers, 2013)

10. Big Data Critique – 5 points
3. Analytical shift in commitments and literacies to who
can ‘read’ and grasp the visualisations
• Big Data readings can prompt apophenia: seeing
patterns where there are none. (boyd and Crawford, Info Comm Soc, 15,
2012.)
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

11. Big Data Critique – 5 points
4. Organisational shift to relying on one small team of
data scientists (with special data access privileges). (See
Tiropanis, Hall et al. Big Dat, 2, 2014)
• “Thick data” specialists are no longer providing the
insights.
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

12. Big Data Critique – 5 points
5. Shift to relying on (available) signals rather than
seeking out (unavailable) ones.
• Relying on more and more (available) signals does
mean that there is good societal ‘coverage’. There are
data-rich and data-poor (Crawford, Harvard Bus Rev, 2013)
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam

13. Big Data – a recent dip in hype and
first indication of disappointment
Source:&Gartner,&
Hype&Cycles,&2014&
July 2013 * *July 2014
July 2015? *
“Big Data”
Next steps:
Incorporating
Broad Data,
All Data,
Thick Data and
Small Data
into Big Data

14. THANK YOU
Prof. Dr. Richard Rogers
Author of Digital Methods (MIT Press, 2013)