Top 10 Big Data Facts – is it the elephant in the legalit room?

Grazed from LegalTechnology. Author: Jobst Elster.

Last month, we attended LegalTech New York for the 14th year, and while many hot topics have dominated the headlines in years past, in 2013 it’s all about big data. Per our pre-show LegalTech agenda word cloud, big data was a main focus of the conference content agenda, surprising since it was a ‘no-show’ in previous LegalTech programs. What’s the big deal with big data? Why now? Who really cares?

In search of answers to these questions, we spent a good amount of time sitting in on ARMA’s big data sessions, interviewing big data panelists and vendors, and participating in related social media conversation. With that as the backdrop, here is our top 10 list of LegalTech big data facts and musings:…

1. De-mystifying big data: Just like cloud computing scared the daylights out of people less than five years ago (especially the security heads), big data is doing the same thing now. Since the biggest question with cloud computing in year one was “what is it?”, I suggest we start with Wikipedia’s big data definition: “In IT, big data is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. The challenges include capture, curating, storage, search, sharing, analysis, and visualization.” The bigger point; before we all get high blood pressure re ‘BD’, let’s step back and start with a simple, yet useful definition…

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