It wasn't my most enjoyable read of the year, nor the funniest or most moving, but for its sheer impact and clarity my book of 2013 is the snappily titled Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think. Jointly written by Oxford professor Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier of The Economist, the book works as a compelling argument for the power and potential of big data analysis.
For someone like me who works in market research, the shift from sample-based methodologies ("we got answers from 2,000 people who represent the whole UK population") to big data analysis ("we looked at all the available data and found these correlations...") is both exciting and challenging. I knew that before I read the book. But Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier provided the clearest and most comprehensive explanation I've had yet of just how different and radical big data is set to be.
So one resolution for me in 2014 is to find out more about big data and take my first steps into it. Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier have told me a lot about what big data is, why it's revolutionary and how it will change the way I work. What they haven't told me is how you actually "do big data", so that's the question I'm currently seeking to answer.
