The ‘Seizing the data opportunity’
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:20 am
Perhaps less important, but not a negligible problem will be access by a third party. The UK has one of the longest running and most successful data archives which make data accessible to researchers. The replacement of traditional surveys with less robust big data may, for various rights-related reasons, reduce the opportunity for reuse. We note that government has been keen on the idea of increasing efficiency by sharing and linking administrative data but we are still at a very early stage in effective research access to and linkage of these extraordinary well-regulated forms of data; any policy developments towards the further use of big data needs to be cognizant of the fact that effective access and use of existing administrative data is still far from being achieved.
Has the Government set out an appropriate and up-to-date europe rcs data path for the continued evolution of big data and the technologies required to support it?
The government does not seem to have a single path for the evolution of big data and the technologies to support it. (October 2013) strategy is the closest to an over-arching path, and there is clear movement along aspects of this strategy. It would be helpful to see a progress report for this strategy.
Where do gaps persist in the skills needed to take advantage of the opportunities, and be protected from the risks, and how can these gaps can be filled?
One key skills gap surrounds the intersection between statistics and data analytics. We can typify one as a branch of mathematics, and the other as a branch of computer science. This rather simplifies the distinction, but both need to understand the provenance and design of the data in order to apply it to ‘real-world’ situations. This has been part of statistics courses for decades, but is only starting to permeate into computer science.
Has the Government set out an appropriate and up-to-date europe rcs data path for the continued evolution of big data and the technologies required to support it?
The government does not seem to have a single path for the evolution of big data and the technologies to support it. (October 2013) strategy is the closest to an over-arching path, and there is clear movement along aspects of this strategy. It would be helpful to see a progress report for this strategy.
Where do gaps persist in the skills needed to take advantage of the opportunities, and be protected from the risks, and how can these gaps can be filled?
One key skills gap surrounds the intersection between statistics and data analytics. We can typify one as a branch of mathematics, and the other as a branch of computer science. This rather simplifies the distinction, but both need to understand the provenance and design of the data in order to apply it to ‘real-world’ situations. This has been part of statistics courses for decades, but is only starting to permeate into computer science.