The Secret Life of Big Data

What does an anthropologist think of big data? In this 2014 talk, Genevieve Bell, an Australian anthropologist known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development, invites the audience to step back and find a new, or rather quite old, frame of reference for big data.

Her argument is that people have been dealing with big data for millennia. Approaching big data problems with the right frame of reference, she says, is the key to addressing many of the problems we face today.