Marcus Berg: Recent developments in survey related big data research

Big data has been heralded by some as the future frontier in data analysis. In March 2014 AAPOR (the American Association for Public Opinion Research) initiated a task force to review the opportunities and the challenges that big data has to offer to the public opinion research community. In June 2014 Marcus met with the task force in New York, while during the same visit attending the release event for the book Privacy, Big Data, and the public Good. The task force report is now in its second iteration and is currently out for review to the AAPOR council.

In this talk Marcus will start off with a short introduction to big data and how it relates to survey research and public opinion research. He will then present the task force findings in their current state, talking about methodological and operational challenges and opportunities for the survey community with big data. He will then finish up by talking a little about the book Privacy, Big Data and the Public Good and why it’s useful for statisticians and others interested in getting into big data.