As big data permeates an increasing number of facets of both business and personal life, is its value being optimally realized?

Traditionally the science of big data has been bifurcated into distinct data and insights components. Big data scientists have become masters of finding the “needle in the haystack” across voluminous data sets and providing answers to confounding questions. Generally, if you can articulate the data question (frequently an art in and of itself), it is likely you’ll find a corresponding data answer. Subsequently, a collection of data findings, through powerful but readily available analytics tools are applied to create insights that, if properly constructed, contribute to actionable findings.

Still to this point the value of big data is constrained to within boundaries of mechanical conclusions – the traditional “ask a question – get an answer” paradigm of problem solving.

What now to do with the insights created? How to apply them extends beyond the rationality of compute and enters the sapiens part of our species’ reality. As with all things mankind, they can be applied constructively or destructively, fairly or with prejudice, intelligently or frivolously. This is where the fruition and value of big data ultimately rests.

The call to action for practitioners of big data is to look beyond the traditional data and data insights archetype and increase their focus on the third leg, which I call big data intelligence, or the second derivative of insights (insights of insights).  The operative questions driving this leg of the model are, among others:

• How to maximize the value of insights
• How much of insights to exploit before negative value return is observed
• How to federate at the insights layer to create even greater insights intelligence
• How to catalog insights in the value-space-time dimensions
• Ascribe attributes which express the relative “good” that a given insight creates

We’ve conquered the easy part of big data. Now, the thinking machine that is man is challenged to deploy its potential beyond answering questions, to drive toward intelligence in the way insights are applied. This will be where the true value of big data comes to be realized.