Are we still talking about “big data” and “little data”?

Give some analysts a push and they’ll drone on for pages congratulating themselves on their ability to define a topic. I’m starting to think “Big Data” and “Little Data” has fallen into the over-definition phase. Organizations don’t buy big data or little data, they buy solutions. We looked at the value of information some time ago and defined the concept of the half-life of data. The premise is that all data has value, but that the value of the data diminishes over a short to longer period of time depending on the application of that data. Wind speed for instance has a value over a short period for a racing sailboat (congratulations to Oracle by the way) and over a longer period to a cruise ship planning tomorrow’s outdoor activities. Same wind speed information, differing rates of decay in value based on the application. Now, I need an accurate prediction of windspeed (and IBM for instance has some great number crunching solutions) but once you have the right data point, getting it to the right person at the right time is what matters (Kalido anyone?).