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Big Data

Review paper by the Big Data Task Team

In-depth review of Big Data
The Bureau reviewed Big Data and official statistics in October 2013, and noted that individual statistical organisations do not have sufficient resources to tackle all issues related to Big Data. Therefore, international collaboration is needed and there is a sense of urgency to bring this work forward.
Outcome of the review
The Bureau launched a project to specify priority areas for action for the statistical community regarding Big Data. The work is overseen by the High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics (HLG-MOS).
UNECE organized, in collaboration with Eurostat and the New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics (NTTS) 2015 Scientific Committee, a Workshop on Big Data on 9 March 2015. The Workshop presented the results of the international collaboration project on the use of big data for official statistics.

Related initiatives
Eurostat developed a Big Data Action Plan and Roadmap 1.0 with the aim to prepare the European Statistical System for integration of big data sources into the production of official statistics.
OECD is actively working in the area, and has for example released a policy paper on Exploring data-driven innovation as a new source of growth: Mapping the Policy Issues Raised by Big Data.

A one-day side-event to the 2013 meeting of the UN Statistical Commission was titled Big Data for Policy, Development and Official Statistics. In March 2014, the United Nations Statistical Commission agreed to create the Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics.

The World Bank organized several events on the topic of Big Data, including an event on Turning Big Data into Big Impact and a live webcast What happens when Big Data meets official statistics? The World Bank, with its partners, released a report: Big Data in Action for Development.

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This page was last updated on: 11 November 2015