Big Data: Maive Opportunities, Compelling Challenges by Sue Trombley

I've just returned from the ARMA International Conference in San Diego. For those of you who were unable to make the trip, information governance remains a trending topic, but the hottest topic discussed was big data. Here are some highlights that I took away:

Our Keynote speaker, Rick Smolan, impressed us with a sampling of significant and life-changing uses of cloud-based data collected by all types of devices, including carpets and refrigerators. Smolan's book, The Human Face of Big Data, opened my eyes to just how massive the impact of big data is starting to, and will be, for societal, commercial, and enterprise use. There are 2 quotes of many in the book that emphasize this. First, by Juan Enriquez: Today a street stall in Mumbai can access more information, maps, statistics, academic papers, futures markets, and data than a U.S. president could only a few decades ago. And second, by Michael E. Driscoll: We've reached a tipping point in history; today more data is manufactured by machines, servers, and cell phones, than by people.

In an ILTA session entitled Mobility, Risk, and Policy: The Triumvirate of Information Governance, a panel of 3 experts told us that this year alone 90 million people will be wearing devices that record our steps, sleep cycle, calories burned, and more. As a result, many of our healthcare providers are now capable of monitoring our stats as part of a personal wellness program. And before too long, these devices will warn us if we are showing signs of illness. The panelists also shared Gartner's forecast that by 2020 we'll be sporting 26 billion wearable devices, including Google glasses, and iWatches! They demonstrated, by way of video, a drone's observation junket and provoked us to think about what will happen when our employers start using drones to conduct business, such as delivering contracts for signature across town or dropping medical prescriptions at our front door.

And, at one of the networking events I attended, a manufacturer of motorcycles described how every single component of every single bike is documented along with a plethora of details: 1 motorcycle, thousands of parts, millions of data points.

My head was buzzing - like the drone, it was really noisy with all sorts of questions about big data as its generation and use becomes more accepted and prevalent not just commercially but within our industries:

How can we protect personal privacy?

How do we ensure intellectual property isn't compromised (just think of Google glasses recording everything the wearer sees)?

Will use be regulated, especially for drones?

Do we need to write policy for acceptable use of wearable devices at work?

How do we ensure access of content in the cloud on demand?

How can we manage big data in compliance with our RIM policies?

As RIM professionals, we need to be on the forefront of determining how this data and its new sources of collection will change how we do business.

In a recent LinkedIn conversation, a participant asked the question:

Don't Records Management and Big Data (or any data management) have the same broad professional goals to collect/create, organize, store, use and manage information/data to support our organization's strategic goals and business requirements?

They should, but we need to adjust our approach for how we support those goals. As technology is generating more information than humans, we will need to rely heavily on technology to manage and leverage content - way beyond the capabilities of ECMs. We'll need to overcome our resistance to auto-classification or tagging of data, mistrust of the Cloud, and hesitation to get rid of the ROT that inhibits our speed of access and management of impactful information. We'll need to rely on data analytics, metrics, and key performance or risk indicators to flag where to focus our attention.

Are you up for the compelling challenge of helping your employer embrace taking advantage of the opportunities that big data affords them within the constraints of your legal and regulatory requirements? Let's start the conversation - or join in if it's already begun - because this change is inevitable.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/uncategorized/big-data-opportunitie...
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