Chapter 22

Barriers to the Adoption of Big Data Applications in the Social Sector

Elena Strange

22.1 Introduction

Effectively working with and leveraging Big Data has the potential to change the world. Indeed, in many ways, it already has [1,2]. Summarizing today’s conventional wisdom, in PANEL Crowds, Clouds, and Algorithms, Doan et al. [1] credit the pervasiveness of Big Data to the “connectivity of billions of device-enabled people to massive cloud computing infrastructure, [which] has created a new dynamic that is moving data to the forefront of many human endeavors.”

If there is a ceiling on realizing the benefits of Big Data algorithms, applications, and techniques, we have not yet reached it. The research field, initially coined “Big ...

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