Emergence of Big Data in Ancient Egypt
Around 300 BC, the Library of Alexandria was established by the rulers of Egypt. Scholars from all over the world came to Alexandria to study and learn in the largest 'data lake' of that time. Some spent their entire lives in the library seeking answers to the great questions of life. The emergence of Big Data thus begins here.
Today, we are essentially doing nothing different from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Only the questions we ask now are different, and we have access to an unimaginable amount of data. And that data does not fit in a library but is stored in various places. Jim Lyons from NetApp knows all about it. He elaborated on this in an article for Forbes.
CERN
The laboratory of CERN is the modern prototype for Big Data. It handles both the storage and distribution of data, and CERN was at the forefront of the creation of HTTP and HTML, and shortly thereafter the World Wide Web. A smart move to make the data that came with it public. This has contributed to many scientific discoveries. CERN is a major player in the field of Big Data. For the large experiments they conduct, they share data with 3000 scientists across 142 institutions in 42 different countries.
Exome Aggregation Consortium
ExAC, for short, has created a gigantic genetic database by combining data from various disease projects. This data has been donated by researchers from around the world. The goal is to identify genetic mutations to better combat or even prevent diseases. ExAC has the largest amount of DNA data, from more than sixty thousand people. And all of that is open to the public through an Open Database License.
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Also known as NERSC, it is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. NERSC provides assistance to more than 6000 scientists conducting research on a wide range of environmental issues. One of those projects is, for example, the use of new hardware and software technology to predict climate changes.
Big Data Today
Since the emergence of Big Data, today's projects are indeed much larger than those of the ancient Greeks - their total data fits on a 500GB USB stick - but in fact, nothing has changed. What has improved since the emergence of Big Data is the security of our data. While the vast majority of all information in Alexandria was destroyed by fires and conflicts, it is now possible to easily copy everything and store it in the cloud. What has remained the same is the goal of making information available to anyone who asks for it, anyone seeking answers to the questions of life - largely, because privacy still plays a significant role.
Read also: What is data management?
