Sense Making of Big Data: Front-end study on familiarity with terms

To better understand how audiences in public spaces, in this case those in a museum setting, relate to and make sense of the phrases “Big Data” and “Data Visualizations”, this study investigated visitors understanding of these terms. This formative study used intercepts; approaching adult visitors and inviting them to participate in a very brief interview. If the person agreed, they were asked additional questions. The first question asked about awareness of the phrase, “Big Data” or for a very small comparison group, “Data Visualization.” Visitors were then asked “How would you explain “Big Data” to a friend?” if they had heard the phrase before. If they hadn’t heard it, they were asked, “What does the phrase ‘Big Data’ make you think of?” Finally, they were asked to rate their interest in science, math, and art (scale of 1-10 from not-at-all interested to totally love it for each). A total of 92 interviews were conducted: 85 using the term “Big Data” and 7 using the term “Data Visualization” at two science centers, the Science Museum of Minnesota and COSI in Columbus, Ohio. The majority of respondents did not have top of mind recall of the phrase “big data.” Even so, a plurality of both those who did have recall and those who did not were able to suggest that the phrase refers to amounts of data, thought the circularity of that definition might suggest a non-critical understanding. Almost a third of those who did have top of mind recall described big data by referring to use of data. Compared to the respondents to the phrase “big data,” there was a very similar proportion of awareness of the phrase “data visualization” observed in the small, comparative study respondents. Although the phrase “big data” is ubiquitous, it appears it may not carry the meaning among visitors to the science centers as it does to those who use the phrase with an intentional meaning. There is a group of respondents who see big data from the marketing/web-based data use, and may have a bias toward big data from this focused perception. The value and use of big data beyond the marketing focus may need to be emphasized to facilitate understanding of the breadth of use.

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