Tim Estes

On January 25, 2011 the overthrow of the Egyptian government began - quietly at first, with non-violent demonstrations of long-held grievances. But, by February 11 Mubarak had resigned, the government of a long-stable country had been overturned and the future of the entire region was altered forever. With the overwhelming amount of web content and social media we are compelled to ask: "could we have seen this coming?" Yes, is the answer - provided we're willing to look at information in a new way. To a person analyzing "big data," this means that we must include the broadest range of data available. Increasingly, social media and other web-based content represent a rich source of timely information and would be very useful to a broader understanding of people, events, organizations, etc. However, these new data sources come with complications like volume, validity... (more)