Steven Ruggles, Regents Professor of History & Population Studies; Director, Minnesota Population Center
Big Data: The Origins and Future of Large-Scale Data for Demographic Research
For centuries, the scale of data collection and processing was sharply constrained by technology. Mechanization began a century and a half ago, and the costs of data production, storage, and analysis have been declining ever since. During the past three decades the price decline accelerated; as a consequence, virtually all the sciences are awash in data. This presentation explores the shifting relationship between technological innovation and large-scale data production and analysis. I then describe several of the major data infrastructure initiatives of the Minnesota Population Center, which houses the world's largest demographic data collections. I conclude with a discussion ofTerra Populus, a major new project to integrate data on population and the environment.