Mission

The ultimate goal of RDA Big Data Interest Group is to produce a set of recommendation documents to advise diverse research communities with respect to:

How to select an appropriate Big Data solution for a particular science application with optimal value? and

What are the best practices in dealing with various data and computing issues associated with such a solution?

Objectives

In order to achieve our mission, we need to attain the following objectives, while take duly into account related activities and results, such as those of International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Big Data Public Working Group (NBD-PWG), as well as other relevant organizations and undertakings.

• Clarifying, and sometimes defining, terminologies related to Big Data.

  • Any Big Data solution for scientific research will involve many relevant disciplines such as computing hardware/software infrastructure and architecture, data management/curation, analyses and algorithm, etc. Discussions will be more effective when there is no confusion in terminology.

  • The efforts of the RDA Terminologies WG, as well as other relevant efforts (e.g. from NDB-PWG), will be consulted and feedback will be provided whenever necessary.

• Characterizing leading Big Data technologies.

  • Investigations will be carried out 1) directly through spin-off Working Groups (WGs) and 2) in collaboration with other RDA groups, to characterize the technologies.

  • The characterization of a Big Data technology will include its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. In other words, what it is good for, in what sort of environment, for what kind of analyses/algorithms.

  • Example evaluation criteria include, but not limited to,

    • Performance, resource utilization, and scalability,

    • Usability,

    • Flexibility and extensibility, and

    • Propensity in supporting scientific collaborations.