Will "Big Data" Yield Big Insights about Human Society?
David Lazer, Professor of Political Science and of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University; Visiting Research Fellow, Harvard University
| When: | Nov 30, 2012 | 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Where: | Maxwell Dworkin G125 |
Lunch with speaker, 12:30 pm; Talk, 1 pm
The emergence of "big data" about human behavior combined with ever-escalating computational power offers the possibility of paradigm-shattering research about society. Human behavior is being captured in minute detail as never before--from our political opinions expressed in various social media, to our various personal and professional communications expressed in various electronic forms, to our most intimate questions, as captured by Google. These massive, passive data, however, are not designed for scientific purposes. The objective of this talk is to discuss the scientific opportunities and pitfalls these various data sources offer, as well as to examine institutional barriers to the development of a computational social science.
| Speaker Biography: | David Lazer is Professor of Political Science and of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University, as well as a visiting research fellow at Harvard. He is a leading figure in the areas of computational social science and network science, with papers in such journals as Science, PNAS, Public Opinion Quarterly, and the American Political Science Review. |
|---|---|
| Host: | Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS) |
| Contact: |
Natasha Baker
iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu 617-496-2623 |
| Add to Calendar: |
 vCal iCal
|
| More information about this event… |
