CCST Annual Report 2011-2012: Big Data, Big Future

Release Date: September 7, 2012 | Last Updated Date: February 24, 2015

Release date: September 7, 2012

An important key to California’s future – economic, technological, and social – is information. Research indicates that analyzing large data sets is rapidly becoming a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity, growth and innovation. This genuinely is the beginning of a new information age.

CCST has long advocated an approach to policy based on the best and most complete scientific knowledge available; being able to access and use substantially more data in its decision-making processes would, in principle, allow the state to adopt more efficient and effective approaches to infrastructure and environmental issues. In some cases, there is the possibility of solving highly complex technical problems, such as environmental management, in a more systematic way. Even more promising, though, is the notion that the wealth of data being gathered – still a largely untapped resource – stands to benefit most those research institutions and communities which are able to collaborate in new and potentially unprecedented ways.