I spoke to Prof. Carel van Aardt, Research director at the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) at the University of South Africa (UNISA) (www.unisa.ac.za/bmr). Our discussion touched on various aspects and insights of big data, for example: consumer behaviour, happiness, financial inclusion and economic development.Show notes:Defining Big Data:Gartner: “Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.”Lexico (Oxford): “extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions”Cambridge dictionary: “very large sets of data that are produced by people using the internet, and that can only be stored, understood, and used with the help of special tools and method”Resources on big data:Google trends: https://trends.google.com/Simply searching for big data will deliver numerous useful results – also search for big data courses, there are many free options available. Resource examples: Stanford University Presentation: Overview of Big Data Tools and Techniques, Discoveries and Pitfalls: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs102/lecturenotes/Overview102.pdf   Data Science Central: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/