Big Ideas: Big Data for Law

Big data is big news. Did you know an estimated 90 per cent of the world's data was created in the last two years (see www.ibm.com/big-data)? Insights gleaned from large datasets are increasingly driving business innovation and economic growth. Underpinning this 'big data revolution' is a powerful combination of low cost cloud computing, open source analytics software and new research methodologies. These are enabling us to move from simply storing large sets of data to extracting real value from them. Big data analysis can now tell us everything from the most borrowed library books in 2013 to the most overweight areas in England.John Sheridan, Head of Legislation Services, introduces the Big Data for Law project. Why does data matter in law? What are we doing to transform the legal research? Can you imagine what an annual 'census' of the statute book might look like and what it could be used for? If you care about law, how it works and how we can make legislation clearer and more accessible, this talk is unmissable.This event took place as part of Big Ideas, a series of monthly talks on big ideas coming out of The National Archives' research programme.