Week 3

Week 3

Big and small data

Small data is a way of keeping the size of data down. A file such as an image could take a lot of space depending on the size of the image, but by compressing it and losing some of the quality you can massivly reduce ths size. An example of small data could be Meteorological Aviation Report (METAR). The image below shows this off, each section of the code represents a different piece of information and saves entire data entries from being typed out and takes less time to process. 

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420387

Citizen Science

Is the collection of data about the natural world that has been gathered by the general public, usually as part of a project with other data scientists. This can be used to gain vast amounts of information quickly since many people at once can gather the information as opposed to just one scientist or one sensor. One example is Thames 21, a charity which worked with Citizen Science to create a catalog of all the types of litter which affect the flow of the river.

Visualization 

When putting data into a visual form, it is important that people are able to understand the data. Data should be visualized as useful, easy to read, and reliable. Visualization comes with many advantages and disadvantages such as:

Advantages - 

-Saves time as you don't have to read through large amounts of data

-reduces the amount of info people need to retain

-arguably more engaging as it is more expressive and illustrated

Disadvantages - 

-often only scratches the surface of how much data there actually is

-powerful visualization techniques can require extensive learning to do