The government should create a formal career track for the employees who manage its increasingly large volumes of complex and variable data known as “big data,” according to a new industry report from the TechAmerica Foundation’s Big Data Commission.  

Indeed, data in the world is doubling every 18 months. Across government everyone is talking about the concept of Big Data, and how this new technology will transform the way Washington does business. Looking past the excitement, many questions remained unanswered—until now. The TechAmerica Foundation’s Big Data Commission has worked diligently to put together the most comprehensive report on Big Data of its kind: “Demystifying Big Data: A Practical Guide to Transforming the Business of Government.”  

Released last month, the report addresses the questions: What is Big Data, really? How is it defined? What capabilities are required to succeed? How do you use Big Data to make intelligent decisions? How will agencies effectively govern and secure huge volumes of information, while protecting privacy and civil liberties? And perhaps most importantly, what value will it really deliver to the US Government and the citizenry we serve? 

More importantly, the report alls for a new federal academy to train and certify employees to capture, store, share, manage and analyze vast volumes of data. As agencies increase their use of mobile devices and generate greater amounts of data from email, video, blogs and social media, the challenge of managing and making sense of that data becomes daunting, the report said. 

“We’re hoping \[agencies\] take away a sense of urgency that they need to do something now to address business problems within their agencies and start communicating with other agencies that they are sharing with today or need to share information with,” said Bethann Pepoli, an executive at tech firm EMC. Pepoli served as a deputy commissioner on the report. 

The report recommends that agencies: 

• Take inventory of their data assets, including what data is available within the agency and what similar data is available across government.

• Identify two to four key business or mission requirements that big data can address, and determine how better management and analysis of the data would create value for the agency and the public.

• Consider how other agencies and organizations are extracting value from their data. 

The report also highlights policy-level changes the government should consider, including: expanding the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s national big data strategy to encourage development of new techniques and tools for solving data problems; and expanding college internship programs that develop data science talent for government service.