Three key terms you might hear used in data journalism circles are “open data“, “linked data” and “big data“. This video, made for students on the MA in Data Journalism at Birmingham City University, explores definitions of the three terms, explains some of the jargon used in relation to them, and the critical and ethical issues to consider in relation to open and big data in particular.

Three other video clips are mentioned in the video, and these are embedded below. First of all, Tim Berners-Lee‘s 2009 call for “raw data now”, where he outlined the potential of open and linked data…

…And second, the Sunlight Foundation’s Ellen Miller talking a year later about the reality of the US government’s open data project, particularly issues around what data is chosen (or not) for publication, and data accuracy:

There’s also a third video explaining linked data in more detail:

This video is shared as part of a series of video posts.