data
small data – sostantivo
thick data – sostantivo
For marketers, truly valuable customer data comes in two forms: thick data and big data.
Thick data involves qualitative informative materials, tools or techniques that help brands gather granular, specific knowledge about their target audience.
Martin Lindstrom, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of small data in his quest to discover the next big thing.
The discussions around big data miss a much bigger and more important picture: the real opportunity is not big data, but small data.
Il concetto di big data circola da un pezzo (la voce è presente nel dizionario Ragazzini inglese-italiano) e da poco gli si sono affiancati quello di small data, cioè i dati rappresentati dalle informazioni personali generate dalle nostre attività online, e quello di thick data, ovvero le informazioni che emergono utilizzando metodologie di ricerca qualitativa come questionari, sondaggi ecc. I thick data sono particolarmente interessanti per chi si occupa di marketing perché forniscono il contesto di scelte e decisioni, consentendo di elaborare strategie di mercato più accuratamente mirate.
L’espressione thin data sembra ancora relativamente poco usata.
Origini del termine
I due composti, di recente formazione, seguono la formula aggettivo+sostantivo; nel caso di thick data l’aggettivo thick deriva dall’uso che se ne fa in etnografia relativamente al metodo chiamato thick description, descrizione densa. Com’è facile intuire, gli small data sono il contrario dei big data.
small data – noun
thick data – noun
For marketers, truly valuable customer data comes in two forms: thick data and big data.
Thick data involves qualitative informative materials, tools or techniques that help brands gather granular, specific knowledge about their target audience.
Martin Lindstrom, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of small data in his quest to discover the next big thing.
The discussions around big data miss a much bigger and more important picture: the real opportunity is not big data, but small data.
The idea of big data has been around for a while and is already an entry in the Ragazzini English-Italian dictionary. But there are a couple of new kids on the block: small data, which contrasts with unwieldy big data in that it is limited in scope and can be immediately understood; and thick data, detailed qualitative information garnered from sources such as questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and the like. Thick data is of interest particularly to marketers because it provides detailed and specific knowledge that helps them target customers in a more refined and accurate way.
I’m on the lookout for thin data but so far I’ve only seen it used in very limited contexts.
Origins
Both these compounds are formed by the simple expedient of putting an adjective before the noun data and both have come into being in the last few years. The thick part of thick data perhaps comes from the field of ethnography, where the concept of thick description has been around for a while. Small data, meanwhile, is the obvious counterpart of the better established term big data.
