The theme of this year’s Friday Seminar on Emerging Issues is: “Big Data for Policy, Development and Official Statistics”. The advent of the Internet, mobile devices and other technologies has caused a fundamental change to the nature of data. Big Data has important, distinct qualities that differentiate it from “traditional” institutional data, in particular the timeliness of the data. If governments wanted to, they could already let Big Data (and the private sector) play a role in providing information on topics that are currently under the purview of national statistical offices. Should these NSOs change their business operations to take on the opportunities of using Big Data for official government purposes?  

Please find below the provisional programme, the Key Questions and the Concept Note on Big Data for Policy, Development and Official Statistics. We encourage you to carefully read the key questions and to consider what they would imply for the work of your office. We are looking forward to your participation in this year’s Friday Seminar on Big Data.