Evaluation and the Big Data Challenge

Abstract

Evaluators have been slow to “plug” into the digital world, let alone engage with the strategic implications of the Big Data revolution for the evaluation discipline. Yet, Big Data holds enormous promise for extending the reach and improving the quality of evaluation practice. Equally, systematic recourse to evaluation would greatly improve the social impact of Big Data and guide much needed reform of the enabling framework of Big Data governance. Just as evaluation needs Big Data, Big Data needs evaluation.