Discussion Topics
What is Small Data?
	•	The Big Data era was marked by changes in fundamental data management assumptions.  Broadly, how are these assumptions changing now?
	•	Broadly, what are the challenges that you see arising from these assumptions changing?
	•	Broadly, what is "Small Data" to you?

Time Outline
	•	1:30  -- start
	•	2:00  -- Motivation
	•	2:25  -- Challenges
	•	2:40  -- Proposed Solutions 
Interfacing with Small Data (End ~2:10)
	•	Who (or what) are the users targeted by (like being hunted by?) small data?
	•	What kinds of infrastructure is / will be required for accessing small data?
	⁃	Is it even possible to provide the same degree of infrastructure support for small data as for big data?
	•	What is/are the right languages/interfaces for interacting with small data?
	⁃	Is SQL overkill?  Is declarative programming the right model?
	⁃	Should we be working with Excel?
	⁃	Are ORMs the answer?
	•	What are the human factors affecting "small data" management?
 
Making Data More Personal (End ~2:20)
One implication of "Small Data" is data becoming more personal:
	•	What kinds of data can I collect about me and my life?
	⁃	Relatedly, what kinds of data are already being collected about me and my life?
	⁃	How can I leverage this data to improve my life / myself / the world around me?
	•	How can we help non-technical users to better discover (and leverage) data available about them?
	⁃	Can I know/control what data is collected about me. With whom it is shared? (EU policies vs. US policies)
	•	What are the implications, whether good or bad, of more of "my" data being digitized?
	•	How do I maintain control over my data?
	•	What can databases do to improve my control over my data?
	•	Is it practical, or even possible to make "Big Data" into Small Data? 
Moving Data to the Edge (End ~2:30)
Small data is a consequence of data processing moving to millions of edge devices
	•	Why is data processing moving out to edge devices?
	•	What types of data processing happen at the edge?h
	⁃	Are there good models and/or benchmarks for these types of workloads?
	•	What kinds of limitations or challenges does edge processing run into?
	•	Are there ways in which edge processing is easier?
	•	What tools are available for data processing out at the edge?
	⁃	What are the limitations of these tools, and how might those limitations be overcome?
	•	Classically, the database community favors monolithic data management solutions.  Is that the right choice for edge computing?  Why so or why no?
 
Making Data More Accessible (End ~2:40)
Another implication of "Small Data" is the opportunity for transparency into research, news, etc...
	•	What is the right way to make research, news, and other data summarized by humans accessible to a public that may want to re-use it?
	⁃	e.g., ProPublica/Open Govt approach: Dump & Document CSV files
	⁃	e.g., Bloomberg/NYTimes approach: Interactive Visualizations
	⁃	e.g., Jens's Janiform Documents
	•	What are good guidelines for transparency in data reporting?
	•	How can databases support making data transparent and accessible?
	⁃	Data Discovery
	⁃	Data Curation
	⁃	Data Exposition
	•	What types of tools exist to facilitate data discovery?
	⁃	What are the limitations of these tools and how might those limitations be overcome?
 
Open Data (End ~2:50)
On the personal side of small data, governmental open data is giving us unprecedented insight into our communities
	•	How are people making use of governmental open data?
	•	What are the challenges in getting governments to release open data, and how might those challenges be overcome?
	•	Some might argue that placing a barrier between datasets and the public is a good thing --- that non-statisticians shouldn't be trying to make claims based on what are likely to be messy and noisy datasets.  Do you agree/disagree? and why?
	⁃	Is this a challenge that can be overcome if we give the public the right tools?
	⁃	On a related note, what happens when "Big Data" isn't enough? (i.e., when the open data is too sparse to make inferences about)
	•	Broadly, how can we make open data more accessible? (or more safely accessible?)
	⁃	Issue with anonymity of open data (see NYC taxi example)
 
Closing
	•	If you could get the database research community to work on one thing related to small data, what would that be?