I have been developing an interest in “big data” as it may relate to the field of evaluation. The interest comes from two sources. 1) As the Editor of the journal Evaluation and Program Planning, I am on the lookout for cutting edge material to present to our readers. As someone who has done research and theoretical work on unintended consequences of program action, I see big data as a methodology that may help to reveal such unintended consequences. As a result of these two interests I’m looking for:
- Examples where a big data approach has revealed consequences of program action that were not anticipated, and
- People who may want to write about big data as it applies to the field of evaluation.
If you can help please get in touch with me at jamorell@jamorell.com
Evaluation Uncertainty 
I have a concern with big data especially where its use is not clearly immunized from the potential Galton’s problem (of auto correlation errors).
Hi Jonny, “Big data” is one of the areas we’re currently working on for the BetterEvaluation site. Check out some good examples from UN Global Pulse – not just good use of data but good thinking about big data http://www.unglobalpulse.org/ and a critique of big data http://betterevaluation.org/resources/example/big-data_big-ruse.