A volume that appears to be edited and authored entirely in the Netherlands, this slim title from a little-known publisher reads largely as an advertising booster for those who seek little technical content or do not need to follow a reference trail to substantiate claims. The introduction does state “this book isn’t (really) about technology,” and that is true.

Many of the chapters could have been written by an educated public relations firm. The first four chapters are titled “Big, Bigger, Biggest Data”; “Remove Fear and Conquer Resistance”; “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”; and “Hitting the Bullseye First Time Around.” Seven more chapters with tempting names fill out the book.

A well-written and quick read of approximately 180 pages, this is a good introduction to the “pro” big data business point of view for the nontechnologist. However, for the audience of Computing Reviews, it is of little utility. There are better titles available ([1,2,3] for example). Every footnote in the entire book is to a web URL, even when the URL does sometimes turn out to be a link to a specific news article or a published paper. The index is erratic: for example, while there are entries under “privacy,” there is no entry for “ethics,” which, I guess, is sort of to the point.

A weak index and sloppy footnotes do not add a great deal of value.