Unstructured Data – storage, analysis and visualization of big data

Relational databases (RBDMS) have a well defined role to play in the digital humanities. It is recognized that the rows and columns of a well-designed database can provide valuable insight to data. However, as datasets continue to move towards the realm of “big data”, the overhead cost of processing complex indexes needed to support defined relationships becomes cost prohibitive. Asking relational databases to generate multifaceted reports over large datasets and perform intensive analytics detracts from the strength of RDBMS. Numerous tools are available today for working with unstructured data. These tools can work in conjunction with your existing tools and provide new insights to data and capabilities for understanding unstructured data (tools such as NoSQL, Hadoop, Graph databases, crowd-sourcing data, etc…). As these tools rapidly evolve, it would be helpful to discuss what solutions may have application to the humanities moving forward.