Jenna Dutcher, community relations manager for the datascience@berkeley online master’s program, interviewed more than 40 thought leaders to answer this one simple question: What is big data? (Full disclosure: I was honored to be asked to provided a definition on the list.)

The answers are quite diverse and definitely worth reading.

I thought Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, provided one of the simplest and best definitions.

Big data means data that cannot fit easily into a standard relational database.

See the full list of What is Big Data?

Which definition is your favorite? How would you define big data?