Big data interfaces and the problem of inclusion

A commentary on Critical Questions for Big Data' and the projection in the article of how limited access to big data creates new digital divides'. Pressing questions are indeed proliferating around not only what the actual relationship is between data and real world user behavior but also around defining what the very practices, knowledge sets, legal and technological infrastructures, and social norms are that guide the work of big data as a field itself. But how much of a difference does it make for academics and academic institutions to gain access to big data when the logics of commerce and commercial enclosure around data management, collection, and use are what increasingly get privileged?