According to this morning's New York Times (February 12, 2012), we have entered "The Age of Big Data." Having spent some time working through the meaning and implications of "Big History"—and emerging with considerable admiration for the ambitions of those who teach it—I knew the article would require at least two readings. On a second read, my first instinct proved true: there is something here for historians. Maybe even something Big....

But (and this is what matters to historians): the data are useless until we have them organized into conceptual frameworks able to answer useful questions....