On the role of statistics in the era of big data: A computer science perspective

Statistics and computer science are facing remarkably similar discussions on the role of big data. In this article, I advocate that the computer science community has taken advantage of big data since about five decades, thereby building the main commercial companies of today's computer industry, and specifically I describe the new emphasis on data as the emergence of the so-called Fourth Paradigm. Then, I draw a parallel between the debates on big data occurring within the statistics and computer science community; and finally I advocate for a joint, new and pervasive approach to data science, in which both communities can capitalize on each other's skills.