Conference Introduction & Background

Data explosion is one of the most substantial phenomena in 21^st century. Nowadays, data could be generated and collected in huge amount of volume easily through various ways: business data, web data, blogs, twitters, sensor data, and etc. Not only the mentions in blogs and twitter, but also the data from various kinds of sensors is becoming to explode considerably. On one hand, we are so puzzled about the huge amount and complex features of the Datanature. On the other hand, we know there are valuable information and knowledge hide in the data and we are so eager to seek them from it.

On May 22-24, 2006, “The 278^th Xiangshan Sciences Forum” was held in Beijing, China. The forum invited 20 well-known international scholars and 35 prestigious domestic scholars to share their innovative ideas and findings about the research on data related issues. All participants agreed that “Current computer systems are all centered round data and studies on data related issues should be further developed as a new field called “Data Science”. Existing data-related research work is mainly focused on the preliminary areas of data mining, knowledge management, wisdom discovery and data technology. To our knowledge, the meaning of Data Science that contains more than statistics has been first proposed in this international meeting.

After idea of “Dataology and DataScience” was put forward, it has received great attention. Many research institutes established “Dataology and Data Science” research centers. In January 2007, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the newly unit named “Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science” to focus on data science and application research. Fudan University, China, has also established its “Research Center for Dataology and DataScience”. In April 2008, the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, renamed its previous Knowledge Discovery Lab as “the Data Sciences & Knowledge Discovery Research Lab (the Smart Lab)”. From May 22 to July 2, 2011，the Multimodal Information Access & Synthesis (MIAS) Center of UIUC has held “The 2011 Data Sciences Summer Institute (DSSI)”, which is a 6-week long program in Data Science areas. Increasing researchers realized the importance and necessity of “Dataology and Data science” as a new research field.

On June 22-23, 2010, Research Center for Dataology and DataScience, Fudan University, China hosted “The First International Workshop on Dataology and Data Science” and more than 30 scholars from international and domestic campuses were invited to fully exchange ideas on “Dataology and Data Science”. The workshop theme is to further discuss about Dataology and Data science including the definition and concept, fundamental theory, new research methods and topics. All the scholars agreed that it is significant and timing to propose “Dataology and Data Science” as an independent research field and suggested that the workshop should be held each year in a long run.

The 2^nd International Symposium/Workshop on Dataology and Data Science was held in Beijing on May 29-30, 2011, hosted by the Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The theme of 2nd workshop is "The principle of scientific data, structure and applications". A number of leading scholars have been invited to give talks on how to find the basis, law and possible applications of data science from the view of scientific principles inherent in data related issues. These issues range broadly from data analysis, data structure, database management, data mining, knowledge discovery, intelligent knowledge and knowledge management. A challenging question has been opened to all of scholars and practitioners: can these studies on data related issues form "Dataology and Data Science"?

The 3^rd International Symposium/Workshop on Dataology and Data Science was held on May 21-22, 2012, at Yunnan University, China, hosted by Research Center for Dataology and DataScience, Fudan University, China. The workshop covered a number of challenging issues in Data Science, such as Big Data, Datanature, public administration management, Astronomical data and database, medical data mining.

The 4^th International Symposium/Workshop on Dataology and Data Science was hosted by Research Center for Dataology and DataScience, Fudan University, China, held in Shanghai, on May 25-27, 2013. The topics and problems presented at the workshop include Data Driven Semantic Computing, Big Data-enabled Management Decision Making, Big Data and Decision Making, Brain Informatics, Data Challenge in High Energy Physics, Data Blogging, Data Mining for Astronomical Data, Dataology, and Mining Genetic Interactions, etc.

More than 300 international scholars and professionals from USA, UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, Spain and many universities in China attended at the above four meetings.

In addition, on January 19, 2013, University of Chinese Academy of Science held “Forum on Computer and Economy Development in Big Data Era”. Forty one scholars, business leaders and government officers in China attended the forum and discussed on Chinese Big Data Strategic Planning：difficulties, advantage and trends, and decision support and policy recommendations to the government. On May 29-31, 2013, the 462th Xiangshan Conference on “Trends and Foundations of Data Science and Big Data” was held at Beijing. Both domestic and overseas scholars first proposed a definition: “Big Data is collections of data with complexity, diversity, heterogeneity and high potential value, which are difficult to process and analyze in reasonable time” and a Common Concept: “Big Data is new type of Strategic Resource in digital era and the key factor to drive Innovation, which is changing the way of Human Being’s current production and living.” These definitions will gradually influence the research and applications in the Big Data era from now on. This conference also discussed broad issues of Data Science ranging from social science to natural science.