Big Data: Applications and Implications This session discusses the need and framework for making data available to confirm and extend scientific results and to sensibly inform public policy. In the emerging big data scientific world, more information than enormous spreadsheets of numbers needs to be available to the public. Metadata, the framework for interpreting and extending results from numbers, is essential. The difficulty in obtaining needed data is discussed from the perspectives of the media and death penalty opponents; and the session discusses obstacles that social science and public arenas face, as well as the consequences for society.