I think that _can_ be a starting point; however, there are definitely cases where it's not the case. Take ebay or facebook for example. I'm pretty sure their "data" data is "big" data...would you concur? I think the external data increases the variety (naturally) as well as has some effect (depending on the sources) on the volume and velocity of said data....thusly pushing it over the edge from "data" data to "big" data potentially.