Perhaps the European Commission is the last source that comes to mind when thinking about big data, but the site of the EC has a pretty good page on what it can do. Although the focus is obviously more European it is a good read for everyone and offers a nice entry to projects happening in a broad range of areas such as healthcare, data markets, transport, the reduction of energy consumption, agriculture, industrial impact, Open Data and data science skills. For each area there is an introduction of what big data can do, followed by some projects where you can also can find online courses and applications you might be interested in, regardless of where you live.