Big Data was the subject of last week's snap poll, specifically the skills you think are most important to its use. The results demonstrate what we already know: This is a field just beginning to gain momentum. The top two responses -- data mining and data analysis -- combined represent nearly two thirds of the votes. Do you think Big Data deserves all the attention it's getting? Tell us by posting a comment below. These are both specialties that have been around for a while. Visualization, manipulation and data discovery are more advanced functions, but combine for just 26 percent of the responses. We can expect to see them grow in importance as use of data becomes even more complex than it is now. You could argue that programming is more important than it's portrayed here -- somebody's got to build these platforms and applications, after all. But let's face it, programming's a common skill. The foundation of data's value is the recognition that numbers alone don't mean very much. It's the trends and other intelligence they create that are important. I bet that as time goes on, demand will rise for those 26-percent skills. People are always going to look for ways to drill down deeper, and absorb and apply the results more quickly.