I think that's the entire point behind this article. What you're talking about and what "big data" actually exists as, are two different things. What you're talking about is data refinement. As you said, linking things together and trying to look at your data in different contexts and dimensions than what you do normally. This can be done on a nearly any data set small or large. Big data gets into the realm of literally having so much data to process that data refinement becomes nearly impossible without a significant combination of thinkers, doers, machinery and money.