Information eruption
As mentioned in a previous post today, the Internet is full of overwhelming amounts of information. Not only on the Internet but also in other venues, information is spewing forth in ever increasing quantities. As the Wall Street Journal reports in The Exploding Digital Universe, someone is trying to measure all those bits:
“Like the physical universe, the digital universe is expanding. In fact, exploding,” says John Gantz, a researcher for IDC.
For the last three years, Mr. Gantz has been commissioned by storage provider EMC to count the number of bits created each year. And each year he reports that IDC previously underestimated the explosion of information.
And how many bits are there? I am not sure how accurate the count is but according to IDC:
In 2008 alone, IDC says the world created 487 billion gigabytes of information, up 73% from 2007. That was 3% more than it forecast at the beginning of the year.
Like the US federal budget or intergalactic distances, that number is more than the human mind can conceptualize.
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