The latest Berkeley study on the growth of information shows we produced five exabytes during 2002.
5,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
Its growing at 30% per year. The obvious question is how do we make sense of such big numbers.
The study underscores the need for companies to smartly manage their information, said Gil Press, director of corporation information at EMC Corp., an information storage vendor and a sponsor of the study. But IT solutions aren't the only answer, because humans still need to look at information with a critical eye, he added."We are getting swamped, and we need better ways to organize and manage information," Press said. "Hopefully, information technology will never replace smart thinking and the human analytical thinking."
Guess that's what us bloggers are doing.
Here's something that keeps the Net in perspective, passed on from a friend. Netflix ships 1,500 terabytes worth of information a day. Andrew Odlyzko suggests that daily traffic flow on the Net is 2,000 terabytes. Only 1/3 more than a single CD-ROM rental company.
