<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Thursday, November 06, 2003  

Information Explosion Confirmed
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/

The quantity and flow of information is exploding at an amazing rate, according to a new study by the School of Information Management and Systems at University of California-Berkeley. Among their jaw-dropping findings: the amount of new information stored on paper, film, magnetic and optical media has roughly doubled in the last three years. Five exabytes of new information -- roughly five billion gigabytes -- was created in 2002 alone. How big are five exabytes? Imagine half a million libraries as big as the Library of Congress print collections, and you're on the right track. Each year almost 800 MB of recorded information is produced per person. If stored on paper, that would take about 30 feet of books. But 92% of all that new information is stored on magnetic media, mostly hard disks, rather than on paper, film or optical media. But there's much more than stored information. Information flowing through electronic channels -- telephone (both cellular and landline), radio, TV and the Internet -- is far larger. Almost 18 exabytes of new information was generated in 2002, three and a half times more than the amount stored. Five billion instant messages per day produce 274 terabytes a year. (A terabyte is about 1,000 gigabytes.) E-mail racks up about 400,000 terabytes of new information each year worldwide. About 31 billion e-mails are sent daily, a figure which is expected to double by 2006. E-mail ranks second behind the telephone as the largest information flow. E-mail users include 35% of the total U.S. population and accounts for over 35% of time spent on the Internet. The UC-Berkeley study estimates that about one-third of all e-mail is spam.

posted by Marcus Zillman | 10:33 AM
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