How Much Information? 2003

TitleHow Much Information? 2003
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2003
AuthorsLyman, P., & Varian H. R.
Date Published2003///
Keywordssg_data_universe
Abstract

The world produces between one and two exabytes of unique information per year, which is roughly 250 megabytes for every man, woman, and child on earth. An exabyte is a billion gigabytes, or 1018 bytes. Printed documents of all kinds comprise only .003% of the total. Magnetic storage is by far the largest medium for storing information and is the most rapidly growing with shipped hard drive capacity doubling every year. Magnetic storage is rapidly becoming the universal medium for information storage.

URLhttp://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/

Gap Area Study Type:

High-level Gap Areas:

Measurement Gap Areas:

Metrics Gap Areas:

Purpose: 
Investigated amount of new information created each year in the US and world in 2002
Method: 
Estimated size based on research into the production of data stored on four storage media: print, film, magnetic, optical