DiscBlog

Recently we have blogged about a new IDC study, which estimated a growth of information up to 998 exabyte till 2010 (in 2006 we had around 161 exabyte)

Going a little bit into detail one can ask how much is this and wherefrom does this information come. Here are some relevant points (At least for me ) taken out of this study:

• If 161 exabyte are written in books and those books are divided between every man, woman and child on earth, they would have 6 tons of books to read (which is an average elephant )
• 998 exabytes written in books, the stack of book makes the distance from pluto to earth
• One quater of the digital universe in 2006 (161 exabyte) is orignal content, while the rest is replicated
• Images as modality (pictures and videos) contribute most to the digital universe (one quater)
• Voice accounts for 20% of the digital universe
• User generated content adds for 75%
• The internet is a primer mover for the growth of digital information
• 25% of the digital universe has been created in the workplaces of organizations
• Information/Knowledge Workers spend 14.5 hours a week in reading and answering e-mails, 13.3 hours creating documents, 9.6 hours searching and 9.5 hours analyzing information….so reformating information seems to be the main driver for a knowledge worker )
• 95% of the digital universe is unstructured. in organizations its slightly better by having “only” 80% of unstructured information

For details, take a look into the study