Courtesy EMC who released a paper back in March on the “Explosive Growth Of The Digital Universe”. You will be pleased to hear this I’m sure

 

Your “Digital Shadow” – that is, all the digital information generated about the average person on a daily basis – now surpasses the amount of digital information individuals actively create themselves

 

I think that means I have to blog faster :) Some other interesting factoids:

 

  • At 281 billion gigabytes (281 exabytes), the digital universe in 2007 was 10% bigger than originally estimated
  • With a compound annual growth rate of almost 60%, the digital universe is growing faster and is projected to be nearly 1.8 zettabytes (1,800 exabytes) in 2011, a 10-fold increase over the next five years
  • Digital Cameras – In 2007, the number of digital cameras and camera phones in the world surpassed 1 billion, and fewer than 10% of all still images were captured on film.

Zettabytes eh? Bring that one up at the next geek fest and see who nods sagely. You can also calculate the size of your own digital footprint by downloading a copy of the Personal Digital Footprint Calculator and you can read the complete IDC digital universe whitepaper

Hat tip to my main man Paul Russell of Servo for this.