Can we quantify all the information produced in the world in one year? Professors Peter Lyman and Hal Varian, of the Berkley School of Information Management and Systems (UCLA), think the answer is yes. Their study, "How much information? 2003", puts a number on what is already evident to the majority of companies: society produces such an excess of information -in 2002 alone, the amount was double that of 1999- that it is practically impossible to process it in a useful way.

Some data

• Each one of the 6.3 billion inhabitants of the planet produced an average of 800 megabytes of information in 2002.
• The United States is the absolute leader in information production: it generates close to 40% of the what is produced in the entire world.
• New supports are replacing the old classic ones. While the use of film went down 2.6% between 1999 and 2002, the use of magnetic and optic supports shot up by 80% and 90%, respectively.
• Internet is the fastest-growing information medium in history. Despite its youth, it is already the second channel of worldwide information, with 532.897 terabytes.
• Information, while it is tremendously valuable, is also an ephemeral ingredient. That’s what can be deduced from the importance of the telephone all over the world. During 2002, telephone lines served as a channel for 17.3 million terabytes of information, the majority of which were unique…and don’t exist anymore. The greater part of Internet information is in the form of e-mail: 440.606 terabytes of information in 2002.