Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth

Its true Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth...Massive Information Stockpile Guides Humanity's Course.

That's the amount of global data humankind stored on devices of every kind in 2007 -- 295 exabytes, or 80 times more information per person than exists in the historic Library of Alexandria, Egypt, according to a study published in the journal Science.

"We tracked 60 analog and digital technologies from 1986 to 2007," said study co-author Martin Hilbert, Ph.D., an information researcher at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

"Our computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58 percent, roughly nine times faster than the world economy," Hilbert told TechNewsWorld. "Our information storage capacity has grown four times faster, and telecommunication capacity has grown roughly five times faster than the world's economic power."

"As fundamental as steel was in the industrial age, information technologies which enable us to store information and analyze it efficiently are the most valuable tools in the business world today," said Tom Cook, CEO of Permabit.

The study reflects how "we now monitor and measure almost every activity in our personal and business lives,"