Monday 8 March 2010

Data data everywhere

The Economist is not somewhere I would expect to find an article which backs up what librarians are trying to do. Data, data everywhere, by Kenneth Cukier, talks about the explosion of data available and the problems it causes.

"the world contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information which is getting ever vaster ever more rapidly. This makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done: spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on. Managed well, the data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account.

But they are also creating a host of new problems. Despite the abundance of tools to capture, process and share all this information—sensors, computers, mobile phones and the like—it already exceeds the available storage space.

It's a good short article which may be useful to you.

Read it here

No comments: