Information in the Digital Age

Trends, Challenges, and Innovations

The Digital Information Surge

• How much unique information is expected to be generated this year?– 4 exabytes (one quintillion bytes) --

More than the past 5,000 years combined!

• How long will it take the world’s technical information to double?– 2 years

• What is one of the fastest growing sectors of the information industry?– E-books and digital content!

Source: XPLANE and ebrary

Technology – A Driving Force

• How many iPads sold in a single month?– 1 million, twice the first month’s sales of the iPhone.

• How many Google searches are currently conducted each month?– 31 billion! In 2006 there were 2.7 billion.

• How many text messages are sent and received each day?– More than the total population of the planet!– There are more iPhones and Blackberries in the world than there are people in the UK.

• How many registered users are on MySpace?– Over 200 million. – If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world.

• How many internet devices were there in 2008?– 1 billion, up from 1,000 in 1984– Mobile devices will be the world’s primary gateway to the Internet by 2020.

Source: XPLANE

Global Impact

• Increased global knowledge– The 25% of India’s population with the highest IQ is greater than

the total population of the United States.• India has more honor kids than America has kids.

• Reduced language barriers– China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the

world.• Better communication

– It took Facebook just 2 years to reach 50 million people.• TV took 13 years, and the Internet took 4.

– Combined, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook get 250 million unique visitors each month.

Source: XPLANE

Challenges

• How to keep pace with information? – Half of what technical students learn in their first year of study

will be outdated by their third. • How to prepare students and employees for the workforce?– Students are preparing for jobs that currently do not exist.– The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.– Today’s learners will have 10-14 jobs by age 38!

• How to effectively address these needs?

Source: XPLANE

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How We Can Help

• Collaborate with publishers for authoritative digital content (simultaneously with print)– More than 1 million books are published (in print) worldwide each year.*

• Provide flexible models – subscription, perpetual access, patron driven acquisition, short-term loans.

• Develop new technologies for information distribution and discovery – Content hosting, RSS feeds, social networking, Google, etc.

• Support all languages – Localized content and interfaces• Form partnerships for greater usability

and accessibility• Continue to provide tools that make research

quick and efficient

* XPLANE

Q&A