Technological advances have made the production and distribution of information easier and faster than ever before. But as the amount of available information grows, the problem of managing it becomes more difficult. The rate of information being produced and published now seems to be exceeding our ability to keep up with it. There appears to be little, if anything, to hinder this growth. Research conducted by Lyman and Varian (2003) reveals some staggering figures about the amount of information in existence. They estimate that in 2002, information in print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media reached 5 exabytes of new information, and that figure is estimated to have doubled by 2005. The decreasing cost of storage capacity also is a factor. Kannellos (quoted in The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, n.d.) observed that a terabyte of disk space which cost about $1,600 in 2005 would cost only $400 two years later. A result of having all of this information available is an increased difficulty in finding the particular information for which we are searching.
References
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. (n.d.). Information retrieval and extraction. AI Topics. Retrieved February 24, 2008, from http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/info.html
Lyman, P., & Varian, H.R. (2003). How much information 2003. Retrieved February 24, 2008, from http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info-2003
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I concluded my comparison paper with several thoughts, including: Isn't it ironic that the advances in information retrieval that people like Bush, Licklider, and many others have made possible through technology have also given rise to an even greater information crisis?
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