I think that going forward all Internet traffic should
be measured in terms of GLOCs. A GLOC is a unit of
measurement which I coined and offered to George here
about a year or so ago. GLOC stands for Gilder Library
of Congress.
I remember you posting this before, but I didn't remember
the Gilder part, just the LOC. I don't really understand
where George fits into your idea. It isn't his library,
and he's not responsible for many of the books in it.
Allow me to tweak your idea a little. How about just
calling it a Gilder, and make it equal to a digital LOC.
According to the library's own website, "The collections
now include approximately fifteen million books,
thirty-nine million manuscripts, thirteen million
photographs, four million maps, more than three and a
half million pieces of music, and more than half a million
motion pictures."
My assumptions (please feel free to alter):
1. Average book has 300 pages of 35 lines of 12 words
of 5 letters.
2. Average typewritten manuscript is equal to a book
and 90% are typed. 10% are hand written and must be
digitized to retain their value.
3. Photographs must be digitized at very high quality to
retain their value, say 3200*2400 average using true color.
4. Maps are to be treated as photos, but are significantly
larger.
5. Music can be reasonably stored using current CD
technology, and average piece of music takes 25% of a CD.
6. Average motion picture is 30 minutes long, 90% are
color, and have 24 frames per second, each of which must
be digitized as a photograph for good reproduction. The
sound from the picture would fit on half a CD.
Books 15M * 300 * 35 * 12 * 5 ~ 9 * 10^12
TW Manuscripts 39M * .9 * 300 * 35 * 12 * 5 ~ 22 * 10^12
HW Manuscripts 39M * .1 * 3200 * 2400 * 4 ~120 * 10^12
Photos 13M * 3200 * 2400 * 4 ~399 * 10^12
Maps 4M * 6400 * 4800 * 4 ~492 * 10^12
Music 3.5M * 640M * .25 ~560 * 10^12
Motion Pix 0.5M*30*60*24*3200*2400*4 ~664 * 10^15
MP Sound 0.5M * 640M * .5 ~160 * 10^12
Total ~666 * 10^15
So, one Gilder ~ 666 Exabytes.
One interesting point to this is to see that >99.7% of
everthing is motion pictures! |
