Typically I don’t promote my work at EMC on this blog, but today we are announcing an update to the Digital Universe Study from last year. I was able to attach many social media components to it, such as the social media press release to your right and the YouTube podcast towards the bottom of this post. Also, part of this study is relevant to personal branding, so promoting it on this blog will benefit you and make you think twice before you give someone else your personal information or view a surveillance camera.
The Digital Universe is growing FAST!
- At 281 billion gigabytes (281 exabytes), the digital universe in 2007 was 10% bigger than previously estimated
- With a compound annual growth rate of almost 60%, the digital universe is growing faster and is projected to be nearly 1.8 zettabytes (1,800 exabytes) in 2011, a 10-fold increase over five years
Digital information will follow you to death – your shadow is cast
- Your “Digital Shadow”, all the digital information generated about the average person on a daily basis – now surpasses the amount of digital information individuals actively create themselves.
- Examples include digital images of you on a surveillance camera and records in banking, brokerage, retail, airline, telephone and medical databases. It is information on web searches and general backup data. It is copies of hospital scans.
- To calculate the size of your own digital footprint, we have provided you a Personal Digital Footprint Calculator.
Executive Quotes
Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, President and CEO
“Society is already feeling the early effects of the world’s digital information explosion. Organizations need to plan for the limitless opportunities to use information in new ways and for the challenges of information governance. As people’s digital footprints continue growing, so too will the responsibility of organizations for the privacy, protection, availability and reliability of that information. The burden is on IT departments within organizations to address the risks and compliance rules around information misuse, data leakage and safeguarding against security breaches.”
John Gantz, Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President, IDC
“In the updated study, we discovered that only about half of your digital footprint is related to your individual actions – taking pictures, sending emails, or making digital voice calls. The other half is what we call the ‘digital shadow’ – information about you – names in financial records, names on mailing lists, web surfing histories or images taken of you by security cameras in airports or urban centers. For the first time your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself.”
In the below podcast, John Gantz gives a short background on the study, what’s changed, while explaining the growth and the impact on individuals, such as the digital shadow (which he defines). Mark Lewis (President Content Management & Archiving, EMC) talks about the capacity and storage needs companies must endure in order to manage this information growth. Mark says that your digital shadow will help solve problems and there is potential for society in general, despite cautions and concerns.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=hDQ5vPU2yXs]
How does this all effect our personal brand?
The Good: Sure we know information is growing at a rapid pace, but most of this information is held by those other than ourselves. By having a digital shadow, you are able to manage, transfer and capture information faster than you would if it were written in paper form. If this information wasn’t already a preset, we would have to enter it everywhere multiple times and be frustrated doing so. Don’t you feel power in being able to find information on any topic by simply searching the internet? I think it’s truly amazing that I can Google your brand and learn about you before I make a connection.
If Monster.com didn’t store your resume and you had to upload it and fill out a profile every time, would you even bother? I want to go to an ATM, a banker, a doctor, and accountant and feel comfortable knowing that they have my information secure. I can’t possibly manage all the information in my life, which is why RSS, blogging and other social media vehicles are so useful, so I think other people having it is a good thing. Also, security cameras are important, especially in airports, where I want to know it’s safe to fly.
The Bad: We want THE RIGHT people to have our information, protect it and send it to us when we need it. When this information falls into the wrong hands, that is when we have to be concerned about privacy, legal and identity issues. These type of stories do happen. Reputation management will always be a vital part of your personal branding efforts. This study revealed that more information is being created about us, then we in fact create. This means that we have to work extra hard to patrol the internet for anything that could cause us harm. If we blog, tweet or share information on the internet, that information can multiple very quickly and we lose control over it. When this happen, our brand appears on other sites, without our permission.
I could talk about this forever, but how much do you know about your digital shadow and do you feel it will have a positive or negative impact on your personal brand.
